The GitHub Actions Exam (GH-200) is designed for developers and DevOps professionals who build and manage automation workflows on the GitHub platform. This certification, part of the Microsoft GitHub Certifications path, validates your ability to design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions. Whether you're preparing for your first attempt or refining your knowledge, this page provides a clear roadmap of exam topics, question formats, and practical study strategies to help you succeed.
Use this topic map to guide your study for Microsoft GH-200 (GitHub Actions Exam) within the Microsoft GitHub Certifications path.
The GH-200 exam combines multiple-choice questions with scenario-based items to evaluate both foundational knowledge and practical decision-making skills. Questions progress in difficulty and reflect real-world situations you will encounter when implementing GitHub Actions at scale.
The exam emphasizes practical application; you are expected to reason through problems, not simply recall definitions.
A structured study plan that maps each topic to weekly goals ensures steady progress and reduces last-minute cramming. Combine topic review with hands-on practice and timed assessments to build confidence and pacing awareness.
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Visit the exam page to download the PDF, Online Practice Test, or get Bundle Discount offer for both formats: GitHub Actions Exam.
Authoring and maintaining workflows typically accounts for the largest share of questions, followed by managing GitHub Actions in the enterprise. Both topics are critical for real-world implementation, so prioritize these areas during your study. However, all four domains are tested, so do not skip any topic.
In practice, you author workflows that call custom actions you have created or consumed from the marketplace. As your organization grows, you manage policies and runners at the enterprise level to govern how teams use GitHub Actions. Understanding these connections helps you see the exam as a cohesive whole rather than isolated concepts.
Hands-on practice is invaluable. Create a test repository and build at least two complete workflows from scratch, one custom action, and experiment with workflow reuse. Prioritize labs that cover conditional logic, matrix strategies, and calling reusable workflows, as these appear frequently on the exam.
Many candidates confuse workflow-level and job-level context, misunderstand runner selection criteria, or overlook permission requirements for actions. Others rush through scenario questions without reading all options carefully. Review explanations for any practice questions you answer incorrectly to avoid repeating these mistakes.
Focus on your weakest topics and review YAML syntax patterns daily. Do one full-length timed practice test 3-4 days before the exam, then spend the final days reviewing explanations and terminology. Avoid learning new content in the last 48 hours; instead, reinforce what you already know and build confidence.
Your organization has a secret that must be available to all the repositories within GitHub Actions workflows.
You need to store the secret. The solution must minimize administrative effort.
What should you do in GitHub?
The correct solution is to create an organization-level Actions secret. This minimizes administrative effort because the secret can be managed once at the organization level and made available to all repositories or selected repositories through an access policy. Option D gives the correct navigation path: organization page, Settings, Secrets and variables, then Actions. Option A would require duplicating the secret in every repository, increasing maintenance overhead and risk of inconsistent values. Option B is wrong because personal developer settings do not centrally expose a secret to all organization repositories. Option C is incomplete because the current GitHub path places Actions secrets under ''Secrets and variables,'' not just a generic ''Security > Secrets'' location. GitHub documents organization secrets and the repository access policy model for sharing them.
While awaiting approval, how many days can a workflow be in the ''Waiting'' state before it automatically fails?
When a workflow job targets an environment that has required reviewers, the job enters a waiting state until it is approved or rejected. GitHub Actions does not allow that waiting state to remain indefinitely. If the job is not approved within the allowed period, the workflow fails automatically. The correct duration is 30 days, making option C correct. Options A, B, and D do not match the GitHub Actions environment approval behavior. This is important for deployment governance because required reviewers can block access to protected environments and environment secrets, but pending approvals still have a maximum lifetime. This exam topic aligns with protected environments, deployment approvals, required reviewers, and workflow execution control.
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Which default environment variable specifies the branch or tag that triggered a workflow?
The GITHUB_REF environment variable specifies the branch or tag that triggered the workflow. It contains the full reference to the branch or tag, such as refs/heads/main for a branch or refs/tags/v1.0 for a tag.
Based on the YAML below, which two statements are correct? (Choose two.)
The publish-npm job includes the JS-DevTools/npm-publish action, which is used to publish an npm package to an npm registry.
The publish-npm job has the needs: build directive, meaning it will only run after the build job successfully completes.
You need to create a reusable GitHub Actions workflow template named ci.yml. The solution must ensure that ci.yml appears on the New workflow interface of GitHub Actions. Where should you store ci.yml?
Organization starter workflow templates must be stored in a special workflow template directory so that they appear in the GitHub Actions ''New workflow'' interface. The correct location is .github/workflow-templates, typically in the organization's .github repository. Therefore, option C is correct. Option A, .github/workflows, is where active workflow files are stored inside a repository so they can be triggered by events. It is not the correct location for organization-level starter templates. Option B is not a valid GitHub Actions workflow template directory. Option D is incorrect because storing the file in each repository's root does not publish it as a reusable starter workflow template. This checks workflow template reuse and organization automation standardization.
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