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Get exam-ready for your GitHub Actions Certification with our comprehensive study guide. We’ve curated the essential resources and learning activities to better prepare you for the GitHub Actions exam and boost your chances of success.
An objective domain for a certification exam, often referred to as a “domain” or “exam domain,” is a structured outline or framework that defines the specific knowledge, skills, and topics that the certification exam will cover. It provides a clear roadmap for what candidates should expect to encounter on the exam and what they need to study and prepare for.
The domains provided in this study guide are intended to provide insight into the topic categories covered in the GitHub Actions exam, along with the learning objective within each domain.
Domain Breakdown
Domain 1: Author and maintain workflows
Domain 2: Consume workflows
Domain 3: Author and maintain actions
Domain 4: Manage GitHub Actions for the enterprise
This exam is designed for DevOps engineers, software developers, and IT professionals with intermediate - level experience in GitHub Actions, including workflow creation, automation, and CI/CD pipeline management.
To increase your chances of success in passing the GitHub Actions exam, it’s essential to start with a solid foundation of basic experience, exposure, and proficiency of GitHub Actions. The recommended learning paths for this exam provide you with an in-depth study of the learning content, followed by hands-on exercises and preparation assessment questions that were created to enable you to fine-tune your knowledge and readiness for the certification exam.
Work with events that trigger workflows
Configure workflows to run for one or more events
Configure workflows to run for scheduled events
Configure workflows to run for manual events
Configure workflows to run for webhook events (i.e. check_run, check_suite, deployment, etc.)
Demonstrate a GitHub event to trigger a workflow based on a practical use case
Use the components of a workflow
Identify the correct syntax for workflow jobs (i.e. indentation and encapsulation of parts of the workflow)
Use job steps for actions and shell commands
Use conditional keywords for steps
Describe how actions, workflows, jobs, steps, runs, and the marketplace work together
Identify scenarios suited for using GitHub-hosted and self-hosted runners
Implement workflow commands as a run step to communicate with the runner
Demonstrate the use of dependent jobs
Use encrypted secrets and environment variables as part of a workflow
Use encrypted secrets to store sensitive information
Identify the available default environment variables during the construction of the workflow
Identify the location to set custom environment variables in a workflow
Identify when to use the GITHUB_TOKEN secret
Demonstrate how to use workflow commands to set environment variables
Create a workflow for a particular purpose
Add a script to a workflow
Demonstrate how to publish to GitHub Packages using a workflow
Demonstrate how to publish to GitHub Container Registry using a workflow
Use database and service containers in a GitHub Actions workflow
Use labels to route workflows to specific runners
Use CodeQL as a step in a workflow
Demonstrate how to publish a component as a GitHub release using GitHub Actions
Deploy a release to a cloud provider using a GitHub Actions workflow
Interpret the effects of a workflow
Identify the event that triggered a workflow from its effects in a repository, issue, or pull request
Describe a workflow’s effects from reading its configuration file
Diagnose a failed workflow run (i.e. using a workflow run history and its logs, determine why a workflow run may have
failed)
Identify ways to access the workflow logs from the user interface
Identify ways to access the workflow logs from GitHub’s REST API
Enable step debug logging in a workflow
Demonstrate how to use default environment variables in a workflow
Demonstrate the correct syntax for passing custom environment variables in a workflow step
Manage workflow runs
Configure caching of workflow dependencies
Identify steps to pass data between jobs in a workflow
Remove workflow artifacts from GitHub
Add a workflow status badge
Add environment protections
Define a matrix of different job configurations
Implement workflow approval gates
Locate a workflow, its logs, and artifacts
Describe where to locate a workflow in a repository
Explain the difference between disabling and deleting of workflows
Demonstrate how to download workflow artifacts from the user interface
Describe how to use an organization’s templated workflow
Use actions in a workflow
Define the indicators of what makes a trustworthy action
Identify an action’s type, inputs, and outputs
Demonstrate how to use the specific version of an action in a workflow
Distribute an action
Identify how to select an appropriate distribution model for an action (i.e., public, private, marketplace)
Identify the best practices for distributing custom actions
Demonstrate how to create a release strategy for an action (i.e. versioning)
Demonstrate how to publish an action to the GitHub marketplace
Use available action types
Identify the type of action required for a given problem (i.e. JavaScript, Docker container, run step)
Demonstrate how to troubleshoot JavaScript actions
Demonstrate how to troubleshoot Docker container actions
Describe the components of an action
Identify the files and directory structure needed to create an action
Identify the metadata and syntax needed to create an action
Implement workflow commands within an action to communicate with the runner (Note: this includes exit codes)
Distribute actions and workflows to the enterprise
Explain reuse templates for actions and workflows
Define an approach for managing and leveraging reusable components (i.e. repos for storage, naming conventions for
files/folders, and plans for ongoing maintenance)
Define how to distribute actions for an enterprise
Define how to control access to actions within the enterprise
Configure organizational use policies for GitHub Actions
Manage runners for the enterprise
Describe the effects of configuring IP allow lists on GitHub-hosted and self-hosted runners
Describe how to select appropriate runners to support workloads (i.e. using a self-hosted versus GitHub-hosted runner,
choosing supported operating systems)
Explain the difference between GitHub-hosted and self-hosted runners
Configure self-hosted runners for enterprise use (i.e. including proxies, labels, networking)
Demonstrate how to manage self-hosted runners using groups (i.e. managing access, moving runners into and between
groups)
Demonstrate how to monitor, troubleshoot, and update self-hosted runners
Manage encrypted secrets in the enterprise
Identify the scope of encrypted secrets
Demonstrate how to access encrypted secrets within actions and workflows
Explain how to manage organization-level encrypted secrets
Explain how to manage repository-level encrypted secrets