intermediate · No code

Git and Collaboration Refresher

Refreshes core Git collaboration skills, including commits, branching, rebasing, merging, pull requests, conflict resolution, and safe recovery. Learners progress from local history management to a normal team repository workflow involving reviews and coordinated integration.

What you'll be able to do

  • Interpret a commit graph to determine commit order, ancestry, branch positions, and the effects of common branch operations.
  • Choose appropriately between merging and rebasing while predicting how each operation changes repository history.
  • Explain how a pull request moves a reviewed change into a shared branch and identify the key integration decisions in that workflow.
  • Resolve a merge conflict by evaluating competing changes, selecting the intended result, and completing the integration safely.
  • Use the reflog to locate a displaced commit or branch tip and select a safe recovery action.

Who this is for

This course is for developers who have used Git before and want to refresh the reasoning behind everyday collaboration workflows. It fits learners who can make basic commits but want more confidence with branches, rebases, pull requests, conflicts, and recovery.

What you should already know

  • You have used Git to initialize or clone a repository and create, stage, commit, and inspect changes.
  • You understand that branches and remote repositories provide separate names or locations for related lines of development.
  • You can use a terminal or Git client to run basic repository commands.

How a lesson actually goes

Lesson 1
TutorWelcome to Git and Collaboration Refresher. We will move from reading local commit history and branch references to pull requests, conflict resolution, and safe recovery. Before we begin, what Git tasks feel familiar to you, and where do you tend to hesitate?
YouI can clone repositories, commit changes, and create branches. I understand that a branch is separate work, but I am less sure what happens to the commits when I rebase or when a pull request is merged.
TutorThat is a useful starting point. We will treat a branch not as a container of commits, but as a movable reference pointing to one commit; this makes the effects of rebase and merge easier to predict. We will first practice reading ancestry and branch positions before applying those operations.
YouSo the branch itself does not contain the commits? It just points to the latest one, and the earlier commits are found by following its history?
TutorExactly. A branch name points to a tip commit, and that commit links backward through its parents. As we continue, I will ask you to predict which references move and whether new commits are created, rather than relying on memorized command outcomes.

Written from this course's first lesson to show the format — not a recording of a real session.

Course content

marks each module's capstone lesson.

01History and Branches4 lessons

Learn how Git records project history and how branches provide movable lines of development for organizing and comparing changes.

  • Course Introduction

    Welcome and orientation: review the course path from local history management through branching, integration, collaboration, and safe recovery.

  • Commit History

    Explore how Git stores commits as a linked history and how history views reveal ancestry and change context.

  • Branching

    Learn how branches name lines of development, how they relate to commits, and how switching between them changes the working context.

  • History and Branch Synthesis

    Synthesize commit-history and branching concepts by tracing ancestry, interpreting multiple lines of development, and reasoning about how branch references change.

02Team Integration and Recovery4 lessons

Learn how pull requests coordinate team review, how to resolve integration conflicts, and how Git recovery tools restore lost or misplaced work safely.

  • Pull Requests

    A pull request presents branch changes for discussion, review, and coordinated integration. Learners identify the relationship between the source branch, target branch, review feedback, and the resulting repository history.

  • Conflict Resolution

    A conflict occurs when Git cannot automatically reconcile changes to the same part of a file or related history. Learners distinguish conflict markers from desired content and reason through the sequence of resolving, staging, and completing the operation.

  • Reflog Recovery

    The reflog records updates to local references, including movements that may no longer appear in the visible branch history. Learners use reflog entries to identify recoverable commits and distinguish inspecting, branching from, and resetting to a recovered state.

  • Integration and Recovery Synthesis

    This capstone combines pull request coordination, conflict resolution, and reflog-based recovery in a single repository-history analysis. Learners determine how to integrate reviewed changes, recover safely from an incorrect reference update, and verify the final branch relationships.

Questions

Is this course suitable if I have never used Git?

It is designed as a refresher rather than a first introduction. You should already be able to create and inspect basic commits; the course focuses on history, branching, team integration, conflicts, and recovery.

Will I learn both merging and rebasing?

Yes. You will analyze how branches and commit ancestry change under common branch operations, then use that understanding to reason about merging and rebasing in team workflows.

Does the course cover pull requests?

Yes. You will interpret how proposed changes are reviewed and integrated into a shared branch, including how pull requests fit into coordinated team integration.

Will I practice resolving conflicts?

Yes. The conflict-resolution lesson focuses on evaluating competing changes, choosing the intended result, and completing the integration safely.

Can this course help if I lose a commit or move a branch by mistake?

Yes. The recovery lesson teaches you to read the reflog, locate a prior reference state, and choose a cautious recovery action for a displaced commit or branch tip.

How does the one-on-one AI tutor fit into the course?

The tutor guides you through each concept, checks your reasoning with focused questions, and adapts explanations when your interpretation of a history, branch operation, conflict, or recovery step is incomplete.

The first lesson is ten minutes away.

Free while codeset is early. You choose what you're building before the first lesson starts, and the course is taught around it.

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