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Top 80 GitHub Interview Questions And Answers
If you are interested in development profiles, you must know about GitHub. It is a popular development platform that streamlines the development process. With its help, the developers can store, track, and collaborate on projects.
With its help, it is easy for developers to share their code files and work in collaboration with other developers on open-source projects. Basically, it is a social platform for developers to connect, collaborate, and pitch different ideas.
The wide usage of GitHub across industries such as Computer Software, IT and Services, Healthcare, Finance, Marketing and Advertising, Education, Retail, etc., makes it a must-know tool, and that’s why hiring managers want to ensure that you are aware of GitHub and how it works in a collaborative environment. So, if you wish to make a career in web or software development, prepare GitHub interview questions.
In this guide, we’ve listed the most common GitHub interview questions and answers. These questions cover both basic and advanced topics to help you get ready, whether you’re a fresher or have some experience.
Answer:
- Git refers to a DVCS or Distributed Version Control System. It allows you to track all changes made to a file and enables you to revert to any particular change.
- Being a distributed architecture, Git provides many benefits in contrast to other Version Control Systems like SVN. One major advantage of Git is that it does not rely on a central server to store all project file versions.
- Git provides a central cloud repository wherein developers can commit and share changes with other teammates.
Answer:
The following are some major differences between SVN and Git in terms of their functionalities and features:
| Git | SVN | |
|---|---|---|
| Server Architecture | The computer system on which your Git has installed acts as both a server and the client. Each developer has a local copy of the project’s complete version history on their individual computers. Git changes occur locally. Thus, the developer doesn’t need to connect to the network all the time except for push and pull operations to connect to the remote server. |
SVN has a separate server and client. It is not available locally. You need to connect to the network to perform any action.
Besides, in SVN, as everything is centralized, so if the central server gets corrupted or crashed, it will result in the entire data loss for a project. |
| Branching | Developers often choose Git because of its effective branching model. Git branches are lightweight but potent.
They are only referencing a particular commit. You can delete, modify, or create a branch anytime with no impact on other commits. So, fork, merge, and branch are easy with Git. |
SVN has a complex branching model which is time-consuming.
Branches in SVN are generated as directories within a repository. Its directory structure is mainly problematic. When a branch is ready, you need to commit back to a trunk. Since you are not alone merging the changes, so the truck version may not be regarded as the developers’ branches. It leads to missing files, conflicts, and jumbled changes in a branch. |
| Access Control | Git assumes that all contributors will have the same permissions. | SVN allows you to define write or read access controls at each directory level. |
| Auditability | In Git, changes are tracked at a repository level. It does not bother much about maintaining a detailed history of changes made in the repository. The distributed Git system lets any collaborator change in any part of the local repository’s history. With Git, it can be difficult to figure the true history of changes in the codebase. |
In SVN, changes are tracked at the file level.
SVN maintains a precise and consistent change history. You can recover the exact same data as it was at any instant in the past. SVN history is always definite and permanent. |
| Storage Requirements | Git and SVN both store data in the same manner. The disk space usage is also equal for both. However, they differ when it comes to binary files. Git can’t manage the storage of large binary files. | SVN possesses an xdelta compression algorithm that works for both text files and binary.
So, SVN can manage to store large binary files in lesser space than Git. |
| Usability | Both SVN and Git use the command line as a primary User Interface. Technical users and developers largely use Git. | Non-technical users mostly use SVN as it is easier to learn. |
| Global Revision Number | Not available | Available |
Answer:
- VCS are systems that don’t rely on the central server to store a project file and its versions.
- In Distributed VCS, all contributors can obtain a clone or local copy of the main repository.
- Every programmer can maintain a local repository of the central repository present on the hard drive. Thus, programmers can individually update and commit to their local repository without any hassle.
- With an operation called “pull,” programmers can update the local repositories with new data from a central server, and “pull” the operation affects changes to the main repository from the local repository.
Answer:
- Git denotes a distributed version control system used to track changes in the source code during software development. It helps coordinate work amongst programmers, but it can be used to track the changes in any files. Git’s main objective is to support distributed, non-linear workflows, data integrity, and boost speed.
- GitHub means Git repository hosting service that provides a web-based graphical interface. It offers access control, various collaboration features, and task management tools for each project.
