DOP-C02 Artifact Build and Management Guide

Artifacts are the release contract between build and deploy. DOP-C02 wants you to know what should be packaged, where it should live, how it should be versioned, and how to prevent the wrong thing from reaching production.

Artifact mental model

Artifacts can include:

• application packages
• container images
• Lambda deployment bundles
• machine images
• configuration or deployment manifests

The exam is usually asking whether those artifacts are managed securely and promoted consistently, not just whether they exist.

Repository chooser

What strong answers usually do

• generate artifacts through controlled build systems
• version and retain them clearly
• apply access control to who can push and pull
• avoid ad hoc rebuilds outside the trusted build path

Common traps

• letting production pull “latest” without a deterministic version or digest
• storing sensitive build output in broadly accessible buckets or repositories
• rebuilding machine images or containers manually instead of using repeatable image pipelines
• treating all artifact stores as interchangeable