In February of this year I successfully passed the GitHub Foundations Certificate Exam. I have used GitHub for about five years and am a GitHub Star Alumni, so I felt fairly confident going into the study process. However, there were still some gaps in my knowledge and I wanted to be prepared.
This post is a collection of links, resources, and my notes from the study process. Hopefully it is helpful to you for your own certification journey.
Table of Contents
- Study Approach
- Notes
- Other Resources
Study Approach
Exam Guide
To start, I reviewed the Exam Guide. This guide has a detailed breakdown of the topics covered on the exam, as well as the percentage weights of the different domains. This was my strategy:
- Review the topics underneath each domain
- Identify areas where I only had limited knowledge (marked in yellow) or little-to-no knowledge (marked in red)
- Assign a comfort level to each domain (red, yellow, or green) based on assumed knowledge of the topics
- Evaluate domain percentages to understand where to prioritize studying
This helped me to create a plan on what areas to focus on in preparation for the exam. If you’re curious, this was my personal breakdown before I began studying:
-
Domain 1: Introduction to Git and GitHub (22%) (GREEN)
- GitHub Entities (RED)
- GitHub Desktop (YELLOW)
- GitHub Mobile (YELLOW)
- Everything else (GREEN)
-
Domain 2: Working with GitHub Repositories (8%) (GREEN)
- CODEOWNERS file (RED)
- Repo templates (YELLOW)
- Repo insights (YELLOW)
- Everything else (GREEN)
-
Domain 3: Collaboration Features (30%) (GREEN)
- Issue forms (RED)
- CODEOWNERS file (RED)
- Discussions (YELLOW)
- Notifications (YELLOW)
- Everything else (GREEN)
-
Domain 4: Modern Development (13%) (YELLOW)
- GitHub Codespaces (RED)
- GitHub Copilot (YELLOW)
- Everything else (GREEN)
-
Domain 5: Project Management (7%) (YELLOW)
- Difference between Projects and Projects classic (RED)
- Configuration options (YELLOW)
- Template repos (YELLOW)
- Project workflows (YELLOW)
- Project insights (YELLOW)
- Everything else (GREEN)
-
Domain 6: Privacy, Security, and Administration (10%) (RED)
- GitHub Administration (RED)
- Authentication and Security (YELLOW)
- Everything else (GREEN)
-
Domain 7: Benefits of the GitHub Community (10%) (GREEN)
- InnerSource (YELLOW)
- Everything else (GREEN)
Microsoft GitHub Foundations Course
There is a recommended free(!) Microsoft GitHub Foundations Course. I did start this course, but felt like a lot of the material covered things I already knew and I grew impatient 😅. However, I recommend it if you are starting fresh or more patient than I am!
You can check out my notes from the sections of the course I did complete below.
Udemy Practice Exams
Instead, I decided to get this practice exam bundle on Udemy. Depending on how you prefer to study, this could be helpful for you. I actually passed the first practice exam, but had EXACTLY a 75%, and wanted to be more confident.
The practice tests not only tell you what questions were correct, but had detailed notes explaining the answers with links to relevant documentation. I hand-wrote notes (transcribed below) for the questions I either got wrong or got correct but had guessed/wasn’t confident in my answer.
Hand-writing the notes helped to reinforce the information in my brain. I also read through the linked docs and took extra notes to clarify what I thought would be important concepts. By the time I took the fourth practice exam, I scored a 93%.
I ultimately passed my certification exam with a score of 90%.
Notes
This section has raw notes from my studies. They are based on my individual learning, and should not be considered a comprehensive study guide because things I already knew are not included. However, they may be helpful for you.
⚠️ Disclaimer: I took my exam in February, so some items may have changed since then! Always refer to the GitHub docs for the most up-to-date information.
Helpful Docs Links
This is a list of links to areas of the GitHub docs I found helpful while studying.
