Top 36 Git Interview Questions And Answers

Question 1

What is difference between Git vs SVN?

Accepted Answer

The main point in Git vs SVN debate boils down to this: Git is a distributed version control system (DVCS), whereas SVN is a centralized version control system.

Question 2

What is Git?

Accepted Answer

**Git** is a **Distributed Version Control system (DVCS)**. It can track changes to a file and allows you to revert back to any particular change.

Its distributed architecture provides many advantages over other Version Control Systems (VCS) like SVN one major advantage is that it does not rely on a central server to store all the versions of a project’s files.

Question 3

What is the command to write a commit message in Git?

Accepted Answer

Use:
```sh
git commit -a
```

-a on the command line instructs git to commit the new content of all tracked files that have been modified. You can use 
```sh
git add <file>
```
or 
```sh
git add -A
```

before git commit -a if new files need to be committed for the first time.

Question 4

How to undo the most recent commits in Git?

Accepted Answer

```sh $ git commit -m "Something terribly misguided" $ git reset HEAD~ # copied the old head to .git/ORIG_HEAD << edit files as necessary >> $ git add ... $ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD # will open an editor, which initially contains the log message from the old commit and allows you to edit it ```

Question 5

What's the difference between a `pull request` and a `branch`?

Accepted Answer

* A **branch** is just a separate version of the code.

* A **pull request** is when someone take the repository, makes their own branch, does some changes, then tries to merge that branch in (put their changes in the other person's code repository).

Question 6

How does the Centralized Workflow work?

Accepted Answer

The **Centralized Workflow** uses a central repository to serve as the single point-of-entry for all changes to the project. The default development branch is called master and all changes are committed into this branch.

Developers start by cloning the central repository. In their own local copies of the project, they edit files and commit changes. These new commits are stored locally.

To publish changes to the official project, developers *push* their local master branch to the central repository. Before the developer can publish their feature, they need to *fetch* the updated central commits and rebase their changes on top of them.

Compared to other workflows, the Centralized Workflow has no defined pull request or forking patterns.

Question 7

What is Git fork? What is difference between fork, branch and clone?

Accepted Answer

* A **fork** is a remote, server-side copy of a repository, distinct from the original. A fork isn't a Git concept really, it's more a political/social idea. 
* A **clone** is not a fork; a clone is a local copy of some remote repository.  When you clone, you are actually copying the entire source repository, including all the history and branches.
* A **branch** is a mechanism to handle the changes within a single repository in order to eventually merge them with the rest of code. A branch is something that is within a repository. Conceptually, it represents a thread of development.

Question 8

What is the difference between `git pull` and `git fetch`?

Accepted Answer

In the simplest terms, `git pull` does a `git fetch` followed by a `git merge`.

* When you use `pull`, Git tries to automatically do your work for you. **It is context sensitive**, so Git will merge any pulled commits into the branch you are currently working in.  `pull` **automatically merges the commits without letting you review them first**. If you don’t closely manage your branches, you may run into frequent conflicts.

* When you `fetch`, Git gathers any commits from the target branch that do not exist in your current branch and **stores them in your local repository**. However, **it does not merge them with your current branch**. This is particularly useful if you need to keep your repository up to date, but are working on something that might break if you update your files. To integrate the commits into your master branch, you use `merge`.

Question 9

You need to update your local repos. What git commands will you use?

Accepted Answer

It’s a two steps process. First you fetch the changes from a remote named origin:

```sh
git fetch origin
```
Then you merge a branch master to local:

```sh
git merge origin/master
```
Or simply:

