AWS DOP-C02 glossary of deployment, monitoring, recovery terms, traps, and decision cues.
Use this glossary when AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional (DOP-C02) terms start to blur together. The goal is practical recognition, not encyclopedia coverage.
| Term | Exam meaning |
|---|---|
| Blue-green deployment | Release pattern that shifts traffic between two production-capable environments. |
| Canary deployment | Release pattern that exposes a small traffic slice before wider rollout. |
| Drift | Difference between intended IaC state and actual deployed resources. |
| Runbook | Documented operational procedure for diagnosing or fixing a known condition. |
| Artifact | Versioned build output deployed by a pipeline. |
| Least privilege | Granting only the permissions required for the task. |
| Pair | How to separate them |
|---|---|
| SDLC automation vs Infrastructure as code | Ask which layer the scenario is testing, then match the answer to that layer only. |
| Control vs evidence | A control changes behavior; evidence proves behavior or supports investigation. |
| Managed service vs custom build | Managed services win for lower operational effort unless the requirement needs unsupported customization. |
| Prevention vs detection | Prevention blocks or reduces a bad event; detection finds or reports that it happened. |
Do not memorize terms in isolation. For each term, write one scenario where it is the best answer, one scenario where it is a distractor, and one signal that proves it worked.