DevOps Interview Question: Explain the difference between continuous integration and continuous delivery

Continuous Integration:

Continuous integration is the practice of frequently integrating code changes into a shared repository. Developers merge their code changes to the main branch several times a day. Each integration is verified by an automated build and automated tests to detect any issues early in the development process. This helps in identifying and fixing integration errors quickly and ensures that the codebase is always in a deployable state.

Continuous Delivery:

Continuous delivery is the practice of automating the entire software release process. This includes building, testing, and deploying code changes to production or staging environments in a consistent and repeatable manner. With continuous delivery, any code that passes through the continuous integration process is potentially deployable to production. This allows development teams to release new features, fixes, and updates to customers quickly and efficiently.

In summary, continuous integration focuses on integrating code changes frequently to detect errors early, while continuous delivery automates the release process to deploy code changes continuously and reliably.