Go Certification

Go certification syllabus & coverage

This certification tests genuine comprehension of Go language fundamentals, idiomatic patterns, data structures, and production practices. Questions are sampled across all course modules:

• Getting Started: Install Go, create a module with go mod init, run your first program with go run, and ship it as one static binary with go build.
• Fundamentals: Variables with var and :=, zero values, Go's basic types, constants and iota, operators, Printf verbs, reading input and strconv conversions.
• Flow Control: if with an init statement, for as Go's only loop in all its forms, switch without fallthrough, labelled break and continue, and defer.
• Functions: Declare functions, return several values, pass functions around as values, capture state in closures, and use defer and recursion without surprises.
• Arrays, Slices & Maps: Fixed-size arrays, growable slices that share a backing array, and maps with comma-ok lookups — plus the panics and aliasing bugs each one causes.
• Structs & Methods: Group data into structs, attach methods, choose between value and pointer receivers, and compose types with embedding instead of inheritance.
• Interfaces: Write code that works with any type that has the right methods: implicit interfaces, Stringer, error, io.Reader and io.Writer, type switches and the nil-interface trap.
• Error Handling: Handle failure the Go way: errors as values, wrapping with %w, errors.Is and errors.As, custom error types, and when panic and recover are the right tool.
• Goroutines & Channels: Run work concurrently with goroutines, pass data safely over channels, and stop it cleanly with select, mutexes and context.
• Packages, Modules & Testing: Organise Go code into packages and modules, control what is exported, manage dependencies with go.mod, and test it with go test, table-driven tests and benchmarks.
• Generics: Write one function or type that works for many types: type parameters, constraints like comparable and cmp.Ordered, ~T, generic data structures and the slices and maps packages.
• Errors & Debugging: The 15 Go errors every beginner hits, with real compiler and runtime messages, how to read a panic trace, and the tools that find bugs fast.
• Go + Tools: Nine mini-labs on Go at work: Gin, PostgreSQL with pgx, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana, Kafka and GitHub Actions.
• Data Structures & Algorithms: Build core data structures by hand in Go, then use the standard library: slices, maps, stacks, queues, trees, heaps, graphs, search, sort and DP.
• Problem Solving: A repeatable way to solve coding problems in Go: read it, break it down, test small cases, then apply one of eight patterns that cover most interviews.
• Interview Questions: Sixty Go interview questions — 25 junior, 25 mid-level, 10 senior — with model answers, what each is really testing, a coding round and a take-home checklist.
• Job Ready: What a Go resume must show for backend, cloud and DevOps roles, three portfolio projects that get Go callbacks, where Go jobs are, and the certification exam.

Exam rules & grading

The exam features 25 multiple-choice questions with a time limit of 35 minutes. A passing score of 70% or higher issues a permanent certificate with a verifiable credential ID that can be attached directly to your resume and LinkedIn Profile.

Frequently asked questions