Git & GitHub Mastery · Step 2 of 8
Branching & Merging in Git
Learn to branch, merge, and resolve conflicts by hand — the Git skills that actually trip people up.
What you’ll walk away with
- Explain what a branch really is under the hood, not just how to create one
- Merge branches back together confidently and understand what Git is doing when it does
- Resolve a real merge conflict by hand, line by line, without panicking or guessing
- Work through a realistic branching workflow end-to-end, from creating a branch to merging it in
Questions people ask before they start
Do I need to know Git already before starting this course?
You should be comfortable with basic Git commands like commit and push. This course focuses specifically on branching, merging, and conflict resolution — it doesn't start from zero.
Will this teach me to use a GUI tool for merging, or the command line?
The course is built around resolving merge conflicts by hand, so you'll work directly with the conflict markers Git produces rather than relying on a visual merge tool.
Is this course just theory, or do I actually practice on real conflicts?
There's a hands-on lesson, 'Hands-On: A Realistic Branching Workflow,' where you work through creating branches, merging them, and handling conflicts in a realistic scenario.
How long is this course?
It's a single focused module with four lessons: what a branch is, merging branches back together, resolving conflicts by hand, and a hands-on workflow to tie it all together.
Does this cover advanced Git topics like rebasing or Git internals?
No — this course is scoped specifically to branching, merging, and conflict resolution. Rebasing and other advanced topics aren't part of this curriculum.