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GitHub Interview Questions- Part 3
GitHub is a key platform for team collaboration, code reviews, and version control. In professional software development, GitHub plays a vital role in managing projects, tracking issues, and ensuring smooth collaboration across teams.
For developers with 2–5 years of experience, employers expect a deeper understanding of GitHub features such as branching strategies, merge conflict resolution, pull request workflows, and integration with CI/CD tools.
This page includes a carefully selected list of GitHub interview questions and answers designed for experienced developers. These questions will test your ability to handle real-world development tasks using GitHub. Whether you’re applying for a backend role, DevOps position, or full-stack developer job, reviewing these questions will help you explain your GitHub knowledge confidently in interviews. This guide is perfect for professionals looking to level up or move into a more senior role in their tech careers.
Answer:
git reset — mixed command is used to undo the changes made in the staging area and working directory.
git merge – abort command helps to stop a merge process and return to a state before the merging starts.
Answer:
By using the hash value of a particular commit, you can execute the following command to get the list of files that have been changed in a particular commit:
- git diff-tree -r {hash}
It will list down all the files that have been modified with the files that have been added. The -r flag is utilized to list individual files with their path rather than collapsing them in their root directory names. - You can also use the following command:
git diff-tree –no-commit-id –name-only -r {hash}
–no-commit-id will retrain commit hash numbers to come in an output. Whereas -name will exclude the file paths and only provide the file names in the output.
Answer:
| Fork | Branch | Clone |
|---|---|---|
| The fork is a process when a repository’s copy is made. It is like experimentation in a project without affecting the original project. The fork is used to advise changes or take inspiration from someone else’s project. | Branch in Git refers to an individual project within a Git repository. If there are various branches in the repository, then every branch can have entirely different files and folders. | Git clone means creating a copy or clone of an existing Git repository in the new directory. Cloning automatically builds a connection that points to the original repository, making it easy to interact with the central repository. |
Answer:
To incorporate new commits into the feature branch, you can use merge:
Create an extra merge commit each time you need to incorporate the changes.
Pollute the feature branch history
As an alternative to git merge, you can rebase the feature branch into the master branch.
Incorporate all new commits in a master branch
Rewrite a project history by creating brand new commits for every commit in the original branch
Answer:
There are two commands to determine whether a branch has been merged already or not:
git branch –merged – This command gives a list of branches that have already been merged into the current branch.
git branch –no-merged – It provides a list of branches that have not been merged yet.
Answer:
A git clone command enables you to create a copy of the existing Git repository. If you want to get a central repository’s copy, then the best way to do it is through ‘cloning.’
Answer:
The ‘git config’ command provides a convenient way to set configuration options for the Git installation. It enables you to define the behavior of the repository, preferences, user information, etc.
Answer:
The main purpose of branching is to let you create your branch and jump between the branches. It allows you to go to your previous work and at the same time keeps your recent work intact.
Answer:
The branching pattern is commonly based on the git-flow. It has two main branches, including development and master.
- The master/main branch contains the production code. All development code is merged into a master branch at the same time.
- The development branch consists of pre-production code. When some features are complete, they get merged to the master branch, generally the CI/CD pipeline.
Answer:
A version control system in Git refers to software that tracks changes in a file or a set of files over time so you can recall specific versions later. It allows you to work in collaboration with other programmers. The version control system is a collection of software tools that helps a team to manage changes in the source code. It uses a special type of database to keep track of each modification to the code.
Answer:
- Git-g
- Smart git
- Git Cola
- Giggle
- Git GUI
- qGit
Answer:
The Git Status is used to display the state of the staging area and repository. It allows us to view all changes in tracked and untracked files. It will not show any commit information or records.
Answer:
The git checkout is a navigator that helps you to switch branches. It enables you to work on a particular working branch. This command updates files in a working tree to match a version in a specified tree. If no paths are given, the git checkout command will update HEAD to set a specified branch as a current branch.
Answer:
The Git Reset’s function is to take a current branch and reset it to point somewhere else and bring an index and work tree along with it.
Answer:
Git log implies a utility tool to read and review a history of everything that happens to the repository. You can use multiple options with a git log to make history more specific.
Answer:
Hooks are special scripts that Git runs after or before an event like push, commit, receive, or update. You can find the hooks folder in the git directory of your local repository. Here, you find the build-in scripts like post-commit, pre-commit, post-push, pre-push. These scripts get locally executed before or after an event occurs. You can also modify Hooks as per your needs, and Git will execute the script (Hooks) when that particular event occurs.
Answer:
The git pull origin master will pull the changes from an origin remote or master branch and merge them to a local checked-out branch. It pulls changes from the master branch or locally stored branch origin and merges them to a local checked-out branch. The master or origin branch is a “cached copy” of the last pulled-out submits from the origin; that’s why it is called a remote branch in Git parlance.
Answer:
Git commits are like a snapshot of the whole repository at a specific time. You should often make new commits based on logical units of changes. Commits include massive metadata, contents, and messages like timestamp, author, and more.
Answer:
Rebase is a method of integrating commits from another branch into our current HEAD branch. It does not produce a merge commit; instead, it produces a straight line of commit history without the melting point.
Answer:
Submodules mean a standard Git repository. Its only specialty is that it is nested inside another, parent Git repository. It is most commonly used when including a code library. You can add the library as Submodules in the main project. A Submodule remains a completely functional Git repository: you can modify files, pull, commit, push from inside it like any other repository.