In the past, developers often built the software first and brought security in at the end, when fixing issues was slower, more expensive, and far more disruptive. “DevSecOps” changed that by integrating security into the development process. This allows us to identify vulnerabilities earlier, fix them faster, and prevent them from reaching production.
A simple way to think about it is to imagine building a house. The old approach was finishing the entire house and only then calling in a safety inspector. If the foundation was weak or the wiring was unsafe, fixing it at that stage would be costly and time-consuming. DevSecOps is like involving the safety inspector while the house is still being designed and built, so problems are caught early and the final structure is safer.
That shift matters now because software is being built faster, by more people, and with fewer barriers than ever before. AI-assisted coding, low-code platforms, and the rise of “vibe coding” have made it easier than ever to turn ideas into working applications. But this comes at a cost of security; many of these fast-built applications carry weaknesses from the OWASP Top 10: broken access control, insecure design, weak authentication, exposed secrets, vulnerable dependencies, and injection flaws. This creates a new attack surface because working code is not the same as secure code.
DevSecOps is becoming central to modern software security, yet it is still intimidating to many learners. Most people hear the term but do not always understand what it means in practice or why it matters now more than ever.
With software being built and shipped at high speed, security needs to move with that speed too. I created this guide to make DevSecOps easier to understand and learn by breaking it down clearly and pointing readers toward the best courses to get started.
Why Should You Trust Us and This Guide?
Class Central is a TripAdvisor for online education. We make it easier to discover the right courses without having to jump across multiple platforms. With over 250,000 courses in our catalog, we’ve already helped more than 100 million learners find their next course.
Now, why should you trust this guide?
As a senior security analyst, I have seen how often security ends up lagging behind fast release cycles and automation-heavy development. I focused on the parts of DevSecOps that matter most in practice: securing CI/CD pipelines, understanding application security testing, dealing with cloud and container risk, and making sure security supports delivery instead of slowing it down. I wrote this guide for learners who want to understand how DevSecOps actually works on the ground.
| Course | Workload |
| Introduction to DevSecOps (Coursera) | 21.5 hours |
| DevOps Foundations: DevSecOps (LinkedIn Learning) | 1.5 hours |
| Introduction to DevSecOps (Board Infinity) | 10.5 hours |
| DevSecOps: Continuous Application Security (LinkedIn Learning) | 1 hour |
| DevSecOps: Master Securing CI/CD | DevOps Pipeline | Hands-on (Udemy) | 9.5 hours |
| DevSecOps – Implementing Secure CI-CD Pipelines (Hack With Me) | 2.5 hours |
Related Guides
Introduction to DevSecOps (Coursera)
- Level: Intermediate
- Rating: 4.1
- Duration: 21.5 hours
- Cost: Paid
What You’ll Learn
- Understand the overview of DevSecOps, including fundamental principles of flow, feedback, and continual learning, and how they differ from agile, waterfall, and classic DevOps.
- Learn about the application of process thinking to technology work, including constraint identification, value stream mapping, team selection, and process design for DevSecOps framework transformations.
- Get hands-on experience by effectively understanding the use of Git and GitHub for version control strategies, including repositories, branching, merging, etc.
- Build operational understanding of the framework by designing and building basic CI/CD automation with GitHub, including automation of routine tasks, triggering builds, and integration into a simple website.
- Application of DevSecOps practices after building and maintenance of a static website, thereby learning the application of framework practices to real-time cases.
Introduction to DevSecOps is a solid starting point for learners who want more than a surface-level definition of DevSecOps. It does a good job of explaining where the model comes from, how it differs from older delivery approaches, and what process change actually looks like inside a team.
Just as important, it does not stay purely theoretical. The course brings in practical work with Git, GitHub, Jekyll, Markdown, and basic CI/CD automation, which gives learners a clearer sense of how DevSecOps works when it moves from concept to implementation.
That mix of process thinking and hands-on work makes it a strong fit for beginners and lower-intermediate learners. Its main appeal is not depth in one specific tool but the way it helps learners understand the larger operating model behind secure software delivery.
DevOps Foundations: DevSecOps (LinkedIn Learning)
- Level: Beginner
- Rating: 4.8
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Cost: Paid
What You’ll Learn
- Develop an understanding of the transition from traditional security to DevSecOps by grasping fundamental concepts like shared accountability and continuous security.
- Learn about the difficulties with traditional security testing in DevOps and methods for automating it.
- Build understanding about the integration of application security procedures, such as SAST/DAST, into the CI/CD pipeline, along with the utilization of the “security as code” principle.
- Understand the usage of feedback loops and metrics in DevSecOps for refinement in security practices iteratively across teams.
- Practice the contents learned during the course with the help of 4 quizzes and 1 exercise file, thereby helping build an understanding of the practical implementation of the DevSecOps framework.
DevOps Foundations: DevSecOps is a short course, but it knows exactly what it is trying to do. Rather than overwhelm learners with tools and pipeline complexity, it introduces the mindset behind DevSecOps in a clear and approachable way.
It explains why traditional security models struggle in fast-moving DevOps environments and how automation helps close that gap. The course also touches on ideas like shift-left testing, feedback loops, APIs, containers, and CI/CD-driven security checks, which makes it a useful first exposure to the space.
It is best seen as a foundation, not a full technical build-out. Think of it as the briefing before the field exercise: useful for framing the problem, but not enough on its own if you want hands-on depth.
Introduction to DevSecOps (Board Infinity)
- Level: Beginner
- Rating: 4.4
- Duration: 10.5 hours
- Cost: Paid
What You’ll Learn
- Learn about the core principles of DevSecOps, including how development, security, and operations are integrated, and its advantages over traditional development practices.
