Which statement best describes the purpose of an artifact repository?

• A. Code repository for source code.
• B. CI/CD pipeline orchestration tool.
• C. Central store for build artifacts; versions enable reproducible deployments.
• D. Monitoring and alerting service.

Answer: (C)

An artifact repository is a central store for the outputs produced by your builds—binaries, packaged libraries, container images, deployment packages, and similar artifacts. The crucial idea is that these artifacts are versioned, so you can pin a deployment to a specific artifact version. This makes deployments reproducible: you deploy the exact same artifact every time, and you can trace exactly which build produced it, which is essential for audits and for safe rollbacks.

This is different from a code repository, which holds the source code that must be built. It’s not a CI/CD orchestration tool, which coordinates the steps of the pipeline but doesn’t store the final built artifacts. It’s not a monitoring service, which focuses on metrics and alerts.