GitLab CI/CD Specialist study guide
GitLab CI/CD Specialist · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The GitLab CI/CD Specialist credential is aimed at engineers who build, operate, and troubleshoot delivery pipelines on GitLab rather than at general GitLab users. It targets DevOps engineers, platform and SRE staff, release engineers, and developers who own a project's .gitlab-ci.yml end to end - people expected to design pipeline structure, choose runners and executors, manage variables and secrets, and diagnose failures under time pressure. The GitLab CI/CD Specialist study guide has 6 sections and about 2,446 words.
01Pipeline configuration and authoring
The Pipeline configuration and authoring domain tests whether you can turn repository intent into a valid, maintainable .gitlab-ci.yml : correct keyword placement, reusable includes and components, and pipeline-level controls. Expect questions on job structure, default , extends , !reference , include , and workflow:rules .
399 words, about 2 min02Runners, executors, and job execution environment
The Runners, executors, and job execution environment domain tests how GitLab selects a runner and what the job actually runs inside: container image, services, checkout strategy, working directory, and runner configuration. Expect scenario questions about tags, protected runners, executor behavior, and environment variables that describe the runtime.
424 words, about 2 min03Variables, secrets, and protected configuration
The Variables, secrets, and protected configuration domain tests where values come from, which ones win, and how to keep secrets out of logs and unauthorized refs. Expect questions on precedence, protected and masked variables, file variables, external secrets, OIDC, and job tokens.
389 words, about 2 min04Pipeline efficiency: caching, artifacts, and parallelism
The Pipeline efficiency domain tests whether you can make pipelines faster without making them unreliable: cache versus artifacts, artifact expiry and reports, parallel jobs, matrix expansion, and DAG scheduling with needs . Cache is a best-effort speed feature stored on the runner or a distributed cache backend; it is keyed by cache:key , optionally from lockfiles via key:files , and can use fallback keys and policy: pull for read-only consumers.
372 words, about 2 min05Jobs orchestration: rules, needs, stages, and triggers
The Jobs orchestration domain tests how jobs are sequenced or deliberately unsequenced: stages, needs DAG edges, rules evaluation, manual and delayed jobs, and triggers that create child or multi-project pipelines. Stages run in order, and jobs in one stage run in parallel.
404 words, about 2 min06Security, compliance, and troubleshooting pipelines
The Security, compliance, and troubleshooting domain tests whether you can keep pipelines from leaking credentials or over-privileging jobs, apply compliance controls, and diagnose failures from configuration and runner symptoms rather than guesswork. Use protected branches, protected tags, protected environments, and protected runners so sensitive jobs and variables only run on reviewed refs.
458 words, about 2 min