(Which of the following statements about how test automation is applied across different software development lifecycle models is TRUE?)

• A. In Agile software development, automated regression test suites sometimes grow so large that they can become difficult to maintain, and thus, it becomes crucial to invest in test automation at multiple test levels
• B. In a Waterfall model, automated tests are usually executed only during the last phase of the development lifecycle, but their implementation occurs in the early stages
• C. In Agile software development, regardless of context (e.g., type of application to be developed, tools available), test automation must be based on the test automation distribution known as the test pyramid model
• D. Unlike Agile software development, where automated unit tests are written by developers, often in a test-first fashion, in a V-model, automated unit tests are written by testers as part of unit testing

In a first possible implementation, the automated test scripts within a suite locate and interact with elements of a web UI indirectly through the browsers using browser-specific drivers and APIs, provided by an automated test tool used as part of the TAS. In an alternative implementation, these test scripts locate and interact with elements of the same web UI directly at the HTML level by accessing the DOM (Document Object Model) and internal JavaScript code. The first possible implementation:

• A. Has a lower level of intrusion than the alternative implementation, and therefore its test scripts are less likely to produce false positives
• B. Has a higher level of intrusion than the alternative implementation, and therefore its test scripts are less likely to produce false positives
• C. Has a lower level of intrusion than the alternative implementation, and therefore its test scripts are more likely to produce false positives
• D. Has the same level of intrusion as the alternative implementation, and therefore the risk of test scripts producing false positives is the same in both cases

A CI/CD pipeline consists of two phases: build and deployment. The build phase, among other activities, runs automated test cases at the following test levels: Component Testing (CT) and Component Integration Testing (CIT). If the build phase is successful, the deployment phase is started. The deployment phase first provisions the test environment infrastructure needed to deploy the SUT, then deploys the SUT to this environment, and finally triggers another separate pipeline that runs automated test cases at the following test levels: System Testing (ST) and Acceptance Testing (AT). Which of the following statements is TRUE?

• A. Neither automated test cases for CT-CIT nor automated test cases for ST-AT can act as quality gates
• B. Both automated test cases for CT-CIT and ST-AT can act as quality gates
• C. Automated test cases for CT-CIT cannot act as quality gates, while automated test cases for ST-AT can act as quality gates
• D. Automated test cases for CT-CIT can act as quality gates, while automated test cases for ST-AT cannot act as quality gates

Which of the following recommendations can help improve the maintainability of test automation code?

• A. Avoid using static analyzers on test automation code and other development tools, as they are designed to improve the maintainability of SUT code
• B. Use error codes in test automation code instead of exceptions (if exceptions are supported by the programming language) for error handling
• C. Avoid producing test automation code containing methods with too many levels of nesting, as deeply nested code is more difficult to understand
• D. Avoid adopting design patterns that introduce high levels of abstraction in test automation code, such as the flow model pattern

To improve the maintainability of test automation code, it is recommended to adopt design principles and design patterns that allow the code to be structured into:

• A. Loosely coupled and loosely cohesive modules
• B. Highly coupled and highly cohesive modules
• C. Highly coupled and loosely cohesive modules
• D. Loosely coupled and highly cohesive modules