What is canary deployment in MLOps?

Updated May 17, 2026

Short answer

Canary deployment gradually rolls out a new model to a small subset of users first.

Deep explanation

Instead of full deployment, a small percentage of traffic is routed to the new model. If performance is stable, rollout is increased. It reduces risk of failures in production.

Real-world example

Deploying a new ranking model to 5% of search traffic first.

Common mistakes

  • Skipping monitoring during rollout.

Follow-up questions

  • How is it different from A/B testing?
  • What risks does it reduce?

More MLOps interview questions

View all →