Azure DevOps — Portfolio Projects
Build these projects to demonstrate real skills to employers. Each project is designed to be interview-worthy — something you can walk through in detail.
Project 1: Multi-Stage YAML Pipeline with Test Gates
Level: Beginner | Time: 2 days
Build a YAML pipeline for a small app that runs tests, publishes results and coverage, and only builds a container image if tests pass — with everything defined as code in azure-pipelines.yml, not the Classic visual editor.
Steps
Build stage: install dependencies, run the test suite, publish results with PublishTestResults@2 and coverage with PublishCodeCoverageResults@1
condition: succeeded(), or simply sequential stage dependsOn)
pr: trigger so the same checks run automatically on every pull request, before merge
Skills Demonstrated
GitHub Repo Name
azure-devops-pipeline-test-gates
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Project 2: Multi-Environment Deployment with Approval Gates
Level: Intermediate | Time: 3 days
Extend the pipeline from Project 1 into a real staging → production flow, using Azure Environments with a manual approval gate in front of production and a canary rollout once approved.
Steps
staging, production); leave staging open and add a required approver to production
DeployStaging stage that deploys automatically after Build succeeds (to AKS, App Service, or even a simple VM — whatever you have available)
curl health check) that fails the stage if the app doesn't respond
DeployProduction stage referencing the production environment with a canary strategy (increments: [10, 25, 100]), gated behind the approval
Skills Demonstrated
GitHub Repo Name
azure-devops-approval-gated-deploy
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Project 3: Reusable Pipeline Templates Across Multiple Services
Level: Advanced | Time: 4 days
Extract a shared, parameterized deploy template into its own repo and consume it from at least two different application pipelines — so a change to the deployment pattern (e.g. adding a new smoke test) updates every consuming pipeline without editing each one individually.
Steps
pipeline-templates repo with a templates/deploy-to-aks.yml file taking parameters for environment, aksCluster, namespace, and helmValues
resources: repositories:) and reference the template with - template: templates/deploy-to-aks.yml@shared-templates
Library → Variable Groups), optionally linked to Azure Key Vault, and reference it from the shared template so secrets aren't duplicated per app
Skills Demonstrated
GitHub Repo Name
azure-devops-shared-pipeline-templates
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Tips for Great Projects
Make it real. Solve an actual problem, even a small one. A pipeline that actually gates a real deployment behind a real approval is more impressive than a tutorial clone.
Document everything. A repo with a great README beats one with better code but no explanation. Include: what it does, why you built it, how to run it, what you learned.
Show your thinking. In interviews, you'll be asked: "Why did you choose X over Y?" Have a reason. Architecture decisions matter.
Iterate publicly. Make commits regularly. Employers look at commit history. 10 commits over a week shows real work; 1 commit with everything shows you copied it.