GitLab CI/CD Associate study guide
GitLab CI/CD Associate · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The GitLab CI/CD Associate credential is aimed at engineers who build and maintain GitLab pipelines: developers who own a project's .gitlab-ci.yml, platform or DevOps engineers who maintain shared runners and templates, and test or release engineers who depend on pipeline behaviour. The subject matter falls into six practical areas. The GitLab CI/CD Associate study guide has 6 sections and about 2,964 words.
01Pipeline Configuration and CI/CD YAML Fundamentals
This domain covers how .gitlab-ci.yml is parsed and composed: which keys are global, which are jobs, how defaults propagate, and how include , extends , and !reference assemble a pipeline. The exam tests whether you can predict the effective configuration of a job after merging, not just recognise keywords.
517 words, about 3 min02Job Execution, Stages, and Pipeline Flow Control
This domain tests pipeline flow: the order stages and jobs execute, what happens when a job fails, and how rules , needs , and when reshape the default stage-by-stage progression. Jobs in the same stage run in parallel; stages run sequentially in the order declared.
474 words, about 2 min03Variables, Secrets, and Protected Configuration
This domain covers where variable values come from, which one wins when names collide, and how secrets are restricted to trusted refs. Highest to lowest: trigger, manual, and scheduled pipeline variables → project variables → group variables → instance variables → job-level variables: → global variables: → deployment variables → predefined variables.
494 words, about 2 min04Caching and Artifacts
This domain tests the distinction between cache and artifacts, how cache keys select storage, and how artifacts travel between jobs. Cache is a performance optimisation stored on the runner's cache backend.
493 words, about 2 min05Runners, Executors, and Job Scheduling
This domain covers which runner picks up a job, what the executor provides, and how jobs are delayed, serialised, or cancelled. Runners are registered at instance, group, or project level.
489 words, about 2 min06Troubleshooting Pipelines and Merge Request Pipelines
This domain tests diagnosis: reading pipeline sources, building correct merge request pipelines without duplicates, and interpreting the failure messages GitLab actually produces. CI PIPELINE SOURCE explains why a pipeline exists: push , merge request event , schedule , web , api , trigger , parent pipeline , pipeline , ondemand dast scan .
497 words, about 2 min