DevOps / GitHub Actions Interview Questions

What are the key GitHub Actions expression contexts and what information does each provide?

Contexts are namespaced objects available inside ${{ }} expressions throughout a workflow. Each context exposes a different slice of information about the run, the repository, or the execution environment.

GitHub Actions Contexts
Context	Key properties	Example use
`github`	`ref`, `sha`, `event_name`, `actor`, `repository`, `run_id`, `workflow`	`if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'`
`env`	All environment variables set via `env:` at any scope	`${{ env.APP_VERSION }}`
`secrets`	Encrypted secrets from repo/org/environment settings	`${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_KEY }}`
`vars`	Non-sensitive configuration variables from settings	`${{ vars.TARGET_ENV }}`
`runner`	`os`, `arch`, `temp`, `tool_cache`	`key: ${{ runner.os }}-npm-...`
`job`	`status` (success/failure/cancelled)	`if: job.status == 'failure'`
`steps`	`steps.<id>.outputs`, `steps.<id>.outcome`	`${{ steps.build.outputs.version }}`
`needs`	`needs.<job>.result`, `needs.<job>.outputs`	`${{ needs.build.outputs.artifact-name }}`
`matrix`	Current matrix variables for this job instance	`${{ matrix.node }}`
`inputs`	Inputs passed via `workflow_dispatch` or `workflow_call`	`${{ inputs.environment }}`

Context availability varies by event. For example, github.event.pull_request is only populated on pull_request events, and needs is only available in jobs that declare needs:. Referencing an undefined context key returns an empty string rather than an error.

Take quiz

Which context provides the output values produced by a previous step with a given id? github.steps

✗ Try again — not quite right.

steps..outputs

✓ Well done — that is correct!

job.outputs

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env.steps

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Which context would you use to access the result of a job that the current job depends on via needs:? github

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job

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needs

✓ Well done — that is correct!

runner

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