CI/CD & Automation

What you will be able to do

• Design a CI/CD pipeline that triggers on a commit and runs build, test and deploy as distinct, ordered stages
• Author pipelines in both GitHub Actions (workflows, jobs, steps) and Jenkins (declarative pipelines), and choose between managed and self-hosted runners
• Build reproducibly with dependency caching and versioned, immutable artifacts
• Gate merges with automated tests, coverage thresholds, linting and security scanning so broken code fails fast
• Containerize an application with a small, hardened multi-stage Dockerfile and publish scanned images to a registry
• Deploy safely across environments using approvals, blue-green or canary releases, and a rollback path you have actually tested
• Provision infrastructure as code and manage configuration so environments are reproducible and free of drift

What is inside

4 modules, 8 lessons. Each module ends in a graded quiz and most carry an assignment.

1. 01

   Pipeline Foundations

   Continuous integration and delivery exist to make shipping software both frequent and safe. This module builds the core mental model the rest of the course relies on: what CI/CD actually means, how continuous delivery differs from continuous deployment, why small changes and fast feedback lower risk, and the anatomy of a pipeline (triggers, stages, jobs, runners and agents). It places GitHub Actions and Jenkins on the map as managed and self-hosted examples, all framed by Meridian Parcel's problem of shipping its tracking platform many times a day.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions

2. 02

   Build, Test, and Deploy Stages

   The heart of every pipeline: turning source into a trustworthy artifact, proving it with automated tests, and releasing it without fear. You will build reproducibly with dependency caching and versioned, immutable artifacts, gate merges with fail-fast quality checks (unit and integration tests, coverage, linting, and security scanning), then design deploy stages with environments, secrets, manual approvals, blue-green and canary releases, and a rollback you have actually tested. Every concept is wired in both GitHub Actions and Jenkins so it transfers to any tool you meet on the job.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions · assignment

3. 03

   Containerizing Applications with Docker

   Containers are the unit most modern pipelines build and ship, so this module packages Meridian Parcel's parcel-tracking API the way real teams do. You will learn what images and layers actually are, write layered Dockerfiles that build fast, and shrink and harden them with multi-stage builds. Then you will tag and push to a registry, scan for known vulnerabilities, run builds and tests inside containers, and hand a scanned image straight to the deploy stage from Module 2.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions

4. 04

   Infrastructure as Code and Configuration Management

   The pipeline needs a consistent place to deploy, and clicking in a console neither scales nor survives an audit. This module teaches you to provision infrastructure declaratively (state, the plan and apply cycle, and reusable modules), keep servers and services converged to a known, version-controlled state, and then run provisioning, configuration, and secrets safely from the pipeline itself, closing the loop from commit to running infrastructure with GitOps.

   2 lessons · 5 quiz questions · assignment