```sh
git pull origin master
```
If origin is a default remote and ‘master’ is default branch, you can drop it eg. `git pull`.

Question 10

You need to rollback to a previous commit and don't care about recent changes. What commands should you use?

Accepted Answer

Let's say you have made mulitple commits, but the last few were bad and you want to rollback to a previous commit:
```sh
git log // lists the commits made in that repository in reverse chronological order
git reset --hard <commit-sha1> // resets the index and working tree
```

Top 36 Git Interview Questions

What is difference between Git vs SVN?

What is the command to write a commit message in Git?

What is Git?

What is the difference between `git pull` and `git fetch`?

What is Git fork? What is difference between fork, branch and clone?

What's the difference between a `pull request` and a `branch`?

How does the Centralized Workflow work?

Could you explain the Gitflow workflow?

What is a "bare git" repository?

What is `git cherry-pick`?

When should I use `git stash`?

Tell me the difference between HEAD, working tree and index, in Git?

Explain the advantages of Forking Workflow

How to revert previous commit in git?

When would you use `git clone --bare` over `git clone --mirror`?

When would you use `git clone` over `git clone --bare`?

When would you use `git clone` over `git clone --mirror`?

What is the difference between `git clone`, `git clone --bare` and `git clone --mirror`?

Can you explain what `git reset` does in plain English?

How do you make an existing repository bare?

What is the `HEAD` in Git?

What is difference between `git stash pop` and `git stash apply`?

What are "git hooks"?

Do you know how to easily undo a git rebase?

What are the type of git hooks?

When do you use `git rebase` instead of `git merge`?

How can you use `git bisect` to determine the source of a (regression) bug?

What is `git bisect`? How can you use it to determine the source of a (regression) bug?

How to undo the most recent commits in Git?

You need to update your local repos. What git commands will you use?

You need to rollback to a previous commit and don't care about recent changes. What commands should you use?

How to remove a file from git without removing it from your file system?

Write down a sequence of git commands for a "Rebase Workflow"

What git command do you need to use to know who changed certain lines in a specific file?

Write down a git command to check difference between two commits

How to amend older Git commit?

Top 36 Git Interview Questions

What is difference between Git vs SVN?

What is the command to write a commit message in Git?

What is Git?

What is the difference between git pull and git fetch?

What is Git fork? What is difference between fork, branch and clone?

What's the difference between a pull request and a branch?

How does the Centralized Workflow work?

Could you explain the Gitflow workflow?

What is a "bare git" repository?

What is git cherry-pick?

When should I use git stash?

Tell me the difference between HEAD, working tree and index, in Git?

Explain the advantages of Forking Workflow

How to revert previous commit in git?

When would you use git clone --bare over git clone --mirror?

When would you use git clone over git clone --bare?

When would you use git clone over git clone --mirror?

What is the difference between git clone, git clone --bare and git clone --mirror?

Can you explain what git reset does in plain English?

How do you make an existing repository bare?

What is the HEAD in Git?

What is difference between git stash pop and git stash apply?

What are "git hooks"?

Do you know how to easily undo a git rebase?

What are the type of git hooks?

When do you use git rebase instead of git merge?

How can you use git bisect to determine the source of a (regression) bug?

What is git bisect? How can you use it to determine the source of a (regression) bug?

How to undo the most recent commits in Git?

You need to update your local repos. What git commands will you use?

You need to rollback to a previous commit and don't care about recent changes. What commands should you use?

How to remove a file from git without removing it from your file system?

Write down a sequence of git commands for a "Rebase Workflow"

What git command do you need to use to know who changed certain lines in a specific file?

Write down a git command to check difference between two commits

How to amend older Git commit?

What is the difference between `git pull` and `git fetch`?

What's the difference between a `pull request` and a `branch`?

What is `git cherry-pick`?

When should I use `git stash`?

When would you use `git clone --bare` over `git clone --mirror`?

When would you use `git clone` over `git clone --bare`?

When would you use `git clone` over `git clone --mirror`?

What is the difference between `git clone`, `git clone --bare` and `git clone --mirror`?

Can you explain what `git reset` does in plain English?

What is the `HEAD` in Git?

What is difference between `git stash pop` and `git stash apply`?

When do you use `git rebase` instead of `git merge`?

How can you use `git bisect` to determine the source of a (regression) bug?

What is `git bisect`? How can you use it to determine the source of a (regression) bug?