Which of the following is not a key principle of infrastructure as code?

While version control is critical for managing IaC, 'versioned infrastructure' itself is often considered a practice enabled by IaC and source control systems, rather than a foundational technical principle of IaC's operation, which focuses on declarative state and automation.

'Golden images' represent a specific deployment pattern (e.g., using pre-built machine images) commonly used in IaC for immutability, but it is a technique or pattern rather than a universal guiding principle for all IaC implementations.

Idempotence is a core principle of Infrastructure as Code, meaning that applying the same configuration multiple times will consistently result in the same desired state without causing unintended side effects or changes.

While good IaC aims to be clear and understandable, 'self-describing infrastructure' is more of a desired outcome or quality of well-written IaC code, not a fundamental principle governing how IaC tools manage and deploy resources, which prioritize concepts like idempotence and declarative configuration.