GitHub Copilot: Beginner's Guide & Exercise

Alex Johnson

-Oct 25, 2025

GitHub Copilot: Beginner's Guide & Exercise

GitHub Copilot: Getting Started - An Exercise

👋 Hey there @lsree87-git! Welcome to your Skills exercise! Let’s embark on a journey to master GitHub Copilot! 🚀

Welcome to the exciting world of GitHub Copilot! This article serves as your comprehensive guide to get started with this revolutionary AI-powered coding assistant. In this exercise, you'll unlock the potential of GitHub Copilot to accelerate your development process, making coding more efficient and enjoyable. Let's dive in and have some fun exploring the future of coding together! 💻✨ This guide is designed to be both informative and engaging, ensuring you not only understand the basics but also appreciate the power of AI in software development.

✨ This is an interactive, hands-on GitHub Skills exercise!

As you complete each step, I’ll leave updates in the comments:

✅ Check your work and guide you forward
💡 Share helpful tips and resources
🚀 Celebrate your progress and completion

Let’s get started - good luck and have fun!

_{— Mona}

_{If you encounter any issues along the way please report them here.}

What is GitHub Copilot?

Before we delve into the exercise, let's understand what GitHub Copilot is and why it's becoming an indispensable tool for developers. GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that helps you write code faster and with less effort. It’s powered by OpenAI Codex, a generative AI model trained on billions of lines of public code. GitHub Copilot understands natural language prompts and generates code suggestions in real-time, making it an invaluable asset for both novice and experienced developers.

Key Features of GitHub Copilot:

Real-time Code Suggestions: GitHub Copilot provides suggestions as you type, helping you complete lines of code, functions, and even entire blocks of code. This feature significantly reduces the time spent writing repetitive code.
Natural Language Understanding: You can describe what you want to achieve in plain English, and GitHub Copilot will generate code that matches your description. This makes coding more intuitive and accessible.
Support for Multiple Languages: GitHub Copilot supports a wide range of programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, and more. This versatility makes it a valuable tool for any developer, regardless of their preferred language.
Learning and Improvement: The more you use GitHub Copilot, the better it gets at understanding your coding style and preferences. It learns from your feedback and adapts its suggestions accordingly, ensuring a personalized coding experience.
Integration with Popular Editors: GitHub Copilot seamlessly integrates with popular code editors like Visual Studio Code, making it easy to incorporate into your existing workflow.

Why Use GitHub Copilot?

The benefits of using GitHub Copilot are numerous. It not only accelerates the coding process but also helps reduce errors and improve code quality. By automating routine tasks, GitHub Copilot allows developers to focus on more complex problem-solving and creative aspects of software development. Here are some compelling reasons to use GitHub Copilot:

Increased Productivity: GitHub Copilot can significantly speed up your coding process by generating code snippets and suggestions, reducing the time you spend writing code from scratch.
Reduced Errors: By providing accurate and context-aware suggestions, GitHub Copilot helps you avoid common coding mistakes and ensures higher code quality.
Improved Learning: GitHub Copilot can serve as a learning tool, especially for new developers. By observing the suggestions, you can learn best practices and new coding techniques.
Exploration of New Languages and Frameworks: GitHub Copilot can help you explore new languages and frameworks by providing code examples and suggestions, making it easier to learn and adapt to new technologies.
Enhanced Collaboration: GitHub Copilot can facilitate collaboration among developers by providing consistent and understandable code suggestions, making it easier to work on projects together.

Exercise Overview: Getting Hands-On with GitHub Copilot

Now that we understand the basics of GitHub Copilot, let's dive into our hands-on exercise. This exercise is designed to walk you through the fundamental aspects of using GitHub Copilot, from installation to writing your first lines of code with AI assistance. By the end of this exercise, you'll have a solid understanding of how GitHub Copilot works and how it can benefit your development workflow.

Exercise Objectives:

Install and set up GitHub Copilot in your code editor.
Explore the code suggestion capabilities of GitHub Copilot.
Write code using natural language prompts with GitHub Copilot.
Understand how GitHub Copilot adapts to your coding style.
Identify best practices for using GitHub Copilot effectively.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using GitHub Copilot

Let's break down the exercise into manageable steps to ensure a smooth learning experience. Follow these steps to get started with GitHub Copilot:

Step 1: Installation and Setup

Before you can start using GitHub Copilot, you need to install and set it up in your code editor. GitHub Copilot is primarily used with Visual Studio Code (VS Code), so we'll focus on setting it up in VS Code. Here’s how:

Install Visual Studio Code: If you don’t have VS Code installed, download it from the official website and follow the installation instructions.
Install the GitHub Copilot Extension:
- Open VS Code.
- Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar on the side of the window (or press Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Shift+X on macOS).
- Search for "GitHub Copilot" in the Extensions Marketplace.
- Click the "Install" button to install the GitHub Copilot extension.
Authenticate with GitHub:
- After installation, you’ll be prompted to sign in to your GitHub account.
- Click the “Sign in to GitHub” button.
- A browser window will open, asking you to authorize the GitHub Copilot extension.
- Click “Authorize GitHub Copilot Plugin” and follow the prompts to complete the authentication process.
Enable GitHub Copilot (if necessary):
- In some cases, you may need to enable GitHub Copilot explicitly.
- Open the Command Palette by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on macOS).
- Type “GitHub Copilot: Enable” and select the command from the list.

