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DevOps / GitHub Actions Interview Questions

What are workflow triggers (on:) and which event types does GitHub Actions support?

The on: key defines which GitHub events cause a workflow to run. You can listen to a single event, a list of events, or an event with filters. GitHub provides more than 35 distinct event types across three broad categories.

Repository events fire when something happens in your repo:

  • push — a commit or tag is pushed
  • pull_request — a PR is opened, synchronised, closed, etc.
  • pull_request_target — same as above but runs in the context of the base branch (useful for forks)
  • release — a release is published, edited, or deleted
  • issues, issue_comment, discussion
  • create, delete — branch or tag creation/deletion

Scheduled triggers use cron syntax:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 6 * * 1'   # Every Monday at 06:00 UTC

Manual and cross-workflow triggers:

  • workflow_dispatch — lets you run the workflow manually from the GitHub UI or API, with optional input parameters
  • workflow_call — makes the workflow callable from another workflow (reusable workflows)
  • workflow_run — triggers when another named workflow completes
  • repository_dispatch — triggers via a custom HTTP POST to the GitHub API, useful for external systems

Most event types accept additional filters. For example, push accepts branches:, tags:, and paths: filters so you only trigger on relevant changes instead of every push to every branch.

Which trigger allows you to manually start a GitHub Actions workflow from the GitHub UI?
Which on: event uses a cron expression to schedule a workflow on a time basis?

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