- Base Permissions
- CoPilot
- Automating Projects
- Workflow Basics
- Organization News Feed
- Best Practices for Projects
- GitHub Security Features
- Issue and pull request templates
- Project insights
- Projects vs Projects Classic:
- Branch protection rules
- Best Practices for Repositories
- GitHub Sponsors
Notes from Microsoft Course
Git
- VCS - version control system
- SCM - software configuration management system
- VSC can exist for not-software, VSC is one component of a SCM
- Git is distributed, meaning project history is stored locally and remotely
- This is as opposed to centralized, where all project history in only stored on centralized server
Git terminology
- Working tree - set of nested directories and files that contain the project
- Repository - The top-level directory of a working tree where history and metadata is stored
- Bare repo - isn’t part of a working tree, used for sharing/backup (project.git)
- Hash - number produced by hash function that represents the contents of a file, used to determine if a file has been changed
- Object - Git repo contains four types of objects, each identified by a SHA-1 hash.
- Blob - contains ordinary file
- Tree - represents a directory, contains names, hashes, and permissions
- Commit - represents specific version of the working tree
- Tag - a name attached to a commit
- Commit - either an object (commit) or a verb meaning to make a commit object
- Branch - a named series of linked commits
- Head - Most recent commit on a branch
- Main/master - default branch of a repo
- Allow developers to work independently and then merge changes into default branch
- Remote - named reference to another Git repo
- Origin - the default remote for push and pull operations created when repo is initialized
- Git (command) push (subcommand) —hard (option)
Git and GitHub
- Git is a DVCS (distributed version control system)
- GitHub is a cloud platform that uses Git as its core technology and acts as the remote repository
- Git can also be described as a CLI for managing version history locally
- GitHub can also be described as a place to collaborate on shared repositories with issues and pull requests
Command Line commands
- git config
git config —global user.name “USER_NAME”
git config —list
- git init
- git status
- git add (staging)
- git commit
- git log
- git help
git <command> —help
-
git checkout -b branchName
is the best way to create and check out a new branch
Introduction to GitHub
- How to create a repository
- How to add a file to your repository
- Manually in GitHub UI adding file in directory, then typing content, and committing changes directly to a new pull request branch
- Gists
- simplified way to share code snippets. Every gist is a Git repo so it can be forked and cloned.
- Wiki
- Documentation section included with every GitHub repo
- Used to share long-form content beyond the README
GitHub Flow
- Branches
- Commits
- Every commit has a unique ID and tracks the time and contributor
- States for a file in a repo:
- Untracked - Git unaware of its existence
- Tracked - can be one of the following substates:
- Unmodified
- Modified
- Staged
- Committed
- Pull requests
- Signals commits from one branch are ready to be merged into another
- GitHub Flow
- Creating a branch
- Make changes
- Deploy changes to feature branch to ensure they work in productIon (recommended)
- Create a pull request
- Reviewing and implement feedback
- Approve and merge PR into main branch
- Delete branch
GitHub Collaboration
- Issues
- Track ideas, feedback, tasks, or bugs
- Can be created from repo, item in task list, note in project, comment in an issue or PR, specific line of code, URL query
- Only maintainers can assign, add to project board, associate with milestone, or apply a label
- Discussions
- For conversations accessible to everyone that aren’t related to code
- Enable Discussions in Settings > Features > Discussions
- Any authenticated user with view access can create a discussion in that repo
- There are default categories, and more can be added with an emoji and name pairing
GitHub Platform Management
- Subscriptions and notifications
- GitHub Pages
- Static site hosting service from files in a repo
Introduction to GitHub’s products
- Personal accounts
- Every person has a personal account
- Can be GitHub Free or Pro
- Organization accounts
- Shared accounts for people to collaborate across many projects at once
- Permissions have a tiered approach
- Can’t sign into organization directly
- Personal accounts can be given roles in an organization
- Enterprise accounts
- Allow admins to centrally manage policies and billing for multiple organizations and enable inner sourcing between orgs
- Must have a handle, like an organization
- Manage and enforce policies for all orgs in enterprise
- GitHub teams
- group of organization members intended to reflect company structure
- GitHub plans
- Free for personal and org
- Pro for personal
- Team for organizations
- Enterprise
- Server (self-hosted)
- Cloud
- GitHub Mobile
- first-party client app
- Can’t approve or merge PRs
- GitHub Desktop
- GitHub billing is account based, includes subscription and usage-based billing
Notes from Practice Test 1
My notes for each subsequent practice test become less detailed, as I learned more with each exam.