Answer:
VCS or Version Control System is the best practice for DevOps and high-performing software development teams. It helps developers to move faster and preserve agility as the team scales on a large level. Over the past decades, Version Control Systems has undergone massive improvements. Git is the most popular VCS tool at present. The central benefits of version control systems are as follows:
- Complete long-term change history of each file- It includes all changes made by different individuals over the years from creation to deletion of files and edits to the contents. Different VCS tools may differ on how well they can handle the moving of files. The history should also include the date, author, and written notes on each change. Having a complete history enables you to go back to the previous versions to help analyze bugs. It is important when needing to fix problems in previous software versions.
- Branching & merging- Creating a branch in a Version Control System (VCS) keeps multiple streams of work separately from each other while also provide the facility to merge the work. It enables developers to verify the changes on each branch. Many software teams adopt a branching practice for every feature. There are several different workflows that teams can choose from when deciding how to use branching and merging facilities in the Version Control System.
- Traceability- It enables you to track every change made to the software and connect it to bug tracking and project management software like Jira. Having the code’s annotated history while you’re reading the code, understanding what it is doing, and why it is designed in such a way enables developers to make correct changes in accord with the intended long-term system’s design. It is essential to work effectively with the legacy code and enable developers to estimate future work accuracy.
Answer:
Git uses the C programming language. As Git is fast, ‘C’ makes it possible by reducing run times overhead usually associated with high-level languages.
Answer:
Repositories have a batch of files, a different version of project. These files are imported from the repository into the local servers of users for further updates and modifications. Here are some popular Git hosting services:
- GitHub
- SourceForge
- GitLab
- Bitbucket
Answer:
The commit command is executed in the Git project to record the local repository’s progress. It is executed only after the files to be committed have been added to the staging area by using a git add command.
Answer:
To fix the broken commit in Git use the command “git commit –amend.” It helps to combine the staged changes with the previous commits rather than creating a completely new commit.
Answer:
Git repository refers to a place where all the Git files get stored. Those files can either be held on the local or a remote repository.
Answer:
To create a repository in Git, first, create a directory for the project; if it does not exist, run a “git init” command. By running the command, one can create. git directory in the project directory.
Answer:
A “bare” repository in Git includes information about the version control and no working files (no tree). It doesn’t contain a special .git sub-directory rather, it holds all the .git sub-directory content directly into the main directory, whereas the working directory contains:
- A .git subdirectory having all the Git-related revision history of a repository.
- A working tree or checked-out copies of the project files.
Answer:
Git can handle most merges using its automatic merging features. Conflict arises when two separate branches make edits to the same line or when a file is deleted in a branch but edited in another. A conflict mostly happens when working in a team environment.
Answer:
A git instaweb is used to automatically direct the web browser and run a web server with an interface into the local repository.
Answer:
A git is-tree signifies a tree object that includes the mode with the name of each item and the blob or tree’s SHA-1 value.
Answer:
-
- Git config- This command configures the email address and username.
- Git add- It adds one or more files to a staging area.
- Git diff- This command views the changes made to a file.
- Git init- It initializes an empty Git repository.
- Git commit- This command commits changes to the head but not to a remote repository.
Answer:
Follow these steps to resolve a conflict in Git:
Identify files that caused a conflict.
Make the needed changes in files so that conflict does not arise again.
Add files by a command git add.
Finally, commit the changed file using the git commit command.
Answer:
There are two approaches to revert a commit that has already been pushed and made public:
- Fix or remove the bad file in a new commit, then push it to a remote repository. Once you make the necessary changes to a file, commit it to the remote repository using the git commit -m “commit message.”
- You can also create a new commit that undoes all changes that were made in a bad commit. Use the command git revert to do it.
Answer:
SubGit refers to a tool for SVN to Git migration. It can create a writable Git mirror of a remote or local Subversion repository, use both Subversion and Git. You can also include some advantages, such as doing a fast one-time import from Git or Subversion to Git or using SubGit within Atlassian Bitbucket Server. We can utilize SubGit to create a bi-directional Git-SVN mirror of an existing Subversion repository. You can commit to Subversion or push to Git according to your convenience. Synchronization will be done through SubGit.
Answer:
Git pull command pulls new changes or commits from a particular branch from a central repository and updates a target branch in the local repository. Git fetch is used for the same purpose; however, it works differently. When you perform the git fetch command, it pulls all new commits from the desired branch and stores them in a new branch in your local repository. If you want to reflect changes in your target branch, the git fetch command must be followed with a git merge. Your target branch will be updated after merging a target branch and a fetched branch.