DevOps / ArgoCD interview questions

What is an ArgoCD Application and what fields does its manifest require?

An ArgoCD Application is a Kubernetes Custom Resource (CRD) that represents a deployed application managed by ArgoCD. It is the fundamental unit of work in ArgoCD — one Application tracks one source (a Git repo path, Helm chart, or OCI artifact) and deploys it to one destination (a cluster and namespace).

The essential fields in an Application manifest are:

source: defines repoURL (the Git or Helm repo), targetRevision (branch, tag, or commit SHA), and path (directory within the repo) or chart (for Helm repos).
destination: specifies server (the cluster API URL; use https://kubernetes.default.svc for in-cluster) and namespace.
project: the ArgoCD Project this Application belongs to (controls source/destination whitelist and RBAC).

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-app
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/my-org/my-app
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: k8s/overlays/production
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: production
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true

Optional but commonly used: syncPolicy (automated sync, prune, selfHeal), ignoreDifferences (fields to exclude from diff), and info (free-form metadata displayed in the UI).

Take quiz

Which value should you use for destination.server when deploying to the same cluster where ArgoCD is installed?https://kubernetes.default.svc

✓ Well done! This is the in-cluster Kubernetes API endpoint used when ArgoCD targets its own cluster.

https://localhost:6443

✗ Try again — localhost refers to the pod's loopback, not the cluster API endpoint.

https://argocd-server.argocd.svc

✗ Try again — that is ArgoCD's own API server, not the Kubernetes cluster API.

cluster://default

✗ Try again — that is not a valid Kubernetes API server URL format.

What does the targetRevision field in an ArgoCD Application source control?The Kubernetes API version the manifests target

✗ Try again — targetRevision refers to the Git branch, tag, or commit SHA, not the Kubernetes API version.

The Git branch, tag, or commit SHA ArgoCD tracks for desired state

✓ Well done! targetRevision pins the Application to a specific Git reference.

The Helm chart version to install

✗ Try again — for Helm chart repos the chart version is set separately under source.targetRevision as a semver, but the concept is still a revision of the source, not a Kubernetes API version.

More Related questions...

What is ArgoCD and what problem does it solve? What is GitOps and how does ArgoCD implement it? What are the core components of ArgoCD? What is an ArgoCD Application and what fields does its manifest require? What are the different application sync statuses in ArgoCD? How do you install ArgoCD on a Kubernetes cluster? What is an ArgoCD Project and how does it differ from a Kubernetes namespace? How does ArgoCD support Helm charts? How does ArgoCD support Kustomize? What is self-healing in ArgoCD and how do you enable it? What is the difference between ArgoCD automated sync and self-healing? How does ArgoCD handle resource pruning and what risks does enabling it carry? What is the ArgoCD App of Apps pattern and when should you use it? How do ArgoCD Sync Waves and Sync Hooks work together to control deployment ordering? What is an ArgoCD ApplicationSet and how does the Git generator work? How does ArgoCD integrate with external secret management tools like Vault or Sealed Secrets? How do you configure ArgoCD RBAC and what are the built-in roles? What is ArgoCD Image Updater and how does it automate container image updates? How does ArgoCD manage multiple clusters and what are the methods for registering them? What are ArgoCD Sync Windows and how do you configure them? How does ArgoCD handle ignoreDifferences and when should you use it? What are ArgoCD resource health checks and how do you write a custom one? How does ArgoCD handle SSO and what identity providers does it support? What is the ArgoCD CLI and what are the most common commands used day-to-day? How does ArgoCD compare to Flux and when would you choose one over the other? What is server-side apply in ArgoCD and why might you enable it? How does ArgoCD handle notifications and what channels does it support? How do you perform a rollback in ArgoCD? What is the ArgoCD repository server caching strategy and how does it affect performance?

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DevOps / ArgoCD interview questions

What is an ArgoCD Application and what fields does its manifest require?

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