Sample questions
Ds Software Supply Chain PipelineDifficulty 1
What is the main goal of "software supply chain security" in the context of a build pipeline?
- aEnsuring the integrity of the process that turns source into a deployable artifact.✓
- bEnsuring the production database has enough replicas to survive a regional outage
- cEnsuring customer support tickets are answered within a fixed SLA window
- dEnsuring the frontend framework is updated to the newest major version every quarter
Explanation:Software supply chain security in the pipeline sense is about trusting the process that produces an artifact: who touched the source, what tools built it, and whether the resulting binary matches what was intended, rather than about runtime infrastructure or support processes.
Ds Software Supply Chain PipelineDifficulty 1
What does "build provenance" refer to in a CI/CD pipeline?
- aThe number of unit tests that passed during the most recent test run
- bThe list of open issues currently assigned to the release branch
- cThe uptime percentage of the artifact registry over the last month
- dA verifiable record of which commit and system produced the artifact.✓
Explanation:Build provenance is metadata that answers "where did this artifact come from and how was it made" — source commit, builder identity, build steps — so downstream consumers can verify the artifact traces back to a trusted, expected build rather than an unknown origin.
Ds Software Supply Chain PipelineDifficulty 2
SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) defines a set of increasing maturity levels. What is the general idea behind these levels?
- aEach level corresponds to a different programming language the pipeline is allowed to compile
- bEach level adds stronger isolation, provenance, and tamper-resistance requirements.✓
- cEach level represents a discount tier offered by a specific CI/CD vendor
- dEach level measures how many developers are allowed to push directly to the main branch
Explanation:SLSA levels progressively raise the bar: higher levels require things like a hosted, auditable build platform, isolated build environments, and verifiable non-forgeable provenance, giving consumers a common vocabulary for how trustworthy a given build process is.
Ds Software Supply Chain PipelineDifficulty 2
What is the purpose of digitally signing a build artifact (such as a container image or binary) before publishing it to a registry?
- aTo let consumers verify the publisher and integrity of the artifact.✓
- bTo automatically fix any known CVEs present in the artifact's dependencies
- cTo translate the artifact's documentation into multiple languages
- dTo make the artifact smaller so it downloads faster from the registry
Explanation:A signature over an artifact, verified against the publisher's key, lets anyone pulling that artifact confirm both authenticity (it really came from that publisher) and integrity (nothing changed after signing), which is central to trusting artifacts pulled from a shared registry.
Ds Software Supply Chain PipelineDifficulty 1
In supply chain security tooling such as Sigstore, what is an "attestation"?
- aA performance benchmark comparing two container runtimes
- bA signed statement asserting a fact about how an artifact was built.✓
- cA firewall rule that blocks outbound traffic from the build agent
- dA ticket filed automatically when a build takes longer than expected
Explanation:An attestation is a signed metadata statement bound to an artifact, for example "this image was produced by build X from commit Y and passed test suite Z." Consumers or policy engines can later verify the signature and check the claims before trusting or deploying the artifact.
Ds Software Supply Chain PipelineDifficulty 2
What is the core idea behind a "reproducible build"?
- aThe build must run on at least three different cloud providers before it is trusted
- bThe build pipeline must be rewritten from scratch every six months
- cBuilding the same source under the same conditions yields an identical artifact.✓
- dThe build must complete in under sixty seconds regardless of project size
Explanation:Reproducibility means independent parties can rebuild from the same source and inputs and get an identical artifact, byte for byte. This lets anyone verify that a published artifact genuinely corresponds to the source it claims to be built from, without having to trust the original builder blindly.