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Project Exam

Assignment Details​

Assignment 1: CI/CD Pipeline with Docker & SonarQube for a FastAPI Application

Description​

Build a complete CI/CD pipeline that containerizes a FastAPI application, runs automated tests, enforces code quality with SonarQube quality gates, and deploys using a zero-downtime strategy. This project integrates all three units of the DevOps Essentials module into a real-world workflow.

Objectives​

  • Write an optimized, production-ready Dockerfile using multi-stage builds and security best practices.
  • Design and implement a CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions or GitLab CI) with lint, test, build, scan, and deploy stages.
  • Integrate SonarQube code quality analysis as a mandatory quality gate in the pipeline.
  • Apply a deployment strategy (Blue-Green or Canary) with health checks and rollback capability.

Problem Description​

Develop a "DevOps Pipeline for FastAPI" that takes a provided FastAPI project (with existing unit tests), containerizes it with Docker, and automates the entire build → test → scan → deploy lifecycle through a CI/CD pipeline. The pipeline must block deployments when SonarQube quality gates fail.

Assumptions​

  • A working FastAPI application with pytest unit tests is provided as the starting codebase.
  • You have access to a Docker runtime (Docker Desktop or Docker Engine).
  • A SonarQube instance is available (local Docker instance or hosted).
  • You have a GitHub or GitLab account for CI/CD pipeline configuration.
  • The target deployment environment is accessible (e.g., a staging server or local Docker Compose setup).

Technical Requirements​

  • Must use Python (version 3.11 or higher)
  • Must write a multi-stage Dockerfile with non-root user, .dockerignore, and health check
  • Must create a CI/CD pipeline with at minimum: lint, test, build, SonarQube scan, and deploy stages
  • Must configure sonar-project.properties with correct source paths and coverage report integration
  • Must implement a SonarQube quality gate that blocks deployment on failure
  • Must use a Blue-Green or Canary deployment strategy with health check verification

Questions to Answer​

  1. Explain why multi-stage builds are used in the Dockerfile and how they improve both image size and security.
  2. Describe the complete CI/CD pipeline flow from a developer pushing code to the application being deployed in production.
  3. How does the SonarQube quality gate integrate with the pipeline, and what happens when the gate fails?

Estimated Time​

Estimated Time to complete: 180 mins