🤖 ✨ GitHub Copilot Certification Exam Preparation (GH-300)

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Short link: go.techtrainertim.com/copilotcert

Welcome to the official preparation course for the GitHub Copilot Certification Exam (GH-300). This comprehensive training program is designed to help you master GitHub Copilot and achieve certification. 🎯

🎓 Course Overview

This course provides hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge of AI-assisted development using GitHub Copilot. The curriculum follows a pedagogically optimized 5-segment structure designed to maximize retention and practical application.

📋 Course Structure

1. Foundations & Getting Started - Plans, setup, and responsible AI
2. Core Features & Effective Usage - Prompt engineering and how Copilot works
3. Testing, Security & Enterprise - Advanced features and business use cases
4. Privacy, Exclusions & Configuration - Administrative controls and settings
5. Exam Preparation & Future Trends - Comprehensive review and emerging features

🎯 Certification Exam Domains (Updated May 2025)

Domain	Weight	Key Topics
1. Responsible AI	7%	AI risks, ethical usage, bias mitigation, output validation
2. GitHub Copilot Plans and Features	31%	Individual/Business/Enterprise plans, IDE integration, Chat, CLI
3. How GitHub Copilot Works and Handles Data	15%	Data pipeline, context gathering, LLM processing, limitations
4. Prompt Crafting and Prompt Engineering	9%	Zero-shot/few-shot prompting, best practices, context optimization
5. Developer Use Cases for AI	14%	Productivity, refactoring, documentation, debugging, SDLC integration
6. Testing with GitHub Copilot	9%	Unit/integration test generation, edge cases, assertions
7. Privacy Fundamentals and Context Exclusions	15%	Content exclusions, security, duplication detection, troubleshooting

🎯 Learning Objectives

By completing this course, you will:

• 🚀 Master all GitHub Copilot SKUs (Individual, Business, Enterprise)
• 💻 Craft effective prompts using prompt engineering best practices
• 🔍 Configure enterprise features including Knowledge Bases and custom models
• ✅ Generate comprehensive test suites and identify edge cases
• 🛠️ Implement responsible AI practices and security measures
• 📝 Configure privacy controls and content exclusions
• 🏆 Be fully prepared to pass the GH-300 certification exam

📚 Official Learning Resources

Certification Resources

• GitHub Copilot Certification - Microsoft Learn
• Official Study Guide for GH-300
• Schedule Exam through Pearson VUE
• Exam Replay Program

Microsoft Learn Paths

• GitHub Copilot Fundamentals
• Accelerate App Development by Using GitHub Copilot

GitHub Documentation

• GitHub Copilot Documentation
• GitHub Copilot for Business
• GitHub Skills: Introduction to GitHub Copilot

Development Tools

• VS Code GitHub Copilot Extension
• GitHub Copilot Chat Documentation
• AI Pair Programming Best Practices

📋 Prerequisites

• 💻 Basic understanding of coding in at least one programming language
• 🌐 Experience using GitHub, Visual Studio Code, or Visual Studio
• 🤖 Familiarity with version control, debugging, and code refactoring
• 📝 Basic understanding of DevOps concepts
• 🔑 GitHub account with access to Copilot (trial or subscription)

🚀 Latest GitHub Copilot Features (July 2025)

New Capabilities

• Agentic Coding Agent - Now GA for Copilot Business users
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) - Enhanced context handling in IDEs
• .instructions.md Support - Custom instructions for your repositories
• Rich Chat Attachments - Image support and file uploads in Chat
• Copilot Spark - Natural language to app pipeline (Pro+ plans)

📁 Repository Structure

• /demos/ - Hands-on lab exercises organized by lesson
• /new-resources/ - Latest exam objectives and course materials
• /copilot/ - Best practices and reference documentation
• /exam-metadata/ - Certification exam study materials
• COURSE-PLAN-AUG-2025.md - Detailed 5-segment course structure
• CLAUDE.md - AI assistant configuration for this repository

👨‍🏫 Instructor Contact

• Name: Tim Warner
• Website: techtrainertim.com
• GitHub: @timothywarner
• LinkedIn: Timothy Warner
• Email: tim@techtrainertim.com

💬 License

This course material is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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🔄 Automated Dependency Updates with Dependabot

This repo uses Dependabot to keep dependencies secure and up to date.

How it works

• Node.js (npm): Checks for updates in the root package.json every week.
• Python (pip): Checks for updates in /demos/11/requirements.txt every week.
• Pull requests are auto-labeled (dependencies, auto-merge) and assigned to active contributors for review.
• Only direct dependencies are updated for Node.js, and all dependencies for Python.
• Example reviewers/assignees: jane-dev, sam-coder (see copilot-metrics.json for top contributors).
• Some dependencies (like jest < v29) are ignored to avoid breaking changes during upgrades.

Why use Dependabot?

• Security: Automated PRs for vulnerable packages.
• Productivity: Less manual work for your team.
• Best Practice: Keeps your project healthy and audit-ready.

Example config

See .github/dependabot.yml for a real-world, enterprise-ready config tailored to this repo's Node.js and Python projects.

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