Git Interview Questions for Beginners and Freshers

Git is a free, distributed version control system. It records the history of a project as a series of commits, so you can see what changed, go back to earlier versions, and work with others on the same code using branches.

Git is the tool on your computer that tracks versions, and it works offline. GitHub is a website that hosts Git repositories and adds pull requests, issues and automation. GitLab and Bitbucket are alternatives.

Every clone contains the full history of the project, not just the latest files. You can commit and browse history offline, and any clone can restore the project if the server is lost.

A project folder tracked by Git. The hidden .git folder inside it contains all the commits, branches and settings.

A saved snapshot of the project, with an author, a date, a message, and a link to the previous commit. Each commit has a unique ID, a hash calculated from its content.

The working tree is the files you edit. The staging area (index) is a draft of the next commit, filled with git add. The repository is the saved history, added to with git commit.

It lets you choose exactly what goes into a commit. If you changed several things, you can stage and commit them separately, which gives small, clear commits.

It shows the current branch, which files are staged, modified or untracked, and how the branch compares with its remote. It changes nothing.

A file listing patterns of files that Git should not track, such as node_modules/, build output and .env. It only affects untracked files, so a file that is already tracked needs git rm --cached.

git add . stages all changes in the current folder and below, including new files, but does not commit. git commit -a commits changes to already tracked files, and it skips new untracked files.

A separate line of development. Internally it is a small pointer to a commit, which moves forward when you commit. Branches let you work on a feature without affecting main.

git switch -c feature creates a branch and moves to it. The older form is git checkout -b feature. To move to an existing branch, use git switch feature.

Combining another branch into the current one, with git merge other. If the current branch has not moved, Git fast-forwards the pointer. Otherwise it creates a merge commit with two parents.

It happens when two branches change the same lines. Git marks the file with <<<<<<<, ======= and >>>>>>>. You edit the file to the correct version, delete the markers, run git add, then git commit. git merge --abort cancels the merge.

git clone copies a repository to your computer. A fork is a GitHub feature, not a Git command: it creates your own copy of someone's repository on GitHub, so you can change it and send a pull request.

git fetch downloads new commits and updates remote-tracking branches such as origin/main, without changing your work. git pull does a fetch and then merges (or rebases) those changes into your current branch.

The default name for the remote that a repository was cloned from. It is only a name, and git remote -v shows its address.

A request on GitHub to merge one branch into another. It shows the changes, allows code review and runs automated checks before the code is merged.

To keep the changes, git reset --soft HEAD~1. To discard them, git reset --hard HEAD~1. If the commit has been pushed to a shared branch, use git revert HEAD, which adds a new commit that undoes it.

git commit --amend -m "New message". This replaces the commit, so only do it before pushing.

A pointer to your current position, normally the current branch, and so the latest commit on it. HEAD~1 is its parent.