Which platform component enables one-click provisioning of sandbox environments, including both infrastructure and application code?

A CI/CD pipeline is the platform component that enables automated provisioning of sandbox environments with both infrastructure and application code. Option A is correct because modern pipelines integrate Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with application deployment, enabling “one-click” or self-service provisioning of complete environments. This capability is central to platform engineering because it empowers developers to spin up temporary or permanent sandbox environments quickly for testing, experimentation, or demos.

Option B (service mesh) focuses on secure, observable service-to-service communication but does not provision environments. Option C (service bus) is used for asynchronous communication between services, not environment provisioning. Option D (observability pipeline) deals with collecting telemetry data, not provisioning.

By leveraging CI/CD pipelines integrated with GitOps and IaC tools (such as Terraform, Crossplane, or Kubernetes manifests), platform teams ensure consistency, compliance, and automation. Developers benefit from reduced friction, faster feedback cycles, and a better overall developer experience.