GitHub Foundations Certification | GH-900 | Real Test - 2026

Install git on an aws ec2 instance running amazon linux, connect via ec2 instance connect, install with yum, verify git version, and set global user and email with git config.

Install git on macOS using brew install git with Homebrew as the package manager. Reinstall if needed and verify the version on macOS.

Learn how to create a GitHub organization from your personal account, either by converting or maintaining both accounts, and set up a free organization with members, CI/CD, and packages.

Explore and customize your GitHub user profile by editing your name, bio, pronouns, social accounts, and SSH keys, and adjust appearance and notifications to showcase repositories, contributions, and packages.

Explore the git life cycle from working directory to staging area and repository, and learn essential commands—init, add, commit, push, pull, and undo with restore, reset, revert.

Discover how git status shows the state of the working directory and staging area, including untracked and tracked files and which changes are ready to commit.

Learn how to use git add to move changes from the working directory to the staging area, track new and modified files, and prepare commits in Git.

Learn how to git commit: move changes from the working directory to the staging and commit areas, creating concise, descriptive commit messages that record history and enable reverting.

Discover how git log tracks commit history with author, date, and message. Use one-line, -p, and --stat to view changes and files touched for debugging and auditing production changes.

Discover how the .gitignore file hides files and prevents them from being tracked, keeping build logs, dependencies, and local configuration out of production.

Explore git help and the git manual to view command syntax, usage, and detailed descriptions, including examples for commands like init, log, status, and clone.

Create a GitHub repository by selecting the owner and visibility, adding a readme, .gitignore, and license, then set main as the default branch and clone or download.

Create and upload files directly to a GitHub remote repository using the GitHub console. Commit changes and manage branches, including creating new files and switching to the main branch.

Clone a remote repository to your local machine using git clone, copying all files, history, and branches for local work and collaboration across platforms via https or ssh.

Push your local commits to the remote repo with git push, using https with token authentication to keep the remote repository synchronized and share updates with teammates.

generate ssh keys and add the public key to GitHub to enable cloning via ssh. clone the repository using the ssh URL and accept the host to avoid password prompts.

Push local changes to a GitHub remote using SSH, eliminating token prompts by using SSH keys. Learn the workflow with git status, git add, commit, and git push origin main.

Use git branches to enable parallel feature development while keeping the main branch stable. Create, switch, delete, rename branches, and merge with commands like git branch, checkout, and merge.

Practice hands-on git branch management, including listing, creating, and switching between main, test, and prod branches; learn deletion with git branch -d and using checkout or switch.

Learn to create a local branch, commit changes, and push to a remote GitHub repository using git push origin and ssh, enabling later merge into main.

Create branches directly in GitHub by selecting a source branch, naming the new branch, and creating it from main or test, without using local git.

Learn how cloning shows only the main branch and how to switch to others. Use git branch -r to view remote branches, then git checkout to switch to test.

Explore how git diff reveals line-by-line changes across commits, branches, and the staging area. Learn to compare local and remote states, and review differences before committing or merging.

Master git diff via three scenarios: local-branch diff, remote diff, and local-versus-remote diff, using clone, branch switching, and diff, log, and staging workflows.

Apply the git pull command to automatically fetch and update your local repository with remote changes from origin, merging updates into your current branch.

Use git fetch to retrieve remote updates without merging, update remote tracking branches, and review differences with git diff before integrating.

Learn to connect a local repository with a remote repository using git remote add, enabling push and pull to a remote hosted on GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.

Explore two hidden gems of GitHub: GitHub dev, a browser-based vscode-like editor for quick edits in the browser, and Codespaces, a cloud-based full-featured vscode environment with an integrated terminal.

Explore in-browser development with GitHub.dev and GitHub Codespaces, using a VSCode-style editor, terminal access, and git workflows to manage branches and repositories.

Learn how to use git stash to temporarily save uncommitted changes when switching branches, without committing, and apply or pop stashes with customizable messages for urgent fixes.

Master git stash to temporarily save work in progress and switch to another branch without losing changes. Restore stashed work with stash pop and continue development on the original branch.

Master advanced git stash techniques by stashing untracked changes, applying specific stashes, labeling them with messages, and syncing commits to visible changes in a codespace.

