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📚 GIT

🚗💻 Git – What, When, Where, Why, How, and Benefits

⬅️ Back

🔍 What is Git?

Git is a distributed version control system used to track changes in source code during software development.
It helps teams collaborate, manage versions, and keep history of code changes.

🕒 When do we use Git?

  • During development of software/code/models
  • While working in collaborative teams
  • When maintaining multiple versions/branches of a project
  • While reviewing or rolling back to previous states
  • In CI/CD pipelines, testing and release cycles

🌍 Where is Git used?

  • Across software and automotive domains
  • In Model-Based Development (MBD) to version models, scripts, and configs
  • Inside Simulink/Embedded C projects
  • Integrated with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and other repositories
  • In DevOps pipelines, Jenkins, Azure, etc.

❓ Why do we use Git?

  • To track every code/model change
  • To enable team collaboration without conflict
  • To manage different versions and branches (e.g., dev, test, release)
  • To revert mistakes, compare differences
  • For safe and traceable delivery pipelines

⚙️ How do we use Git? (Common Commands)

  • git init – Start a new Git repo
  • git clone <repo-url> – Copy a remote repo
  • git status – See changes made
  • git add <file> – Stage changes
  • git commit -m "message" – Commit changes
  • git push – Upload to remote repo
  • git pull – Download latest changes
  • git branch – View or create branches
  • git merge – Merge branches
  • git log – View commit history

✨ Benefits of Git

  • ✅ Full history and traceability
  • ✅ Safe experimentation with branches
  • ✅ Collaborative development with conflict resolution
  • ✅ Easy rollback to previous versions
  • ✅ Integrates with JIRA, CI/CD, and Quality Gates
  • ✅ Supports automotive V-model workflows and traceable deliveries
  • ✅ Powerful when integrated with versioning tools in MagicDraw, Preevision, or Simulink Projects

Git Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is Git?
Git is a distributed version control system used for tracking changes in code and collaborating across teams.

2. What is the difference between Git and GitHub?
Git is the tool (VCS), GitHub is a web-based platform for hosting Git repositories.

3. What does git init do?
Initializes a new Git repository in your project folder.

4. What is git clone?
Copies a remote repository to your local machine.

5. What is the use of git add?
Stages changes to be included in the next commit.

6. What does git commit do?
Saves the staged changes with a message to the local repo.

7. What is git push?
Uploads local commits to a remote repository.

8. What is git pull?
Fetches and merges changes from remote to local branch.

9. What is a Git branch?
A parallel version of the repository used to develop features independently.

10. How do you create a new branch?
git branch feature_name

11. How do you switch branches?
git checkout feature_name

12. How to merge branches?
Switch to the target branch and use git merge source_branch.

13. What is a conflict in Git?
A conflict occurs when two changes affect the same line in a file during merge.

14. How do you resolve merge conflicts?
Manually edit the files, then git add and git commit.

15. What is git status?
Shows current branch, staged/unstaged changes, and untracked files.

16. What is git log?
Displays commit history.

17. What is git stash?
Temporarily stores uncommitted changes to revert to a clean working state.

18. What is git rebase?
Moves or combines commits to a new base commit (linear history).

19. Difference between merge and rebase?
merge keeps history with a new merge commit; rebase rewrites commit history linearly.

20. What is HEAD in Git?
Refers to the current commit your branch is pointing to.

21. What is a remote repository?
A shared Git repository typically hosted on GitHub/GitLab for collaboration.

22. How do you remove a file from Git?
git rm file_name and then commit.

23. How to undo the last commit?
git reset --soft HEAD~1 (keeps changes),
git reset --hard HEAD~1 (discards changes).

24. What is .gitignore?
A file listing paths Git should ignore (e.g., build folders, logs).

25. What is git fetch?
Downloads changes from remote without merging.

26. Difference between git fetch and git pull?
fetch only downloads, pull downloads + merges.

27. How to delete a branch?
git branch -d branch_name (local),
git push origin --delete branch_name (remote).

28. What is a tag in Git?
A marker for a specific commit (often used for releases).

29. How to create a tag?
git tag v1.0

30. How to push a tag?
git push origin v1.0

31. How do you see differences between commits?
git diff commit1 commit2

32. What is git cherry-pick?
Apply a specific commit from one branch to another.

33. How can Git be used in the automotive industry?
For versioning models, code, configuration files, and traceability in ASPICE/SOTIF pipelines.

34. What are hooks in Git?
Scripts triggered by Git actions like commit or push.

35. How to recover a deleted commit?
Use git reflog to find and reset to the commit.

36. How do you track a file in Git?
Use git add followed by a commit.

37. What is a detached HEAD?
You’re not on a branch, but a specific commit.

38. How to create a Git alias?
git config --global alias.co checkout

39. What is origin in Git?
Default name for a remote repo when you clone.

40. How to see the commit author history?
git log --pretty=format:"%h %an %s"

41. How do you use Git with JIRA?
By linking commits with JIRA ticket IDs in messages.

42. How do you ensure quality in Git commits?
Follow commit message conventions and code reviews.

43. What are submodules in Git?
Repositories embedded in another Git repo.

44. How to revert a commit?
git revert commit_id — creates a new commit undoing the change.

45. What is Git flow?
A branching model with main, develop, feature, release, and hotfix branches.

46. How to squash commits?
Use interactive rebase: git rebase -i HEAD~n

47. Why is Git important in team projects?
Enables parallel development, traceability, and safe collaboration.

48. How do you test before pushing?
Use git stash and run tests, or use Git hooks for pre-push validation.

49. What is git clean?
Deletes untracked files: git clean -f

50. How do you create a patch file?
git format-patch -1 creates a patch for the last commit.