Who Should Take This
Junior and mid‑level software engineers who regularly work with codebases and need to master version control will benefit. They seek hands‑on CLI experience to streamline commits, resolve merge conflicts, and collaborate smoothly with remote teams. The training equips them with the confidence to implement robust branching strategies and maintain clean project histories across any development workflow.
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
67 learning goals
1
Git Fundamentals
3 topics
Version Control Concepts
- Describe what version control is and explain why distributed version control systems like Git are preferred over centralized systems like SVN
- Identify the three main areas of a Git project (working directory, staging area, repository) and describe how files transition between them
- Explain the concept of snapshots versus diffs and describe how Git stores project history as a series of snapshots rather than file differences
- Describe how Git uses SHA-1 hashes to identify commits, trees, and blobs and explain why content-addressable storage ensures data integrity
Repository Initialization and Configuration
- Create a new Git repository using git init and clone an existing repository using git clone with HTTPS and SSH URLs
- Configure user identity (name, email) and common settings at local, global, and system levels using git config
- Construct .gitignore patterns to exclude build artifacts, dependency directories, and sensitive files from version control
- Analyze how .gitignore, .gitkeep, and .gitattributes serve different purposes in repository configuration and evaluate common patterns for each file type
Staging and Status
- Use git status to inspect working directory state and interpret output showing untracked, modified, staged, and deleted files
- Apply git add with file paths, globs, and the interactive patch mode to selectively stage changes for commit
- Analyze the difference between git add, git rm, and git mv and evaluate when each is appropriate for managing tracked files
- Use git restore and git checkout to unstage files or discard working directory changes and explain the safety implications of each command
2
Commits & History
3 topics
Creating Commits
- Create commits with descriptive messages using git commit and explain the anatomy of a commit (hash, author, timestamp, parent, message)
- Apply conventional commit message formats and evaluate what makes a commit message informative, well-scoped, and useful for future readers
- Use git commit --amend to modify the most recent commit's message or contents and explain the implications for shared history
- Analyze the concept of atomic commits and evaluate strategies for organizing changes into logically coherent commit units
History Navigation
- Navigate commit history using git log with formatting options (--oneline, --graph, --author, --since, --until) to find specific commits
- Use git diff to compare working directory, staging area, and commit snapshots and interpret unified diff output format
- Apply git show and git blame to inspect individual commits and trace the origin and authorship of specific lines of code
- Analyze commit history patterns to identify when and why a bug was introduced using git log search options (--grep, -S, -G)
References and Commit Ranges
- Describe Git references (HEAD, branch names, tags, relative references with ~ and ^) and explain how they point to specific commits in the history graph
- Use commit range notations (double-dot, triple-dot) to specify sets of commits for log, diff, and other history commands
- Apply detached HEAD state intentionally to inspect historical commits and explain how to recover from accidental detached HEAD situations
3
Branching & Merging
3 topics
Branch Operations
- Describe what a branch is in Git and explain how branches enable parallel development without affecting the main codebase
- Create, list, rename, and delete branches using git branch and switch between branches using git switch or git checkout
- Evaluate branch naming conventions and strategies for organizing feature, bugfix, release, and hotfix branches in team environments
Merging Strategies
- Perform fast-forward and three-way merges using git merge and describe the conditions under which each merge type occurs
- Identify merge conflicts in file content, resolve them manually by editing conflict markers, and complete the merge commit
- Compare merge strategies (recursive, ours, theirs, octopus) and evaluate when to use --no-ff to preserve branch topology in the history graph
- Use merge tools and git mergetool to resolve complex conflicts involving multiple files with overlapping changes
Tagging and Releases
- Create lightweight and annotated tags using git tag and describe how tags differ from branches as immutable reference points
- Apply semantic versioning conventions to tag releases and push tags to remote repositories using git push --tags
- List, filter, and delete tags and describe how to check out a specific tagged version for release verification or hotfix development
4
Remote Repositories
2 topics
Remote Operations
- Configure remote repositories using git remote add, rename, and remove and describe the relationship between local branches and their upstream tracking branches
- Use git fetch to download remote changes without merging and explain how fetch updates remote-tracking branches (origin/main) without modifying local branches
