CI/CD is a foundational practice for delivering software rapidly and reliably, and it maps strongly to cloud native delivery workflows commonly used with Kubernetes. CI stands for Continuous Integration: developers merge code changes frequently into a shared repository, and automated systems build and test those changes to detect issues early. CD is commonly used to mean Continuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment depending on how far automation goes. In many certification contexts and simplified definitions like this question, CD is interpreted as Continuous Deployment, meaning every change that passes the automated pipeline is automatically released to production. That matches option D.

In a Kubernetes context, CI typically produces artifacts such as container images (built from Dockerfiles or similar build definitions), runs unit/integration tests, scans dependencies, and pushes images to a registry. CD then promotes those images into environments by updating Kubernetes manifests (Deployments, Helm charts, Kustomize overlays, etc.). Progressive delivery patterns (rolling updates, canary, blue/green) often use Kubernetes-native controllers and Service routing to reduce risk.

Why the other options are incorrect: “Continuous Development” isn’t the standard “D” term; it’s ambiguous and not the established acronym expansion. “Cloud Integration/Cloud Development” is unrelated. Continuous Delivery (in the stricter sense) means changes are always in a deployable state and releases may still require a manual approval step, while Continuous Deployment removes that final manual gate. But because the option set explicitly includes “Continuous Deployment,” and that is one of the accepted canonical expansions for CD, D is the correct selection here.

Practically, CI/CD complements Kubernetes’ declarative model: pipelines update desired state (Git or manifests), and Kubernetes reconciles it. This combination enables frequent releases, repeatability, reduced human error, and faster recovery through automated rollbacks and controlled rollout strategies.

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