Configuration and Secret Management Questions

Managing application configuration and secrets across environments and deployment platforms. Candidates should be able to explain patterns for injecting configuration into containerized applications and the trade offs between environment variables and mounted files. Coverage should include the difference between configuration objects and secrets in Kubernetes and equivalent constructs in other platforms, secure secret storage options such as external secret stores and vaults, key management and encryption practices, secret rotation policies, access control and auditing, and how to prevent secrets from leaking into logs or source control. Also include how secrets are consumed by continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, strategies for local development versus production, and recommended practices for least privilege and automated rotation.