- Apply git push to upload local commits to a remote repository and resolve rejected pushes caused by divergent histories
- Describe SSH key and personal access token authentication methods for remote repositories and configure credential storage
Synchronization Patterns
- Use git pull to fetch and merge remote changes and compare the behavior of git pull with and without the --rebase flag
- Analyze common synchronization conflicts between local and remote branches and determine the safest resolution strategy for each scenario
- Describe the fork-and-clone model and explain how to keep a forked repository synchronized with its upstream source using remote tracking
- Set up and manage multiple remotes (origin, upstream) to track both personal forks and original repositories simultaneously
5
Collaboration Workflows
4 topics
Pull Requests and Code Review
- Describe the pull request lifecycle from creation through review, approval, and merge on platforms like GitHub and GitLab
- Create well-structured pull requests with descriptive titles, summaries, linked issues, and appropriate reviewer assignments
- Evaluate code review feedback, apply requested changes in follow-up commits, and determine when to squash versus preserve review history
- Compare merge commit, squash merge, and rebase merge strategies for completing pull requests and evaluate the impact on history readability
Branching Workflows
- Describe the Git Flow branching model with its main, develop, feature, release, and hotfix branch types and their lifecycle
- Compare Git Flow, GitHub Flow, GitLab Flow, and trunk-based development and evaluate which workflow suits different team sizes and release cadences
- Apply GitHub Flow to implement a feature from branch creation through pull request, CI checks, review, and merge to main
CI Integration and Branch Protection
- Describe how branch protection rules enforce code review requirements, status checks, and merge restrictions on critical branches
- Evaluate how CI/CD pipelines integrate with pull requests to provide automated testing and linting feedback before merge approval
- Describe how Git hooks (pre-commit, pre-push, commit-msg) automate code quality checks and enforce project conventions locally
Issues and Project Tracking
- Use GitHub/GitLab issues to track bugs, feature requests, and tasks and link issues to pull requests using closing keywords and references
- Apply labels, milestones, and project boards to organize and prioritize work across team members in a repository
6
Advanced Git
4 topics
Rebasing and History Rewriting
- Apply git rebase to replay commits onto a new base branch and explain how rebase creates a linear history compared to merge
- Use interactive rebase to squash, reorder, edit, fixup, and drop commits in a branch's history before sharing with others
- Analyze the risks of rebasing shared branches and evaluate the golden rule of rebase (never rebase commits that have been pushed to a public branch)
- Resolve rebase conflicts by understanding how conflicts differ from merge conflicts and apply the continue, skip, and abort workflow
Specialized Git Tools
- Use git cherry-pick to apply specific commits from one branch to another without merging the entire branch history
- Apply git bisect to perform a binary search through commit history and efficiently identify the exact commit that introduced a bug
- Use git stash to temporarily save and restore uncommitted changes when switching context between tasks or branches
- Manage multiple stash entries using git stash list, apply, pop, and drop and create named stashes for better organization
Undoing Changes and Recovery
- Compare git reset (--soft, --mixed, --hard), git revert, and git restore and determine the appropriate undo mechanism for each scenario
- Use git reflog to recover lost commits, deleted branches, and other references that are no longer reachable from any branch tip
- Evaluate the safety implications of destructive operations (reset --hard, force push, branch deletion) and describe safeguards to prevent data loss
- Use git revert to create a new commit that undoes the changes of a previous commit while preserving the full history
Repository Maintenance
- Use git clean to remove untracked files and directories and apply dry-run mode (-n) to preview deletions before executing them
- Analyze repository size using git count-objects and evaluate strategies for reducing repository bloat from large files or excessive history
Scope
Included Topics
- Git CLI fundamentals (init, clone, status, add, commit), commit history navigation and manipulation (log, diff, show, blame), branching and merging strategies (create, switch, merge, resolve conflicts), remote repository operations (push, pull, fetch, remote), GitHub/GitLab collaboration workflows (pull requests, code review, issues, forks), advanced Git operations (rebase, cherry-pick, bisect, stash, reflog, reset, revert), .gitignore patterns and repository configuration, tagging and release management
Not Covered
- Git internals and object model (blob, tree, commit, tag objects)
- GUI-based Git tools (SourceTree, GitKraken, GitHub Desktop)
- Git server administration and hosting setup
- Large file storage (Git LFS) advanced configuration
- Git hooks scripting beyond basic awareness
- Monorepo tooling (git subtree, git submodule advanced patterns)
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