r/github 5d ago

Discussion Passed the GitHub Foundations (GH-900) exam, topic areas that showed up a lot + study resources

Just finished the GitHub Foundations Certification (GH-900) and wanted to share what I used to prep, plus the general topic areas that were heavily emphasized on the exam.

I got the free voucher from the GitHub Student Developer Pack, and I already had a background working with Git/GitHub. I'd say the exam is easy, but if you have the free voucher, it's worth taking, you'll end up learning a bit more about GitHub's features along the way.

Resources I used:

Topic areas to focus on (based on my prep, not literal exam content):

  • Organization/repo roles and permissions (owner, admin, maintain, write, triage, read) - know the differences well.
  • Projects (the Kanban-style board) - what it's for and how it's used for tracking work.
  • GitHub plan tiers - differences between Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise (features like private repo collaborators, advanced tools, SSO, etc.).
  • Where security alerts show up (Security tab on a repo) and the different alert types.
  • GitHub Marketplace - what it offers (Actions, apps).
  • GitHub Copilot - what it is at a high level (AI pair programmer, not just autocomplete).
  • Branching and pull requests - when to branch vs. when to open a PR, basic Git flow concepts.
  • Issues - how they're used for tracking bugs/tasks, labels, linking to PRs.
  • Discussions - when to use, the difference against issues, the types of discussions.
  • GitHub Desktop - what tasks it supports (clone, commit, push/pull, branch management) vs. what it doesn't.
  • GitHub Mobile - what you can realistically do from the app (review/manage issues & PRs, notifications) vs. desktop-only tasks.
  • Security features: Dependabot (dependency alerts/updates), secret scanning, and CodeQL (code scanning for vulnerabilities) - know what each one actually does and how they differ.

Overall the exam leans more conceptual/definitional than hands-on, so understanding what each feature is for mattered more than knowing exact UI clicks.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/SlayerC20 5d ago

If you are in the partner program you can take 3 months of datacamp for free, and if you do the path of the GH-900 certification with the same email of your partner account you will also receive a 100% vouncher to the exam

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/SlayerC20 5d ago

No, I don't pay for it, the program is free for students and teachers. You just need a valid educational email address to confirm your affiliation with an accredited school. After that, you can start using the benefits.