GitLab Course

Lesson 1 • Version Control Fundamentals

Covers distributed vs. centralized version control and why teams adopt Git. Establishes the conceptual baseline for all subsequent GitLab workflows.

Lesson 2 • GitLab Platform Overview

Introduces GitLab's product tiers, deployment options, and interface layout. Connects platform structure to real-world team use cases.

Lesson 3 • Creating and Configuring Your Account

Guides students through account setup, profile configuration, and SSH/HTTPS authentication. Ensures every student has a working environment before coding exercises begin.

Lesson 1 • Tagging and Release Management

Introduces lightweight and annotated tags and their role in marking release points. Connects tagging to GitLab Releases for structured version delivery.

Lesson 2 • Repository Basics and File Management

Covers initializing repos, cloning, and managing files via the web editor and CLI. Provides the practical starting point for all branch and merge work ahead.

Lesson 3 • Working with Remote Repositories

Covers fetch, pull, push, and remote management for collaborative workflows. Students understand how local and remote states stay synchronized.

Lesson 4 • Merging, Rebasing, and Conflict Resolution

Explains merge commits, fast-forward merges, and interactive rebase. Students practice resolving merge conflicts using GitLab's built-in conflict editor.

Lesson 1 • Creating Effective Merge Requests

Teaches how to open a merge request with clear titles, descriptions, and linked issues. Sets the standard for communication quality in code review.

Lesson 2 • Draft Merge Requests and Iterations

Introduces draft MRs for work-in-progress visibility and iteration workflows. Students learn to manage long-running feature branches without blocking the team.

Lesson 3 • Code Review Best Practices

Covers inline comments, suggestions, and review etiquette for constructive feedback. Builds the collaborative mindset needed for high-quality code review cycles.

Lesson 1 • Labels, Milestones, and Iterations

Teaches scoped labels, milestone planning, and iteration cadences for sprint-style delivery. Students can organize work into time-boxed cycles aligned with team goals.

Lesson 2 • Epics and Roadmaps

Explains epics as containers for related issues and roadmaps for timeline planning. Students can communicate delivery plans to stakeholders using visual timelines.

Lesson 3 • Boards and Workflow Visualization

Introduces issue boards and epic boards for Kanban-style workflow management. Students visualize work-in-progress limits and bottlenecks across the delivery pipeline.

Lesson 4 • Issues: Creation and Management

Covers creating issues with labels, assignees, due dates, and weight. Establishes issues as the atomic unit linking planning to development work.

Lesson 1 • CI/CD Concepts and GitLab Architecture

Introduces continuous integration and delivery principles and how GitLab implements them. Provides the mental model needed before writing any pipeline configuration.

Lesson 2 • Pipeline Rules and Conditional Execution

Teaches rules, only/except, and workflow rules for controlling when jobs run. Students build pipelines that behave differently for branches, tags, and merge requests.

Lesson 3 • Writing Your First .gitlab-ci.yml

Teaches YAML syntax, stages, jobs, and scripts for a minimal working pipeline. Students gain immediate hands-on experience running a real pipeline.

Lesson 4 • Variables, Environments, and Secrets

Covers predefined CI variables, custom variables, and masked secrets management. Students can parameterize pipelines and protect sensitive credentials.

Lesson 1 • Container Builds and Registry Integration

Explains building Docker images in CI and pushing to GitLab Container Registry. Students integrate container workflows into automated delivery pipelines.

Lesson 2 • Multi-Stage Deployment Pipelines

Teaches staging, production, and canary environment deployments with manual approval gates. Students build pipelines that safely promote code through environment tiers.

Lesson 3 • Pipeline Performance and Optimization

Covers parallel jobs, DAG pipelines, and resource group controls for faster delivery. Students reduce pipeline duration and resource contention in large projects.

Lesson 4 • Rollbacks and Deployment Safety

Introduces auto-rollback triggers, environment history, and feature flags for safe releases. Students can recover from failed deployments with minimal downtime.

Lesson 1 • Vulnerability Management Workflow

Teaches the vulnerability report, triage process, and remediation tracking in GitLab. Students can prioritize and resolve security findings within the development workflow.

Lesson 2 • Access Control and Permission Models

Explains GitLab's role-based access levels, group inheritance, and deploy token scoping. Students configure least-privilege access for teams and automated systems.

Lesson 3 • Protected Branches and Push Rules

Covers protected branch settings, push rules, and signed commit enforcement. Students prevent unauthorized changes and enforce code quality policies at the repository level.

Lesson 4 • Compliance Frameworks and Audit Logs

Introduces compliance pipeline frameworks, separation of duties, and audit event streaming. Students build governance controls that satisfy regulatory and organizational requirements.

Lesson 1 • User and Group Administration

Teaches bulk user management, LDAP/SAML integration, and group-level policy enforcement. Students can onboard teams and enforce identity governance at scale.

Lesson 2 • GitLab Runner Configuration and Scaling

Explains runner registration, executor types, and autoscaling for high-demand pipelines. Students design runner fleets that balance cost, speed, and security.

Lesson 3 • Performance Tuning and High Availability

Introduces Gitaly, PostgreSQL tuning, and reference architectures for high availability. Students understand the components to scale GitLab beyond a single-node deployment.

Lesson 4 • Backup, Restore, and Upgrades

Covers GitLab backup strategies, restore procedures, and zero-downtime upgrade paths. Students can protect data integrity and maintain service continuity during maintenance.