Domain 4: GitHub Actions & Automation

GitHub Administration · 60 questions

• What are GitHub Actions self-hosted runners, and why might an organization choose them over GitHub-hosted runners?
• What is the purpose of the 'workflowdispatch' event in GitHub Actions?
• In GitHub Actions, what is the difference between 'jobs' running in sequence versus in parallel?
• What is a GitHub Actions composite action, and how does it differ from a JavaScript action?
• What is the purpose of GitHub Actions environments, and what feature do they provide for deployment workflows?
• How does GitHub Actions handle secrets, and what is the maximum size of a secret value?
• What is GitHub Actions' matrix strategy used for?
• What is GitHub Packages, and what registries does it support?
• What is the purpose of workflow concurrency control in GitHub Actions?
• Which GitHub Actions permission allows a workflow to create and update issues and pull requests?
• What is a reusable workflow in GitHub Actions and how is it different from a composite action?
• How do GitHub Actions runner groups help organizations manage self-hosted runner access?
• What is the 'GITHUBTOKEN' permission model for GitHub Actions workflows triggered by pull requests from forks?
• What is the purpose of the 'cache' action in GitHub Actions workflows?
• What does the 'if' conditional in a GitHub Actions job or step do?
• What is the 'GITHUBENV' file used for in GitHub Actions?
• What is the maximum job execution timeout for GitHub-hosted runners in GitHub Actions?
• What is GitHub Actions' 'artifact' feature and how does it differ from the cache feature?
• What is the purpose of 'required status checks' in branch protection rules?
• How can GitHub Actions workflows authenticate to external cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) without storing long-lived credentials as secrets?
• What is the 'pullrequesttarget' event in GitHub Actions and when should it be used carefully?
• What GitHub Actions feature allows you to call a workflow defined in another repository?
• What is the purpose of 'default working directory' and 'default shell' settings in GitHub Actions?
• What is a GitHub Actions 'ephemeral' self-hosted runner and what problem does it solve?
• How do GitHub Actions 'workflow templates' benefit organizations?
• What is the 'permissions' key at the workflow level vs the job level in GitHub Actions?
• What is the 'GitHub Actions usage report' and what does it show enterprise administrators?
• What does the 'continue-on-error' setting do in a GitHub Actions job or step?
• What is the GitHub Actions 'Large Runner' feature?
• What is 'GitHub Actions Importer' and what does it help organizations do?
• What is the GitHub Actions 'runner group' and how are they used in enterprises?
• What is the 'workflowdispatch' event in GitHub Actions and when would you use it?
• What does 'timeout-minutes' do in a GitHub Actions job or step?
• What are 'GitHub Actions composite actions' and when should they be used over reusable workflows?
• What is the GitHub Actions 'schedule' trigger and what format does it use?
• What is the GitHub Actions 'concurrency' setting and what problem does it solve?
• What is a GitHub Actions 'job matrix' and what does it enable?
• What is 'GITHUBOUTPUT' in GitHub Actions and how is it used?
• What is the purpose of 'github.event' context in GitHub Actions workflows?
• What is the GitHub Actions 'jobs.<jobid>.needs' configuration and how does it affect job execution?
• How are GitHub-hosted larger runners typically billed for GitHub Actions compared with standard GitHub-hosted runners?
• When configuring cloud provider access from GitHub Actions using OIDC, what should cloud IAM trust policies typically validate?
• Which two statements correctly describe GitHub artifact attestations in Actions workflows? (Choose two)
• When should an administrator store a value as an Actions secret rather than a configuration variable?
• How can an enterprise limit which repositories may use expensive larger runners?
• What does secrets: inherit accomplish when a caller workflow invokes a reusable workflow?
• What is the effect of configuring a wait timer on a GitHub Actions environment protection rule?
• Why do many enterprises set the default GITHUBTOKEN workflow permissions to read-only at the organization or enterprise level?
• What can repository or organization administrators configure regarding Actions artifacts?
• What insight do GitHub Actions usage metrics/reports primarily provide enterprise administrators?
• Why should enterprise administrators set the default GITHUBTOKEN workflow permissions to read-only at the organization or enterprise level?
• What trust consideration is most important when allowing repositories to call reusable workflows from other organizations?
• How do runner group visibility settings help secure self-hosted runners in an enterprise?
• Which two statements correctly describe GitHub Actions cache behavior that administrators should plan for? (Choose two.)
• What administrative capability do GitHub Actions environment protection rules provide for production deployments?
• What is the primary security benefit of using OpenID Connect (OIDC) federation from GitHub Actions to cloud providers instead of storing long-lived cloud access keys as repository secrets?
• What problem do organization-required workflows (or equivalent required CI policy mechanisms) aim to solve for enterprise administrators?
• Why should administrators configure organization-level retention policies for GitHub Actions artifacts and logs?
• Why might an organization require approval before GitHub Actions workflows run from first-time contributors' pull requests, especially on public repositories?
• What security problem do ephemeral self-hosted runners primarily address compared with long-lived persistent runner hosts?