GitHub Advanced Security Certification (GH-500) Practice Tests

What to Expect

The GitHub Advanced Security Certification (GH-500) exam costs $99 USD You'll face 60 questions in 120 minutes, giving you roughly 2 minutes per question. Pass/fail with a 70% cut score. Delivered through PSI. Results are available after completing the exam.

Prerequisites and Audience

You should be a developer or security professional who understands GitHub's platform, including repositories, branches, pull requests, and GitHub Actions. Familiarity with application security concepts — SAST, dependency scanning, secret management — is important. If you've never used GitHub Advanced Security features like code scanning, Dependabot, or secret scanning in a real repository, you need hands-on time before the exam. DevSecOps engineers, application security professionals, and developers responsible for securing GitHub-hosted code. This cert is for people who configure and manage GHAS features at the enterprise or organization level — enabling code scanning, managing Dependabot alerts, configuring secret scanning, and writing custom CodeQL queries. If you're the person driving shift-left security at your organization, this validates that expertise.

Staying Certified

Valid for three years. Renewal requires retaking the current exam. GitHub Advanced Security features evolve quickly, so the exam content updates to reflect new capabilities.

Seven domains: GitHub Advanced Security Best Practices (20%) and Use Code Scanning with CodeQL (20%) are the heaviest. Configure and Use Code Scanning (15%) and Configure and Use Dependency Management (15%) share equal weight. Configure GHAS Tools in GitHub Enterprise (10%), Configure and Use Secret Scanning (10%), and GHAS Security Features and Functionality (10%) round it out. CodeQL gets significant coverage — you need to understand how to write and customize queries.

GitHub Advanced Security Best Practices

GitHub Advanced Security Best Practices at 20% is a substantial portion of the exam. You can't afford to be weak here. Focus on understanding the core concepts and common scenario patterns.

Use Code Scanning with CodeQL

Use Code Scanning with CodeQL at 20% is a substantial portion of the exam. You can't afford to be weak here. Focus on understanding the core concepts and common scenario patterns.

Configure and Use Code Scanning

Configure and Use Code Scanning accounts for 15% of questions. While not the heaviest domain, it can make the difference between passing and failing. Don't neglect it.

Configure and Use Dependency Management

Configure and Use Dependency Management accounts for 15% of questions. While not the heaviest domain, it can make the difference between passing and failing. Don't neglect it.

Question Format

Multiple-choice and scenario-based questions. Expect questions about configuring GHAS features at the organization and enterprise level, interpreting code scanning alerts, managing Dependabot PRs, writing custom CodeQL queries, and configuring secret scanning patterns. Some questions present GitHub Actions workflow files for code scanning configurations.

Study Timeline

Six to eight weeks if you actively manage GHAS in an organization. If you've used basic Dependabot and code scanning but haven't written custom CodeQL queries or configured enterprise-level GHAS settings, add a few weeks for those areas. CodeQL is the domain that requires the most dedicated study time for most candidates.

Top Resources

Microsoft Learn has a dedicated GitHub Advanced Security learning path. The GitHub Security documentation covers every GHAS feature in detail. The CodeQL documentation and the CodeQL GitHub repository with example queries are essential for the CodeQL domain. GitHub Skills has interactive exercises for code scanning setup. For hands-on practice, enable GHAS on a test repository and work through every feature.

Common Mistakes

Underestimating CodeQL. It's 20% of the exam, and many candidates who use code scanning haven't actually written or customized CodeQL queries. You need to understand QL syntax, how to write simple queries, and how CodeQL analyzes code. The other miss is not knowing the enterprise-level GHAS configuration — how to enable features across an organization, manage security policies, and handle alerts at scale.

Hands-On Advice

Enable GHAS on a test repository and work through the full feature set: configure code scanning with a CodeQL workflow, set up Dependabot for dependency updates and security alerts, enable secret scanning and configure custom patterns, write a simple CodeQL query, and review and manage alerts from each tool. At the organizational level, practice configuring security policies, enabling features org-wide, and managing the security overview dashboard.

Testing Options

Delivered through PSI with online proctoring and testing center options. Standard requirements: webcam, microphone, clean workspace, stable internet. 120 minutes gives comfortable pacing.

Time Management

You get 120 minutes for 60 questions — two minutes each. Questions involving CodeQL query syntax or workflow file analysis may take longer. Don't rush through the configuration scenarios — they often have subtle details that change the correct answer.

How Hard Is This Exam?

On a scale of 1 to 10, the GitHub Advanced Security cert is about a 5.5. The difficulty comes from the breadth of GHAS features you need to know — code scanning, dependency management, secret scanning, and CodeQL — plus the enterprise configuration layer. CodeQL queries are the most technically challenging topic for most candidates. The rest of the exam is practical knowledge of GitHub security features that you'd learn from actually using them.

Pass Rate Data

GitHub doesn't publish pass rates. The exam is newer and the candidate pool tends to be security-focused professionals. Community reports suggest solid pass rates among candidates who've actively managed GHAS in production. CodeQL is the domain that most commonly needs additional study.

Each Pruvos practice test mirrors the real GitHub Advanced Security exam: 60 questions, 120-minute timer, distributed across all seven domains — GitHub Advanced Security Best Practices (20%), Use Code Scanning with CodeQL (20%), Configure and Use Code Scanning (15%), Configure and Use Dependency Management (15%), Configure GHAS Tools in GitHub Enterprise (10%), Configure and Use Secret Scanning (10%), and GHAS Security Features and Functionality (10%). We have 6 full practice tests with 360 unique questions. Code scanning and CodeQL together are 35% of the exam — make sure those domains are solid on your practice tests.

Practice tests are the single most effective study tool for the GitHub Security exam. They reveal your weak domains before the real exam does, and getting questions wrong in practice is how you learn. Each practice test here mirrors the real exam format: 60 questions, timed at 120 minutes, with the same 7-domain distribution.

Don't just take practice tests and check your score. Review every wrong answer and understand why the correct option is better. For the GitHub Security, pay special attention to GitHub Advanced Security Best Practices (20%) and Use Code Scanning with CodeQL (20%) questions since they carry the most weight.