GitHub Actions study guide
GitHub Actions · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The GitHub Actions certification (exam code ACTIONS) is a GitHub Credential that validates intermediate-level skills in workflow creation, automation, and CI/CD pipeline management. GitHub states the exam is designed for DevOps engineers, software developers, and IT professionals with intermediate-level experience in GitHub Actions. The exam contains 60 scored multiple-choice questions plus approximately 10–15 pretest items, lasts 100 minutes, costs $99 USD (regional pricing may vary), and is closed-book. It is delivered through Pearson VUE under proctored conditions, either at an authorized test center or via online proctoring; online proctoring requires secure browser software and a stable internet connection. The GitHub Actions study guide has 4 sections and about 1,912 words.
01Workflow creation: authoring valid, correctly-triggered workflows
Workflow creation covers the file itself: where it lives, which event starts it, how jobs and steps are wired, and which contexts and permissions each key may legally use. Exam items usually show a short YAML fragment and ask why it does not run, runs too often, or fails validation.
479 words, about 2 min02Automation: scheduled, dispatched, and cross-workflow jobs
Automation goes beyond test-on-push. Expect questions on non-code triggers ( schedule , workflow dispatch , repository dispatch , workflow run ), passing inputs safely, moving data between jobs with artifacts and cache, and the token rules that decide whether one workflow can start another.
482 words, about 2 min03CI/CD pipeline management: graphs, matrices, and deployments
This domain is about the pipeline shape rather than a single job: dependency graphs, matrix expansion, reusable workflows, and the deployment controls (environments, approvals, concurrency, OIDC) that make a release safe to automate. needs defines the DAG; a downstream job waits for all listed jobs and is skipped if any of them fail unless its if says otherwise.
473 words, about 2 min04Intermediate GitHub Actions practice: dynamic pipelines and hardening
The intermediate tier asks you to build pipelines that compute their own shape at runtime and to close the security holes that appear once workflows handle untrusted input. Items typically hinge on expression semantics, script injection, token scope, and action supply-chain pinning.
478 words, about 2 min