General
- cloning = copying ENTIRE repo
- forking = create private copy for personal use
- template repos can have any files or content
-
reason:
is a way to filter notification (such as searing for only at-mentions) - Tabs on a PR: Conversation, Commits, Checks, Files changed
- Can create branch directly from an issue
- Repo insights show traffic, projects, and contributor engagement
- GitHub topics examples: repo purpose, subject area, affinity groups, community, language, etc.
- labels that create subject-based connections between repos
- Discover similar projects based on topic
- Code scanning available on public repos, private requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud with Advanced Security
- Copilot analyzes current and related files for context
- GitHub limits sizes of files allowed in repos. Enable Git Large File Storage to track large files
- GitHub organizations have a news feed that shows:
- Open/closed/merged issues and PRs
- creation/deletion of branches
- Created tag or release
- Comments
- New commits pushed
Access
- members of an org = create repos and project boards by default
- personal repo permission levels = owners & collaborators
- org owners can require members, collaborators, and billing managers to enable 2FA
- If 2FA not enabled, they will be removed from org with no grace period
- GitHub Enterprise repo visibility options: private, public, internal
- Organization repo roles:
- Read: Recommended for non-code contributors who want to view or discuss your project
- Triage: Recommended for contributors who need to proactively manage issues, discussions, and pull requests without write access
- Write: Recommended for contributors who actively push to your project
- Maintain: Recommended for project managers who need to manage the repository without access to sensitive or destructive actions
- Admin: Recommended for people who need full access to the project, including sensitive and destructive actions like managing security or deleting a repository
- Organization roles:
- Owners: Organization owners have complete administrative access to your organization. Should be limited but have at least two.
- Members: The default, non-administrative role for people in an organization is the organization member.
- Moderators: Moderators are organization members who, in addition to their permissions as members, are allowed to block and unblock non-member contributors, set interaction limits, and hide comments in public repositories owned by the organization.
- Billing managers: Billing managers are users who can manage the billing settings for your organization, such as payment information.
- Security managers: Security manager is an organization-level role that organization owners can assign to any team in an organization.
- In public beta
- GitHub App managers: By default, only organization owners can manage the settings of GitHub App registrations owned by an organization. To allow additional users to manage, an owner can grant them GitHub App manager permissions.
- Outside collaborator: To keep your organization's data secure while allowing access to repositories, you can add outside collaborators. An outside collaborator is a person who has access to one or more organization repositories but is not explicitly a member of the organization, such as a consultant or temporary employee.
Codespaces
- can have deep link to create a codespace with pre-configured options
- can change display name, shell, machine type, and region
- only supports Linux
- run in GitHub-owned Azure account (but can be billed to your Azure)
- A codespace is a Docker container configured for development run on a GH-managed VM
Projects
- Github CLI and GraphQL API
- Project insights available for all with write and admin access
CodeOwners
- automatically requested for review on PRs
- Can also be use for requiring approval from code owner before merge
- hover over shield icon on file in GitHub to see code owner
- people with write permission to repo can create or edit
CODEOWNERS
file- Code owners must also have write permission
- requires GitHub Pro, Team, or Enterprise to have code owners on a private repo
- defined in a
CODEOWNERS
file (no extension) in the.github/
, root, ordocs/
directory (GH will search in this order for file) - Branch-specific based on branch where file is
- syntax is similar to gitignore:
*.js @js-owner // all files ending in .js have user js-owner as code owner
*.txt @octo-org/octoteam // team octoteam within octo-org owns all .txt files
/docs/ @docsowner // all files in docs directory are owend by user docsowner
Notes from Practice Test 2
- Add issue forms with YAML form definition file in
/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE
- Form responses converted to markdown and added to body of issue
- Project can be organization or user project
- Branch protection rules prevent accidental or unauthorized changes to a branch
- Two types of project charts: current & historical
- 2FA methods: TOTP app on mobile/desktop or text message
- Security keys can be added as an alternate 2FA method, NOT primary