Discover how git merge combines changes from a feature branch into the main branch, preserves commit history, and handles fast-forward and three-way merges, including conflicts and best practices.

Explore the two types of git merge, fast-forward and three-way, and learn how each affects history, merge commits, and conflict resolution on main and feature branches.

Learn fast forward git merge by moving the pointer from main to a feature branch during commits, using git status and git log to track progress.

Learn three-way Git merges by practicing with main and feature branches, creating and merging commits into a merge commit, and comparing fast-forward and three-way strategies.

Learn how pull requests enable team collaboration by reviewing changes from a feature branch to main, preserving code quality and history through git add, commit, push, and merge on GitHub.

Understand pull request statuses in GitHub, including pass, fail, error, pending, and draft, and how checks, reviews, and merge conditions determine when a pull request is ready to merge.

Learn to use pull requests for collaboration and code review, create and compare branches, and merge feature changes into main with reviewers, assignees, labels, and draft options.

Explore merge conflicts that occur when main and feature branches modify the same file. Resolve them manually by choosing changes to keep and committing the result.

Resolve merge conflicts in a hands-on git workflow by creating branches, editing files, and merging changes, then resolve conflicts by accepting current or incoming changes and committing.

Master git rebase to keep a clean, linear history by placing a feature branch on top of the main branch, avoiding merge commits and resolving conflicts.

Learn to use git rebase to maintain a linear history by rebasing a feature branch onto main. Resolve conflicts, continue, or abort the rebase in a practical workflow.

Learn to use git rebase -i to reword commit messages without changing commit content; ideal for fixing typos and clarifying messages for reviewers, including in regulated GXP environments.

Squash multiple commits into a single one using git rebase -i to clean up history before merging, especially for a feature's related commits, aiding code reviews and bug fixing.

Apply a specific commit from one branch to another without merging the full branch using git cherry-pick. Resolve conflicts and complete the hotfix or selective commit efficiently.

Explore the git restore command to discard uncommitted changes, revert files to the last committed state, unstage or recover deleted files from the staging area to the working directory.

Learn practical git restore usage to undo changes across the working directory and staging area, recover untracked or deleted files, and move items back to prior states.

Master git clean to remove untracked files with -f or interactive mode, cleaning build artifacts, log files, and ignore files. Practice using git status to prepare before switching branches.

Learn git reset to undo changes by resetting the current branch with soft, mixed, and hard resets; soft moves commits to staging, mixed to the working directory, hard discards.

Explore git reset commands—soft, mixed, and hard—undoing commits by moving changes among the working directory, staging area, and history, with codespace hands-on practice.

Demonstrates git reset --hard to revert to head tilde three, showing how commits are deleted and the caution against hard resets, then push with force to GitHub.

Master the git revert command to safely undo changes by creating a new commit that reverses a previous one, keeping history intact and preferring revert over reset on shared branches.

Learn how git revert undoes specific commits by creating a new commit while keeping history intact, instead of deleting changes, with hands-on guidance using a sample repo and commits.

Discover how git blame reveals who changed each line and when, with per-line commit hash, author, and timestamp to audit and debug a codebase.

Master git tag to mark releases and versions in a repository, using annotated and lightweight tags, push tags to remote, and checkout versions like 1.0 and 2.0 for releases.

Create a repository with a license to define how others can use, modify, share, and distribute your code, using MIT or Apache 2.0 as examples.

Explore GitHub repository visibility across public, private, and internal enterprise options. Open source projects are public; private repos restrict access to invited collaborators, while enterprise internal repos enable intra-organization collaboration.

Discover feature previews in GitHub settings, including experimental options like command palette, colorblind themes, copilot workspace features, and JupyterLab integration.

Learn to create repository templates in GitHub to reproduce the same structure, files, and settings for new repositories, enabling quick setup and consistency across dev, test, and prod projects.

Forking creates a personal copy of a GitHub repository under your account, enabling you to freely experiment, make changes, and submit improvements via pull requests.

Start, star, and watch a repository to show appreciation, bookmark projects, and receive notifications for issues, PRs, comments, and releases. Manage stars and watching to track your favorite open-source projects.

