1.3 Official Resources and Hands-On Prep
Key Takeaways
- The three owner pages for GH-900 are the Microsoft Learn credential page, the Study guide for Exam GH-900, and GitHub Docs' About GitHub Certifications article.
- Microsoft Learn's recommended self-paced paths are GitHub Foundations Part 1 of 2 (about 6 hours 44 minutes, 8 modules) and Part 2 of 2 (about 4 hours 57 minutes, 8 modules); instructor-led GH-900T00 is the classroom option.
- GitHub exams do not include in-exam Microsoft Learn search; launch the exam sandbox (GHCertDemo.starttest.com / aka.ms/examdemo) before test day so interactive item types are familiar.
- Register through Pearson VUE with a personal Microsoft account, then drill a real GitHub.com repository plus free questions at /practice/github-foundations.
- GitHub Skills (now on GitHub Learn) plus the Microsoft Learn practice assessment train product behavior and item wording; they are not the scored GH-900 form.
Start from owner pages, not a random 2024 outline
GH-900 prep fails in a predictable way: someone bookmarks a blog that still lists 75 questions and PSI, watches a long video recorded against the pre–January 2026 outline, and never opens the three pages that actually own the exam. Those three pages are:
- GitHub Foundations credential page — logistics, audience, sandbox, practice assessment, Pearson VUE scheduling, languages, retake pointer, and the personal Microsoft account warning (updated 19 February 2026).
- Study guide for Exam GH-900: GitHub Foundations — January 2026 domain weights, skill bullets, scoring link (700 or greater), recommended learning paths, and the changelog that the exam changed significantly in January 2026.
- About GitHub Certifications — GitHub's product-side description of Foundations (collaboration, GitHub products, Git basics, working within repositories) and the sibling credentials so you do not buy an Actions or Copilot voucher by mistake.
If a third-party resource disagrees with those three, the third-party resource loses. That includes older exam-meta copy inside prep sites that still quotes 120 minutes or a three-year cycle.
What each official resource is for
| Resource | What you use it for | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Learn GH-900 credential page | 100 minutes, Pearson VUE, languages, $99 USD with regional pricing, MSA warning, sandbox, practice assessment, first-fail 24-hour retake pointer | A live item count; Microsoft does not publish one here |
| GH-900 study guide | Seven January 2026 domains and bullets, 700 passing score, changelog, Microsoft Learn path links, GitHub Docs topic map | A dump of real exam items |
| GitHub Docs certifications article | What Foundations claims versus Actions, Advanced Security, Administration, and Copilot | Timer, fee, or scaled-score rules |
| GitHub Foundations Part 1 of 2 | Self-paced Microsoft Learn path, about 6 hours 44 minutes, 8 beginner modules | A substitute for clicking around github.com |
| GitHub Foundations Part 2 of 2 | Self-paced path, about 4 hours 57 minutes, 8 modules that continue the product tour | The scored exam |
| Course GH-900T00 | Instructor-led option that wraps the same two paths | Required; the exam has no course prerequisite |
| GitHub Skills / GitHub Learn | Hands-on courses that open pull requests in your repository | A proctored Pearson VUE substitute |
| Exam sandbox (GHCertDemo.starttest.com or aka.ms/examdemo) | Item UI, interactive types, mark-for-review, candidate agreement | Real GH-900 questions or the live secure browser |
| Microsoft Learn practice assessment | Style, wording, and difficulty of Microsoft items for this credential | The live form; Microsoft says the questions are not the same |
| OpenExamPrep practice | Free GH-900-style drills at /practice/github-foundations | Official Microsoft scoring |
Work the table top-down. Logistics first, outline second, product docs third, guided learning fourth, hands-on fifth, UI rehearsal sixth, then practice questions. Skipping to practice items before you can explain GitHub Flow is how people memorize distractors.
Microsoft Learn paths and GitHub Skills
The study guide's study-resources table is the official training recommendation, created with GitHub. GitHub Foundations Part 1 of 2 and GitHub Foundations Part 2 of 2 are the self-paced Microsoft Learn paths. Together they are on the order of eleven-plus hours of modules, not a weekend of passive video. There is also a GitHub Foundations collection on Microsoft Learn and an instructor-led course (GH-900T00) if you want a classroom wrapper. Complete the modules with a GitHub account logged in so the labs are not theoretical.
GitHub Skills (the interactive courses that used to live at skills.github.com and now sit on GitHub Learn) is the other official hands-on track. A Skills course typically opens a repository in your account and walks you through issues, pull requests, and Markdown by making you perform the work. That is closer to GH-900's product-surface questions than reading a bullet list. Use Skills to do GitHub Flow once, not to collect another completion badge you never revisit.
