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DevOps / GitLab CI Basics Interview Questions

What are GitLab CI/CD components and how do they differ from includes?

CI/CD components (introduced in GitLab 16.0) are a more structured, versioned, and discoverable way to share pipeline configuration across projects compared to simple include: project. They are published to the CI/CD catalog.

# Using a CI/CD component in .gitlab-ci.yml:
include:
  - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/myorg/my-components/deploy@1.0.0
    inputs:
      environment: production
      image_tag: $CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA

  # Use a specific version (tag), branch, or SHA:
  - component: gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-components/secret-detection@main

# Creating a component (in its own repository):
# File: templates/deploy.yml
---
spec:
  inputs:
    environment:
      description: "Deployment environment (staging or production)"
    image_tag:
      description: "Docker image tag to deploy"
      default: "latest"
---
deploy-$[[ inputs.environment ]]:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - ./deploy.sh $[[ inputs.environment ]] $[[ inputs.image_tag ]]

include: project vs CI/CD components
Aspectinclude: projectCI/CD components
VersioningVia ref (branch/tag/SHA)Semantic versioning + catalog
InputsNo input mechanismTyped, documented inputs (spec: inputs:)
DiscoveryManual (know the path)Searchable CI/CD catalog
ValidationNoneInput type validation
GitLab versionAll versions16.0+
Recommended forInternal file reuseShareable, published templates

CI/CD components use the $[[ inputs.variable_name ]] syntax (double square brackets) to reference inputs, which is different from regular CI/CD variable syntax $VARIABLE.

What GitLab feature makes CI/CD components more discoverable than a regular 'include: project'?
What syntax is used to reference input values inside a CI/CD component template?

More Related questions...

What is GitLab CI/CD and what problem does it solve? What is the.gitlab-ci.yml file and where must it be placed? What is a GitLab CI/CD pipeline? What are stages in GitLab CI/CD and how do you define them? What is a CI/CD job in GitLab and what are the required keywords? What is a GitLab Runner and what types are available? What is the 'script', 'before_script', and 'after_script' keywords and how do they differ? How do you use the 'image' keyword to specify a Docker environment for a job? What are GitLab CI/CD artifacts and how do you use them? What is the difference between cache and artifacts in GitLab CI? What are GitLab CI/CD variables and what types are available? What are the most important predefined CI/CD variables in GitLab? What are 'rules' in GitLab CI/CD and how do they control when jobs run? What is the difference between 'only/except' and 'rules' in GitLab CI? What is the 'needs' keyword in GitLab CI/CD and what problem does it solve? What is the 'workflow' keyword in GitLab CI and how does it control pipeline creation? What is the 'extends' keyword and how does it enable job templates? What is the 'include' keyword and how do you share CI configuration across projects? What are GitLab environments and how do you define them in CI/CD? What are manual jobs in GitLab CI/CD and how do you configure them? What is the 'allow_failure' keyword and how does it affect pipeline status? How does parallel job execution work in GitLab CI/CD? What are GitLab CI/CD scheduled pipelines and how do you set them up? What are pipeline triggers and how can a pipeline be started without a git push? What is the 'retry' keyword and how do you handle flaky tests in GitLab CI? What is the 'timeout' keyword in GitLab CI and what are the defaults? What is the GitLab Container Registry and how do you use it in CI/CD pipelines? What are 'services' in GitLab CI/CD and how do you use them? What is the 'default' keyword in GitLab CI and how does it reduce duplication? What are YAML anchors and aliases in GitLab CI and how do they reduce duplication? What is a merge request pipeline in GitLab CI and how does it differ from a branch pipeline? What is pipeline caching and how do you configure cache keys? What is the GitLab CI Lint tool and how do you validate a.gitlab-ci.yml file? What are GitLab CI/CD components and how do they differ from includes? What are parent-child pipelines in GitLab CI/CD? What is the 'resource_group' keyword and how does it prevent concurrent deployments? What are GitLab's built-in security scanning templates and how do you enable them? What is the 'GIT_STRATEGY' variable in GitLab CI and what are the options? What are protected branches and protected variables in GitLab CI? What are common reasons a GitLab CI pipeline fails and how do you troubleshoot them?
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