You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
GITLABGitLab Certified Security Associate
The GitLab Certified Security Specialist certification validates your ability to embed security into every stage of the DevOps lifecycle using GitLab's built-in security features. It is designed for security professionals and DevOps practitioners who want to demonstrate they can configure, manage, and act on security scanning and compliance controls within GitLab. Earning this credential shows you can operationalize DevSecOps and shift security left with confidence.
Exam formatMultiple choice
DeliveryGitLab Learn
Free questions329
The certification
What GitLab Certified Security Associate proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
6domains
15objectives
93concepts
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The GitLab Certified Security Specialist certification confirms that you can leverage GitLab's integrated security capabilities to protect software delivery pipelines. It covers the configuration and management of security scanners, vulnerability management, compliance frameworks, and security policies within GitLab, enabling you to identify and remediate risks early in the development process.
This certification is for security engineers, DevOps engineers, and application security professionals who are responsible for integrating security into CI/CD workflows. By earning it, you demonstrate a practical understanding of GitLab's security features and how to use them to enforce security and compliance across the software development lifecycle.
Who it’s for
This certification is for security professionals, DevOps engineers, and developers who are responsible for implementing and managing security controls within GitLab. It is ideal for those who want to validate their skills in using GitLab's security scanning, compliance, and vulnerability management features to protect their software delivery pipelines. You should have a solid understanding of GitLab's core features, including CI/CD pipelines, and be familiar with security concepts such as vulnerability scanning, compliance frameworks, and security policies. You are comfortable working in a DevOps environment and are looking to formalize your expertise in DevSecOps practices.
Recommended experience
At least six months of hands-on experience with GitLab, including using CI/CD pipelines and security scanning features, is recommended. Experience configuring and running GitLab CI/CD pipelines; Familiarity with GitLab security scanning features such as SAST, DAST, and dependency scanning; Understanding of vulnerability management and compliance frameworks; Basic knowledge of security policies and how to enforce them in a DevOps environment
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective GitLab measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official GitLab exam outline · See the source
Static and Dynamic Application Security Testing
- Implement Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
- Implement Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
- Interpret application security scan results
Secret and Dependency Scanning
- Configure secret detection
- Configure dependency scanning
- Remediate detected findings
Container Scanning
- Implement container scanning
- Assess container image vulnerabilities
Security Policies and Approvals
- Configure security policies
- Configure merge request approval workflows
- Enforce policy compliance
Vulnerability Management
- Manage vulnerabilities across the DevSecOps lifecycle
- Triage and remediate vulnerabilities
License Compliance
- Enforce license compliance
- Manage license approval policies
On the day
The exam itself
Everything GitLab publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
CertificationGitLab Certified Security Associate
Exam formatMultiple choice
DeliveryGitLab Learn
LanguagesEnglish
Certification levelAssociate
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path GitLab lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to GitLab Certified Security Associate
Credential earnedGitLab Certified Security Associate Associate level certification Renewal and maintenance
GitLab certifications do not require renewal. Once earned, the GitLab Certified Security Specialist certification does not expire. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. GitLab maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by GitLab
Exam registration
Register for the exam through GitLab Learn, GitLab’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official GitLab certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
How does the GitLab Certified Security Specialist relate to other GitLab certifications?
This certification is a standalone credential focused on security. It does not require any other GitLab certification as a prerequisite, and it is not a prerequisite for any other GitLab certification.
Is there a hands-on or lab component in the exam?
The exam is delivered online and consists of multiple-choice questions. There is no separate hands-on lab component; however, the questions are designed to test practical knowledge of using GitLab's security features.
What is the retake policy if I fail the exam?
GitLab Learn allows you to retake the exam after a waiting period. Specific retake policies are provided on the exam registration page.
How soon will I receive my exam results?
Results are typically provided immediately after completing the online exam, and your certification badge is issued shortly thereafter.
What job roles does the GitLab Certified Security Specialist credential map to?
This credential is relevant for security engineers, DevSecOps engineers, application security analysts, and DevOps professionals who are responsible for integrating security into GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
Can I recertify by passing a different GitLab exam?
No, GitLab certifications do not require renewal, so there is no recertification process. Once earned, the credential remains valid.
Practice free questions 329 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept GitLab measures — each one written out.
6domains
15objectives
93concepts
71free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official GitLab exam outline · See the source
1Static and Dynamic Application Security Testing64 questions
2Secret and Dependency Scanning70 questions
3Container Scanning47 questions
4Security Policies and Approvals63 questions
5Vulnerability Management51 questions
6License Compliance34 questions
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
Implement Static Application Security Testing (SAST)5 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
24 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
329 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
329questions
71pages
15objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1Static and Dynamic Application Security Testing64 questions
2Secret and Dependency Scanning70 questions
3Container Scanning47 questions
4Security Policies and Approvals63 questions
5Vulnerability Management51 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
93concepts
329free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from GitLab
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
1official link
93concepts mapped
The source
GitLab’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official GitLab outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 15 objectives, 93 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When GitLab changes the outline, this page changes with it.
15objectives on the outline→93concepts written→329free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.