Explore GitHub repository insights to view metrics and visualizations of activity, health, and contribution patterns. See pulse, PRs, issues, commits, contributors, code frequency, dependencies, security advisories, traffic, network, and forking.

Learn how to set repository visibility from private to public, create and manage repositories, and delete or archive them, including transferring ownership and applying protection rules.

Master markdown, a lightweight markup language for formatting readme files, issues, pull requests, and wiki pages on GitHub. Learn headings, bold, italics, links, code, and lists, with HTML conversion.

Practice basic markdown formatting, including headings, bold, italics, tilde signs, links, code blocks, and colors, while creating a readme in a new GitHub repository to certify your skills.

Learn how to use GitHub labels to categorize issues and pull requests, filter and find work by priority (p1-p4), and improve project visibility and communication.

Explore how GitHub issues function as a visible to-do list for tracking bugs, tasks, and feature requests, with labeling, ownership, milestones, and pull request links for complete collaboration.

Create and manage github issues, add comments and labels, and assign to users. Use markdown, saved replies, references, and sub issues.

Create a branch from an issue to begin work without touching main, then open a pull request. Learn branch naming and choosing local or GitHub desktop workflows, and commit changes.

Link issues to pull requests by using keywords like fix or close in the pull request description to auto-close on merge, and reference with a hash when needed.

Learn how milestones organize work into sprints and releases on GitHub, set timelines, track progress with a milestone progress bar, and attach milestones to issues and PRs.

Master saved replies in GitHub to standardize go-to messages for issues and pull requests. Create and save them in settings for quick markdown insertion via the saved replies dropdown.

Explore how GitHub discussions create a collaborative space for open-ended conversations, community Q&A, and planning, with markdown and threaded topics that link to issues and PRs.

Activate discussions in a repository, choose types like announcements, ideas, polls, Q&A, and show and tell, then create, label, pin, lock, and convert discussions into issues with markdown.

Explore how GitHub notifications alert you to pull requests, issues, mentions, and activity across web, email, and mobile, with customizable watch, mute, and filter options.

Master GitHub notifications by configuring default and custom email routing, auto watching repositories, mentions, and subscriptions, then tune inbox filters and mobile alerts to receive targeted GitHub and email updates.

Learn how gists let you share code snippets, notes, and configuration files without the full repo, with public or secret options, syntax highlighting, and history, hosted on gist.github.com.

Explore how to use GitHub gists, including creating public and secret gists, for code snippets and notes; clone, fork, edit, and share them via Codespaces and URLs.

Navigate the GitHub wiki, a built-in, centralized documentation tool with markdown formatting, README.md support, multiple pages, revision history, and a mini website under version control.

Learn to use the GitHub wiki for repository documentation as a Confluence alternative, creating and editing pages with markdown, images, headings, previewing, saving, and team sharing.

Discover how to publish static websites for free with GitHub pages, including Jekyll and markdown, hosting project docs, resumes, blogs, and open source landing pages directly from a GitHub repository.

Deploy a static site on GitHub Pages by creating a repository, adding index.html, and deploying from the main branch; use HTML, CSS, or Jekyll with a public or enterprise option.

Explore discussions, pull requests, and issues on GitHub, showing how discussions invite feedback, Q&A, and brainstorming; code changes are reviewed and merged via PRs, while issues track bugs or features.

Explore the six stages of the codespace life cycle, from creation to running, hosted on Azure, with auto pause, resume, and deletion workflows.

Explore GitHub actions, a built-in CI/CD tool that automates build, test, and deployment workflows from GitHub events using YAML, with hosted runners and marketplace integrations.

Explore GitHub actions event types, including push, pull request with CI tests, workflow dispatch via UI, issue comment triggers, and create events for branches or tags to trigger workflows.

Explore GitHub Copilot, an AI powered coding assistant by GitHub and OpenAI, trained on public code and integrated with Azure, offering real-time code completion across JavaScript, Python, and Java.

Learn the GitHub Copilot console, its chat and assisted modes, and how to install the Copilot extension across editors. See code generation and auto-completion in projects.

Compare GitHub Copilot free and business editions, including eligibility, pricing, and admin controls. Both editions support VSCode and JetBrains, auto and inline code completions, and a chat beta.