Exam sandbox, practice assessment, and the closed-book rule
Launch the exam sandbox from the credential page (GHCertDemo.starttest.com) or the study guide's aka.ms/examdemo link. You will see the same introductory screens, candidate agreement, help, and item types Microsoft uses on role-based and fundamentals exams: multiple choice, drag and drop, hot area, build list, mark for review, and the review screen. The sandbox does not enable the live secure browser, so assistive devices that work there may still need an accommodation on test day.
Take Microsoft Learn's practice assessment for GitHub Foundations after you finish the two learning paths. Microsoft's own warning is the one to remember: those items show style, wording, and difficulty; they are not the exam, they do not show exam length, and they may omit interactive types you will meet in Pearson VUE.
Then remember the closed-book rule. Microsoft's exam-experience page states that access to Microsoft Learn during the exam is not available on Fundamentals exams or GitHub exams. You cannot ctrl+F docs while a GH-900 item is on screen. If your study method is looking everything up, you are practicing a tool the exam will not give you. Build recall of product names, plan differences, and workflow order.
Pearson VUE, personal MSA, and scheduling hygiene
Schedule from the credential page's Pearson VUE path. Use a personal Microsoft account. Repeat the warning because it is the most expensive logistics mistake in this chapter: organizational AAD/Entra records can be lost if you leave the organization and they will be unrecoverable. The same personal MSA is how you later open the badge, certificate, and score report in your Learn profile.
Pearson VUE offers a testing center or online proctoring (OnVUE). Online testing means a room scan, a webcam, and a clean desk. Center testing means travel time. Either way the exam is proctored and may include interactive components. Reschedule or cancel according to Pearson VUE's appointment rules (typically at least 24 hours ahead, or you forfeit the fee). First-fail retake is 24 hours on Microsoft's policy; later attempts follow the 14-day / five-per-year rules discussed in section 1.1. After you pass, GitHub Docs says you receive a badge and certificate; GitHub Learn's two-year validity clock is the one that applies, not Microsoft's annual role-based renewal quiz.
Hands-on repository drill (do this on github.com)
Reading about GitHub is not the same as clicking it. Create a throwaway repository on GitHub.com (not only GitHub Enterprise Server) and force yourself through the January 2026 surfaces:
- Add README, LICENSE, CONTRIBUTING, CODEOWNERS, and SECURITY files so Domain 2 filenames are not abstract.
- Open an issue, a pull request, and a Discussion; link the pull request to the issue; try a template and an assignee.
- Follow GitHub Flow: branch, commit, open a pull request, review, merge to the default branch (often
main, but the name is configurable), delete the branch. This is not Git Flow with develop/release/hotfix. - Drop a tiny GitHub Actions workflow in
.github/workflowsso event, job, step, and runner are words you have seen in YAML. - Press
.on the repo to open github.dev; contrast that browser editor with a Codespace and a dev container. - Create a GitHub Project, add a label and a milestone, and glance at insights.
- Turn on 2FA or a passkey on the personal account you will actually use.
- Star the repo, open Insights, fork a public project, and create a repository from a template so fork versus template versus clone is muscle memory.
- Skim Marketplace, Sponsors, and the idea of InnerSource (open-source practices inside an organization) so Domain 7 is not a vocabulary pop quiz.
That drill is the difference between recognizing a screenshot-style interactive item and guessing from a blog.
Free question drill on this site
Two-weekend sequence that actually matches the exam
Weekend 1. Read the credential page and study guide. Confirm 100 minutes, 700, Pearson VUE, seven domains, personal MSA. Complete GitHub Foundations Part 1. Create the drill repository. Launch the sandbox once.
Weeknights. Domain 6 (2FA, passkeys, roles, EMUs, Copilot policy, branch protection) and Domain 7 (Sponsors, Marketplace, InnerSource, forks versus templates). These are the bands people skip.
Scenario: Alex almost studies the wrong platform
Alex is an Azure-certified developer. Alex assumes GH-900 will allow Microsoft Learn search during the exam, the way an Azure associate exam might, and assumes a free yearly renewal assessment will keep the badge alive. Both assumptions are false: GitHub exams do not get in-exam Learn, and GitHub certs last 2 years and renew by retake. Alex switches to the GH-900 study guide, Parts 1 and 2, a real repository, the sandbox, and practice at /practice/github-foundations. That is the owner-aligned path.
Which official Microsoft Learn document lists the January 2026 domain weights and states that a score of 700 or greater is required to pass GH-900?
Microsoft strongly recommends which account type when you schedule GH-900 through Pearson VUE?
After reading the GH-900 study guide, which combination is the most exam-aligned prep sequence?