🔀 Git in practice: workflow, teamwork and conflict resolution
Welcome to the free discovery course dedicated to the practical use of Git. While the Introduction to version control course answers the question "why does Git exist", this one answers the question "how is it really used day to day".
In 6 short lessons, you will learn how a developer uses Git every day, how a team collaborates with branches and pull requests, how big companies choose between GitHub Flow, GitFlow and Trunk-based development, and above all how to resolve merge conflicts — the number 1 topic that panics beginners.
What this course aims for: decoding the real workflow of a team using Git. What this course does not do: teaching you to type the commands (that is the job of the Premium Git Course).
What you will discover
Course content
| # | Lesson | Main objective |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A developer's daily workflow | Understand the edit → stage → commit → push cycle, what a repository is in practice |
| 2 | Working as a team: branches and pull requests | How several devs collaborate without stepping on each other: feature branch, PR, code review |
| 3 | GitHub Flow vs GitFlow vs Trunk-based | Honest comparison of the 3 dominant workflows, which to choose by team size and context |
| 4 | Resolving a merge conflict | The 5 steps to resolve a merge conflict cleanly, without stress |
| 5 | Git in CI/CD and open source | How a git push triggers tests and deployment, how to contribute to an open-source project |
| 6 | Recap and FAQ | Summarize, answer frequent questions, prepare the next step |
| 7 | Quiz and attestation | Validate what you learned with 5 corrected questions |
Is this course for you?
- You have already read the Introduction to version control course (or you already know the Git basics).
- You wonder how it really works in a company: who does what, in what order, why.
- You have heard of "pull request", "merge conflict", "GitHub Flow", "rebase", and you want to understand what they mean.
- You are preparing for an internship, a first job, or a career switch to tech.
If you have never heard of version control, start with the conceptual course, which lays the foundations.
Course outline
This course is structured as 6 short lessons, to be read in order.
What you will be able to do at the end
No commands to memorize. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Describe the daily cycle of a developer using Git.
- Explain the role of a pull request and why teams use them systematically.
- Choose between GitHub Flow, GitFlow and Trunk-based depending on team size.
- Stay calm in front of a merge conflict and know in what order to resolve it.
- Understand how a simple
git pushcan trigger a production deployment. - Know how to contribute to an open-source project through fork/pull request.
⏱️ Estimated duration
About 30 to 40 minutes of reading in total. Each lesson takes 5 to 8 minutes.
Audience and prerequisites
| You are… | This course is for you if… |
|---|---|
| Student who read a basic Git tutorial | You know how to commit but you do not understand what a pull request is |
| Junior developer | You are joining a company and want to understand the workflow before breaking something |
| Project manager / PM | You want to understand your technical team's daily vocabulary |
| Career switcher to DevOps / SRE | You know Git is central to CI/CD, you want to see how it fits together |
| Beginner open-source contributor | You want to understand the fork + pull request workflow before your first contribution |
Prerequisites: having understood what Git is for (see the Introduction course otherwise).
Frequent questions in one answer
What is the difference between this course and the Introduction course?
The Introduction course explains why Git exists and what version control is — it is conceptual. This course shows how Git is used day to day — it is practical. The two are complementary. The recommended order is: Introduction first, then this course.
What is a pull request?
A pull request (or merge request on GitLab) is a formal request to integrate a feature branch into the project's main branch. It opens a discussion and review space between developers before the merge. Lesson 2 details the whole process.
How do you resolve a Git conflict?
A conflict appears when two people modify the same line of the same file. Git shows it with <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> markers and waits for a human to choose. Lesson 4 details the 5 steps to resolve it cleanly.
GitHub Flow or GitFlow?
GitHub Flow is simpler, suited to the modern web and continuous deployment. GitFlow is more structured, suited to software with numbered versions (v1.0, v1.1…). In 2026, ~80% of web teams use GitHub Flow or Trunk-based. Lesson 3 compares the three.
Is this course enough to be operational in a company?
This course gives you the understanding of the workflow. To be truly operational (creating a repository, making commits, opening a PR, resolving a conflict with the real commands), you need the Premium Git Course — 40 hours of practice.
This discovery course explains how it works in practice, without commands.
To type the real Git commands (git checkout -b, git rebase -i, git cherry-pick, conflict resolution, GitHub workflows…), move on to the Premium Git Course — included in all our paid plans.
Other discovery courses not to miss
- Introduction to version control — the conceptual prerequisite
- Linux Discovery — the server OS
- Docker Discovery — modern containers
- CI/CD Discovery — automating deployments
- Kubernetes Discovery — orchestrating containers
Ready? Start with lesson 1 →