- Recognize essential DevSecOps practices such as continuous monitoring, continuous execution and feedback loops, and identification of where and how to integrate security across a software development process.
- Gain understanding of the “Three Ways” and the foundational principles for DevSecOps processes and culture to learn about how to start a DevSecOps transformation in organizations.
- Gain fundamental familiarity with Git, GitHub, and Markdown as tools for automated DevSecOps workflow functioning.
- Understand the best practices for integrating security and handling security incidents and the implementation of security automation in real-world applications.
Introduction to DevSecOps gives an overview of how DevSecOps fits into the software lifecycle. It helps beginners build understanding step by step.
What makes it useful is that it goes beyond slogans. It covers not just the technical side of security integration, but also the process and cultural side, including flow, feedback, continuous learning, and organizational transformation. That broader framing matters because DevSecOps is not just a tooling change; it is also a team and process change.
The course appears especially useful for learners who want a more rounded introduction before moving into specialized pipeline tooling or application security courses.
DevSecOps: Continuous Application Security (LinkedIn Learning)
- Level: Intermediate
- Rating: 4.6
- Duration: 1 hour
- Cost: Paid
What You’ll Learn
- Develop understanding of DevSecOps principles and learn about the process of embedding security into DevOps workflows.
- Learn about the implementation of continuous static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and interactive application security testing (IAST) for code analysis and detection of runtime vulnerabilities.
- Perform continuous secret scanning and dependency analysis for identification of exposed credentials and risky third-party libraries.
- Learn about the process of securing containers and IaC templates through continuous scanning in the CI/CD pipeline, along with scanning of infrastructure as code (IaC) for misconfigurations and compliance issues.
- Gaining access to exercise files and quizzes during course time and receiving a certificate of completion helps enhance your professional profile and aids in skill building.
DevSecOps: Continuous Application Security by Tim Chase is a concise course that enables learners to gain an understanding of practical strategies for the automation of security testing.
Integral topics/concepts for DevSecOps have been described in the course that help learners gain an overall understanding of the DevSecOps architecture and the steps needed for the implementation of security in the software development cycle.
Concepts such as static, dynamic, and interactive application security testing; AI risks; and dependency scans are covered. Their embedding into CI/CD pipelines, all the while ensuring speed without security sacrifices, are well explained and aided by exercises and quizzes, which are a part of the course.
DevSecOps: Master Securing CI/CD | DevOps Pipeline | Hands-on (Udemy)
- Level: Beginner
- Rating: 3.8
- Duration: 9.5 Hours
- Cost: Paid
What You’ll Learn
- How DevSecOps security practices fit into a CI/CD pipeline, including “shift left” testing and secure pipeline design.
- The basics of SAST, DAST, SCA, container scanning, Git/source-code security, and secure coding techniques.
- Core security reference points such as OWASP, CVE, CWE, and CIS Benchmarks.
- Jenkins setup using Docker, plus Jenkins-based integration for SAST, SCA, DAST, and container security checks.
- How to secure third-party dependencies, Dockerfiles, images, and build/test/deployment workflows.
- Threat modeling, vulnerability assessment, threat assessment, and automated penetration testing in a DevSecOps context.
- IDE-based security practices such as SonarLint and Snyk integration for earlier detection during development.
- Supporting topics such as YAML in CI/CD pipelines, GitHub security checks, and email/Slack notifications.
DevSecOps: Master Securing CI/CD | DevOps Pipeline is a beginner-friendly introduction to DevSecOps rather than a deep specialist program.
It moves in a practical order, starting with basic concepts and then setting up work such as VMs, Jenkins, and Docker-related tasks before branching into areas like SAST, DAST, SCA, container scanning, threat modeling, and secure coding.
That makes it useful for learners who want to see how security gets woven into the delivery pipeline, much like learning how the parts of a factory line connect before trying to optimize the whole plant. It’s best suited to DevOps aspirants, developers, QA, infra, and IT/security professionals looking for a practical first pass at DevSecOps.
DevSecOps – Implementing Secure CI-CD Pipelines (Hack With Me)
- Level: Beginner
- Rating: NA
- Duration: 2.5 hours
- Cost: Free
What You’ll Learn
- The basic idea behind secure CI/CD pipelines, starting with an introduction to DevSecOps and a general overview of how CI/CD works.
- How DevOps relates to the software development lifecycle, and how a standard CI/CD pipeline differs from a DevSecOps pipeline.
- How to set up a cloud lab and configure Jenkins and Tomcat servers as part of a pipeline setup.
- How to create a build pipeline in Jenkins and add continuous deployment steps.
- How to check for exposed Git secrets in a pipeline using Trufflehog.
- How to run software composition analysis with OWASP Dependency Checker and integrate SAST with SonarQube in Jenkins.
DevSecOps – Implementing Secure CI-CD Pipelines is like a compact, practical walkthrough of what a secure CI/CD pipeline can look like when Jenkins sits at the center.
What I like the most is that the course follows a logical path from fundamentals and lab setup to Jenkins and Tomcat configuration, pipeline creation, and then security checks with tools like Trufflehog, OWASP Dependency Checker, SonarQube, and ZAP. This makes it easier to see how the pieces fit together, much like learning how an assembly line works by watching the full line move rather than studying each machine in isolation.
The tradeoff is depth; at 2.5 hours, this is better read as a guided introduction rather than a serious deep dive into pipeline hardening, tuning, or mature AppSec practices, and the public page does not say much about exercises, assessments, or how far each integration goes beyond setup.
It’s best suited for learners who already have some familiarity with DevOps or CI/CD and want a short, tool-oriented map of how security checks plug into a working pipeline.
The post 6 Best Courses on DevSecOps in 2026 appeared first on The Report by Class Central.
