Git Interview Questions and answers for DevOps

Git Interview Questions and Answers

1. Explain the difference between rebasing and merge in Git?

• Git rebase is a command that allows developers to integrate changes from one branch to another.
• Git merge is a command that allows you to merge branches from Git.

Git rebase and merge both integrate changes from one branch into another. Where they differ is how they used. Git rebase moves a feature branch into a master. Git merge adds a new commit, preserving the history.

(If you’re working alone or on a small team, use rebase. If you’re working with a big team, use merge.)

2. Have you faced the situation where you resolve conflicts in Git? How?

A merge conflict is an event that takes place when Git is unable to automatically resolve differences in code between two commits. Git can merge the changes automatically only if the commits are on different lines or branches. Here are the steps that will help you resolve conflicts in Git:
1. The easiest way to resolve a conflicted file is to open it and make any necessary changes
2. After editing the file, we can use the git add a command to stage the new merged content
3. The final step is to create a new commit with the help of the git commit command
4. Git will create a new merge commit to finalize the merge

3. How to revert a commit that has already been pushed and made public?

There are two processes through which you can revert a commit:
1. Remove or fix the bad file in a new commit and push it to the remote repository. Then commit it to the remote repository using:
git commit –m “commit message”
2. Create a new commit to undo all the changes that were made in the bad commit. Use the following command:
git revert <commit id>

4. Tell about the commands git reset — mixed and git merge — abort?.

git reset — mixed is used to undo changes made in the working directory and staging area.
git merge — abort helps stop the merge process and return back to the state before the merging began.

5. How will you find a list of files that has been modified in a particular commit?

The command to get a list of files that has been changed in a particular commit is:
git diff-tree –r {commit hash}
• -r flag allows the command to list individual files
• commit hash lists all the files that were changed or added in the commit.

6. How will you fix a broken commit? What command you will use?

To fix a broken commit in Git, We use the “git commit — amend” command, which helps us combine the staged changes with the previous commits instead of creating a fresh new commit.

7. Explain git stash drop?

Git ‘stash drop’ command is used to remove the stashed item. This command will remove the last added stash item by default, and it can also remove a selected item as well.
Ex: If you want to delete item named stash@{manoj}; you can use the command:
git stash drop stash@{manoj}.

8. Explain about “git cherry-pick”?

This command enables you to pick up commits from a branch within a repository and apply it to another branch. This command is useful to undo changes when any commit is accidentally made to the wrong branch. Then, you can switch to the correct branch and use this command to git cherry-pick the commit.

9. Can you tell the difference between git pull and git fetch?

Git pull command pulls new changes or commits from a particular branch from your central repository and updates your target branch in your local repository. (Git pull = git fetch + git merge)

Git fetch is also used for the same purpose but it works in a slightly different way. When you perform a git fetch, it pulls all new commits from the desired branch and stores it in a new branch in your local repository. If you want to reflect these changes in your target branch, git fetch must be followed with a git merge.

10. What is origin in Git?

Origin refers to the remote repository that a project was originally cloned from and is used instead of the original repository’s URL.

11. What is the difference between resetting and reverting?

git reset changes the state of the branch to a previous one by removing all of the states after the desired commit,

git revert does it through the creation of new reverting commits and keeping the original one intact.

12. What is ‘staging area’ or ‘index’ in Git?

That before completing the commits, it can be formatted and reviewed in an intermediate area known as ‘Staging Area’ or ‘Index’. Every change is first verified in the staging area and then that change is committed to the repository.

13. What work is restored when the deleted branch is recovered?

The files which were stashed and saved in the stash index list will be recovered back. Any untracked files will be lost. Also, it is a good idea to always stage and commit your work or stash them.

14. What is Head in Git?

Git maintains a variable for referencing, called HEAD to the latest commit in the recent checkout branch. So if we make a new commit in the repo then the pointer or HEAD is going to move or change its position to point to a new commit.

15. What is the purpose of branching and its types?

It allows the user to switch between the branches to keep the current work in sync without disturbing master branches and other developer’s work as per their requirements.

· Feature branching — A feature branch model keeps all of the changes for a particular feature inside of a branch. When the feature is fully tested and validated by automated tests, the branch is then merged into master.

· Task branching — In this branch, each task is implemented on its own branch with the task key included in the branch name. It is easy to see which code implements which task, just look for the task key in the branch name.

· Release branching — Once the develop branch has acquired enough features for a release, you can clone that branch to form a Release branch. Creating this branch starts the next release cycle, so no new features can be added after this point, only bug fixes, documentation generation, and other release-oriented tasks should go in this branch. Once it is ready to ship, the release gets merged into master and tagged with a version number.

Basic Git Commands — Refresh your mind once again

git init: creating a new repository.
git clone: to copy or check out the working repository.
git pull: fetch the code already in the repository.
git push: sending the changes to the master branch.
git add: It adds file changes in an existing directory to index.
git commit –m [type in a message] — It is used to snapshot or record a file.
git diff [first branch] [second branch] — it is used to display the differences present between the two branches.
git rest [commit] — It is used to undo all the changes that have been incorporated as a part of a commit after a specified commit has taken place.
git reset –hard [commit] — This command is used to discard all the history and takes us to the last specified commit.
git log –follow [file] — his is similar to that of git log with the additional difference that it lists the version history for a particular file.
git show [commit] — This is used to display the metadata and all the content related changes of a particular commit.
git tag [commitID] — This is used to give particular tags to the code commits.
git branch [branch-name] — This is used to create a new branch.
git branch –d [branch name] — It is used to delete the current branch name specified.
git checkout [branch-name] — It is helpful in switching from one branch to another.
git status: To know the comparison between the working directories and index.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, Thanks for Reading!

:-)

Gayatri