Git Interview Questions

What is Git and why is it used?

What is the difference between git fetch and git pull?

What is the difference between git merge and git rebase?

What is a Git branch and how do you create one?

What is git stash and when do you use it?

What is the difference between git reset and git revert?

What is the staging area (index) in Git?

How do you resolve a merge conflict in Git?

What is git cherry-pick?

What is .gitignore and what should you put in it?

What is the difference between git clone and git init?

What are Git tags and how are they different from branches?

How do you view Git commit history?

What is git blame?

What is the difference between origin and upstream in Git?

What is Git Flow and when would you use it?

What is trunk-based development?

What is an interactive rebase and how do you use it?

How does git bisect work?

What is a detached HEAD state in Git?

What is git reflog and why is it useful?

How do you squash multiple commits into one?

What is git submodule?

What is the difference between a fast-forward merge and a three-way merge?

How do you undo the last pushed commit safely?

What are Git hooks and give examples of useful ones?

What is git worktree?

How do you handle large files in Git?

What is the difference between git pull --rebase and git pull --merge?

How do you sign Git commits and why is it important?

What is a monorepo and how does Git handle it at scale?

Explain Git's internal object model — how does Git store data?

How does git garbage collection work and when should you run it?

What is git filter-repo and when would you use it?

What is the CODEOWNERS file and how does it work in Git workflows?

How do you implement a commit message convention and enforce it?

What is git sparse-checkout and when is it useful?

How do you set up Git for a multi-environment CI/CD pipeline with branch protection?

What is git replace and when is it used?

How does Git handle binary files and what are the limitations?

What is the difference between git archive and git bundle?

How do you measure and improve Git repository performance?

What is a Git grafts file and what problem does it solve?

Explain how Git's merge strategies work — ours, theirs, recursive, octopus.

How do you set up Git credential management securely in CI/CD pipelines?

What is semantic versioning and how does it relate to Git tagging?

How do you use git notes and what are they used for?

What is the Git commit graph and how does it improve performance?

How do you perform a partial clone and what are the different filter options?

You accidentally pushed a commit with an API key to a public GitHub repo. What do you do immediately?