Step 2: Exploring Code Suggestions

Now that you have GitHub Copilot installed and set up, let’s explore its code suggestion capabilities. This step will help you understand how GitHub Copilot provides suggestions as you type.

Create a New File:
- Open VS Code.
- Create a new file by pressing Ctrl+N (or Cmd+N on macOS).
- Save the file with a .py extension if you’re using Python (e.g., hello.py) or .js if you’re using JavaScript (e.g., hello.js).
Start Typing Code:
- In your new file, start typing a simple function definition.
- For example, if you’re using Python, type def greet(.
- As you type, GitHub Copilot will start providing suggestions in a grayed-out text.
Accept Suggestions:
- If the suggestion is what you want, you can accept it by pressing the Tab key.
- GitHub Copilot will automatically complete the code for you.
Explore Different Suggestions:
- If GitHub Copilot provides multiple suggestions, you can cycle through them using Ctrl+N (or Cmd+N on macOS) for the next suggestion and Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on macOS) for the previous suggestion.
- This allows you to choose the best suggestion that fits your needs.

Step 3: Writing Code with Natural Language Prompts

One of the most powerful features of GitHub Copilot is its ability to generate code from natural language prompts. This means you can describe what you want to achieve in plain English, and GitHub Copilot will attempt to generate the corresponding code.

Add a Comment Describing the Code:
- In your file, add a comment that describes the code you want to write.
- For example, in Python, you might write # Function to add two numbers.
- In JavaScript, you might write // Function to add two numbers.
Press Enter:
- After writing the comment, press Enter to move to the next line.
- GitHub Copilot will analyze your comment and provide code suggestions based on the description.
Accept the Suggestion (if applicable):
- If the suggestion matches what you intended, press Tab to accept it.
- If not, you can modify the comment or continue typing to get different suggestions.

Example:

In Python:

# Function to add two numbers

GitHub Copilot might suggest:

def add_numbers(a, b):
    return a + b

Step 4: Understanding GitHub Copilot's Adaptability

GitHub Copilot learns from your coding style and adapts its suggestions accordingly. To see this in action, let’s write a few functions and observe how GitHub Copilot starts to align with your coding patterns.

Write a Function in a Specific Style:
- Write a function using a particular coding style (e.g., using docstrings in Python, arrow functions in JavaScript).
- For example, in Python:
```
def subtract_numbers(a, b):
    """Subtract two numbers."""
    return a - b
```
Write Another Function:
- Now, start writing another function.
- GitHub Copilot will likely suggest a similar style to the previous function.
- For example, if you start typing def multiply_numbers(, GitHub Copilot might suggest:
```
def multiply_numbers(a, b):
    """Multiply two numbers."""
    return a * b
```
Observe the Adaptability:
- Notice how GitHub Copilot has adapted to your coding style by including docstrings in the suggestion.
- This adaptability makes GitHub Copilot a powerful tool for maintaining consistency in your codebase.

Step 5: Best Practices for Using GitHub Copilot

To make the most of GitHub Copilot, it’s essential to follow some best practices. Here are a few tips to help you use GitHub Copilot effectively:

Write Clear and Concise Comments: The better your comments, the more accurate the suggestions from GitHub Copilot will be.
Review Suggestions Carefully: Always review the suggestions provided by GitHub Copilot to ensure they are correct and meet your requirements. Don’t blindly accept suggestions without understanding the code.
Use Descriptive Variable and Function Names: Clear and descriptive names help GitHub Copilot understand the context and provide better suggestions.
Experiment with Different Prompts: Try different ways of describing what you want to achieve to see how GitHub Copilot responds. Sometimes, a slight change in the prompt can lead to a more accurate suggestion.
Provide Feedback: If GitHub Copilot provides a suggestion that isn’t quite right, don’t hesitate to modify it. GitHub Copilot learns from your feedback and improves over time.

Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Coding with GitHub Copilot

Congratulations! You’ve completed the exercise and taken your first steps with GitHub Copilot. By now, you should have a solid understanding of how GitHub Copilot works and how it can enhance your coding workflow. This AI-powered tool is transforming the way developers write code, making it faster, more efficient, and more enjoyable.

GitHub Copilot is more than just a code completion tool; it's a partner that helps you think through problems, explore new solutions, and write better code. As you continue to use GitHub Copilot, you’ll discover even more ways it can assist you in your development projects. Embrace this technology and integrate it into your daily coding routine to unlock its full potential.

Keep exploring, keep coding, and let GitHub Copilot be your guide in the ever-evolving world of software development. Happy coding! 🎉

For further learning and resources on GitHub Copilot, check out the official GitHub Copilot documentation.