GitHub-Actions GitHub Actions Certificate Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

Creating a separate repository for each custom action allows you to manage the versioning independently for each action. This approach provides flexibility, as each action can be updated, tested, and versioned separately, avoiding potential conflicts or dependencies between different actions.

The workflow_dispatch event is used to manually trigger a workflow run in GitHub Actions. You can specify this event in the workflow file to allow users to manually trigger the workflow from the GitHub UI, often with optional input parameters.

To scope a secret to a specific repository, you can create a new secret with a name likeMyRepo_SuperSecretin thesecretssection of theMyReporepository's settings. This ensures that the secret is specific to that repository and can be used within its workflows.

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.

The correct minimal syntax for declaring an output in GitHub Actions is by using thefookey underoutputs, and associating it with avalue(in this case,Some value). This is the simplest form to define an output in a workflow or action.

Theneedscontext is used to reference the outputs of jobs that are dependencies of the current job. In this case,needs.job1.outputs.output1correctly accesses the output ofoutput1from the jobjob1in the dependent job.

Workflow commands are special commands that allow you to interact with the runner, set environment variables, output values, add debug messages, and perform other tasks within the workflow. These commands are used to modify the environment or influence the behavior of the GitHub Actions runner.

Deleting artifacts from repositories manually will free up storage space. Artifacts are typically stored for a limited time by default, but manual cleanup can help manage space.

Configuring the artifact and log retention period allows you to control how long artifacts and logs are retained in your repository. By shortening the retention period, you can prevent unnecessary accumulation of data and manage storage more effectively.

The best way for an enterprise to control which GitHub Actions run is by creating a list of approved actions as an enterprise policy. This approach restricts workflows to only use the actions that are explicitly allowed, ensuring security and compliance within the organization.

For a Docker container action to run in a GitHub Actions workflow, the runner must have Docker installed. The runs-on attribute of the job should specify an environment that supports Docker, typically a Linux environment (e.g., ubuntu-latest), since Docker is widely supported and commonly used in Linux-based environments.

Dockerfile: TheDockerfileis required for Docker container actions. It defines the environment for the action, specifying the base image, dependencies, and any commands to set up the action’s runtime inside the container.

action.yml: Theaction.ymlfile is required for all GitHub Actions, including Docker container actions. It contains metadata about the action, including the inputs, outputs, and the runtime environment (which in this case is Docker, defined underruns.using).

Scheduled workflows in GitHub Actions are triggered at specified times, and they run on the latest commit of the branch that triggers the workflow. This means the workflow will run on the most recent commit on the branch that was active at the time the scheduled event occurs.

Workflow files must be stored in the .github/workflows/ directory of the repository. This is the standard location for GitHub Actions workflow files, and workflows in this directory are automatically triggered by events defined in the file, such as pushes, pull requests, or other GitHub events.

A matrix strategy allows you to define different versions of a programming language (or any other environment setting) and run tests on each version simultaneously. This is particularly useful for testing code compatibility across different versions of a language.

A matrix strategy can also be used to test code on multiple operating systems (e.g., Windows, macOS, Linux) by defining these operating systems as matrix variables. This enables cross-platform testing within the same workflow.

Setting a debug message using ::debug:: command sends a message to the logs, helping with troubleshooting and providing insight into the workflow run.

Setting output parameters using ::set-output sends data from a job step to subsequent steps or jobs, which can be used later in the workflow.

GitHub Actions supports the use of service containers, which allows you to spin up a PostgreSQL database (or any other service) in a Docker container during your workflow. You can pull a PostgreSQL image from Docker Hub, and the container will automatically be available to your workflow job. This method requires no additional infrastructure and is easy to configure and maintain, as you simply define the container in the workflow file.

The ::debug:: syntax is used to output debug messages in GitHub Actions workflows. This command will print the message "action successfully debugged" in the debug logs when the workflow runs.

Using acommit hashis the safest method because it references a specific point in time in the repository’s history. This ensures that the action is locked to that exact version and will not be affected by any future changes or modifications to the codebase. Even if the action is updated later, your workflow will continue using the specific commit you referenced.

If a workflow depends on an external service that is down, disabling the workflow temporarily will prevent it from running and sending requests to the service, thus avoiding failed requests or unnecessary retries.

If a workflow is causing a negative impact on external services by generating too many requests or incorrect data due to a bug, temporarily disabling the workflow will stop this behavior while the issue is fixed.