GitHub Actions study plan

Map the workflow file anatomy by writing a YAML file that uses top-level keys name, on, permissions, env, jobs, and concurrency, and explaining in comments what each controls

Trigger the same workflow from push, pull_request, workflow_dispatch, and schedule events, then verify in the Actions tab which run was caused by which event

Restrict a job's token by setting a least-privilege permissions block and confirm the default read-only behavior of GITHUB_TOKEN in a fork-based pull_request run

Apply path and branch filters plus an ignore pattern to a push trigger and prove with three commits which ones did and did not start a run

Build a multi-job workflow with needs dependencies and a matrix that expands over two operating systems and two runtime versions, then read the resulting job graph in the UI

Pass data between jobs using job outputs and between steps using GITHUB_OUTPUT and GITHUB_ENV, and demonstrate the difference between the two scopes

Implement fail-fast disabled matrix with continue-on-error on one leg, and inspect how the overall run conclusion is reported

Add a reusable workflow with workflow_call inputs and secrets and call it from a second repository or a second workflow file

Select and pin third-party actions to full commit SHAs, and document why tag pinning is weaker for supply-chain safety

Use actions/cache with a lockfile-derived key and a restore-keys fallback, then measure cold versus warm run duration from the logs

Persist build artifacts with actions/upload-artifact and consume them in a later job with actions/download-artifact, including a retention-days setting

Write a step that fails intentionally and another that runs with if: always() to confirm conditional execution semantics after failure

Create a composite action in a local directory with inputs and outputs and call it from a workflow in the same repository

Create a JavaScript action or a Docker container action, tag a release, and reference it by major version tag from another workflow

Integrate repository secrets and environment-scoped secrets, and verify with a redaction test that secret values never appear in logs

Configure an environment with required reviewers and confirm a deployment job pauses for approval

Structure a CI workflow that runs lint, unit tests, and a coverage threshold gate on every pull request and blocks merge via branch protection

Add a build stage that produces a versioned artifact and a downstream stage that only runs on the default branch

Implement a manual approval gate using environments and describe the rollback path if the deploy step fails

Introduce a concurrency group with cancel-in-progress so superseded pull request runs are cancelled automatically

Use strategy matrix with include and exclude to cover a supported version range without redundant jobs

Add service containers for a database and run integration tests against it inside the job

Split a growing workflow into reusable workflows with typed inputs and document the inputs in a table

Diagnose and fix a deliberately broken workflow using step debug logging and the run logs, recording the root cause of each failure

Automate issue triage or stale management with a scheduled workflow and the GitHub CLI or REST API, using a scoped token

Add a scheduled security scan or dependency review workflow and interpret its output on a test pull request

Configure workflow-level and job-level timeouts and a retry pattern for a flaky external call

Restrict a workflow to trusted contexts by avoiding script injection from pull request titles and branch names, and show the corrected pattern

Audit every workflow in the repository against a checklist covering pinning, permissions, timeouts, concurrency, and secret handling, and remediate the gaps

Run a timed practice set of scenario questions on triggers, expressions, and job dependencies, then review every wrong answer

Reconstruct from memory a complete pipeline that covers trigger, matrix, cache, artifact, environment gate, and reusable workflow

Document the pipeline architecture with a diagram-free text description of job order, data flow, and failure handling