Question

A DevOps team's CI/CD pipeline runs the following stages in order: build, unit tests, container image scan, integration tests, and deploy to staging. Developers complain that they wait more than 30 minutes for feedback on syntax and logic errors because the slower integration tests run before failures in simpler checks surface. Which change to the pipeline best improves the speed of feedback for the most common defects while preserving overall quality gates?

Accepted Answer

Reorder the pipeline so that fast-running unit tests and static checks execute early and fail the pipeline immediately, before the slower integration tests

Answer

Remove the integration test stage entirely and rely on manual testing in the staging environment

Answer

Increase the pipeline runner's CPU and memory so all stages complete faster

Answer

Run all stages in parallel regardless of their dependencies to reduce total pipeline duration