- Can do web-based code editing in GitHub mobile
- Cannot do automated testing or CI
- Innersource: build proprietary software using OSS methodologies
- Internal repos let orgs practice innersource
- Requires GH Enterprise Cloud
- All enterprise members have read permission to internal repos
- Internal repos are not visible to outside collaborators of other org repos
- Internal is the default setting for all new repos created in an enterprise org
- Up to 10 people can be assigned to an issue or PR
- limited to 1 for private free repos
- Templates created from existing repositories have same directory structure, branches, and files
- Template can select only default or all branches to copy from original
- Security tab includes:
- Security policies
- Advisories
- Dependabot alerts
- Code scanning results
- Secret scanning results
- Projects provide more robust integrations vs Projects Classic
- Projects (vs. Projects Classic) designed to integrate with existing tools, such as GraphQL API and GitHub Actions
- Codespaces can use account secrets as environment variables
- Project Layouts: Board, Roadmap, and Table
- Docs for name options for pull request templates
- PR and issue templates MUST be in the default branch
- Projects, issues, and GitHub Actions can be disabled on a repo
- Milestones provide visual roadmap to track progress on issues & PRs
- Discussions can be pinned
- The automatic retention period of up to 30 days for Codespaces can be reduced to save costs
- Following an organization lets you see activity like new discussions, sponsorships, and repositories
Notes from Practice Test 3
- Going from public to private:
- removes a repo from GitHub Archive Program
- unpublishes any published GitHub Pages
- Triage role is for proactively managing issues, discussions, and PRs WITHOUT write access
- Org repo roles:
- read
- triage
- write
- maintain
- admin
- Security manager role for org in public beta. Give read access to all repos, write for security alerts, can configure code security settings at org and repo level (Docs reference)
- Permanent link can be created for a line or range of lines in a version of a file or PR
- On public repos, dependency graph and secret scanning alerts for PARTNERS are always enabled
- Codespaces specific secrets are setup in Settings > Code, planning and automation > Codespaces > New secret. Set name, value, and repos with access.
- GitHub sponsorship requires a GH-sponsor enabled dev or org profile
- Must contribute to OSS project and live in a supported region
- Up to 10 one-time and 10 monthly tiers
- Can mark an issue as duplicate by typing “Duplicate of” and the issue/PR number in body of new comment
- Must have write access
- Can be undone if needed
- Max GitHub Project items = 1200
- Max 10,000 archived
Notes from Practice Test 4
- Commit vs hash:
- A commit is a specific and immutable snapshot capturing changes made to files, creating a chronological record in version history
- A hash is a number representing the contents of a file or another object
- GitHub sponsorships can be paid via Patreon
- Bitcoin is not supported for GH sponsors
- Owners or admins can be allowed to limit repo visibility changes
- Default categories for discussions:
- Announcements
- General
- Ideas
- Polls
- Q&A
- Show & Tell
- Workflow triggers:
- Events in repo
- Events outside GH that trigger a
repository-dispatch
event - scheduled time
- manual
- Organizations can have more than one owner
- Owners cannot change their own role, but can change the role of another owner
- Enable Feature preview to gain access to Alpha and Beta features
- Admin permission is required to enable/disable GH discussions
- Security markdown file is for security related communication, such as reporting vulnerabilities
- Project Insights not available on Project Classics
- Saved replies can contain any text, markdown, and emoji reactions
- Maintain role recommended for project managers
Other Resources
If you're looking for more comprehensive exam prep, check out the following resources from FreeCodeCamp:
- Video: GitHub Foundations Certification Course – Pass the exam in 10 hours!
- GitHub Foundations Certification – Exam Prep Guide
Happy studying, and good luck!!
Top comments (6)
Hi @ceceliacreates :)
Thank you for sharing this little guide.
It will be useful to me!
Great! Glad you found it helpful 😄
The resource you shared looks great. When I was preparing, I used a GitHub-Foundations practice test designed by P2PExams and it helped me understand the exam format and identify areas where I needed more focus. It played a big role in helping me pass the exam. Many GitHub-Foundations Questions in the final test came from this practice material. I recommend every exam candidate must utilize this practice test before going to take the final test.
The resources you shared are pretty good. But for practice questions I'd recommend study4exam because of their comprehensive coverage of core concepts. Really worth practicing to assess the knowledge.
Awesome stuff! Thanks so much.
Thanks so much for sharing. Very helpful!
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