GitLab CI/CD — Complete Tutorial for Beginners to Advanced
Welcome to the Times of Cloud — GitLab CI/CD Tutorial. Master GitLab CI/CD from your first .gitlab-ci.yml to production-grade pipelines.
16 Chapters · Beginner to Advanced · Estimated Time: 20–25 hours
What is this Tutorial?
GitLab CI/CD is a built-in automation platform that ships with every GitLab installation. You don’t need a separate CI server — pipelines run right where your code lives.
This tutorial takes you from zero to confidently building, testing, and deploying applications with GitLab CI/CD.
Tutorial Details
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Level | Beginner to Advanced |
| Chapters | 16 |
| Prerequisites | Git basics, basic Linux commands |
| Estimated Time | 20–25 hours |
| Format | Concept → .gitlab-ci.yml → real output → exercises |
| Tools Used | GitLab account (SaaS or self-managed), Docker, kubectl |
What You’ll Learn
| Chapter | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction — What is GitLab CI/CD and why it matters |
| 2 | Getting Started — Your first pipeline in 5 minutes |
| 3 | Pipeline Architecture — Stages, DAG, parent-child pipelines |
| 4 | Jobs — Job keywords, images, services, and execution control |
| 5 | Variables — Predefined, project, group, masked, and file variables |
| 6 | Runners — Shared, specific, executors, and autoscaling |
| 7 | Artifacts & Caching — Pass files between jobs and speed up pipelines |
| 8 | Rules — Conditional logic for when jobs run |
| 9 | Environments — Deploy jobs, review apps, and rollback |
| 10 | Docker in CI — Build and push images, DinD, Kaniko |
| 11 | Templates & Reuse — Includes, extends, YAML anchors, component catalog |
| 12 | Security Scanning — SAST, DAST, dependency and container scanning |
| 13 | Advanced Features — Merge trains, schedules, triggers, releases |
| 14 | Troubleshooting — Debug logging, common errors, performance |
| 15 | Practice Projects — 5 real-world CI/CD pipelines |
| 16 | Next Steps — Kubernetes, Auto DevOps, migration, FAQ |
How to Use This Tutorial
- Follow in order — each chapter builds on the previous
- Type every pipeline — don’t copy-paste until you understand it
- Complete the exercises — every chapter ends with 5 hands-on challenges
- Use a real GitLab project — create a free account at gitlab.com
