Crash Course in CI/CD: Docker, GitHub Actions & Automation

Jump into the fast-paced world of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) with this practical crash course. Designed for developers and DevOps beginners, this course will guide you through the modern workflow of automating application deployment using essential tools like Docker, Docker Hub, GitHub (with branch protection rules), GitHub Actions, and Watchtower. You'll start by understanding the fundamentals of CI/CD and why it's a crucial part of modern software delivery.

We'll set up secure GitHub repositories with branch protection to ensure only verified code gets deployed. From there, you'll learn how to containerize applications using Docker and push your images to Docker Hub for reliable storage and version control. Next, the course dives deep into setting up powerful CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions.

You'll create workflows to automatically build, test, and deploy your applications every time you push changes - reducing manual errors and improving delivery speed. To complete the pipeline, you'll learn to use Watchtower to automatically update running Docker containers whenever a new image is available, making your deployments seamless and hands-free. By the end of this course, you'll have a fully operational CI/CD pipeline you can use in your personal or production projects, giving you the confidence to streamline your deployments like a pro.