By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain core Git concepts, including repositories, commits, branches, and distributed version control
• Create, manage, and organize Git repositories using GitLab or GitHub
• Apply modern branching strategies, including GitLab Flow and trunk-based development
• Collaborate effectively using merge requests and pull requests, including reviews and approvals
• Safely merge and rebase code while resolving conflicts and maintaining clean history
• Work with remote repositories using shared and fork-based collaboration models
• Inspect, understand, and manage commit history using Git tooling and platform interfaces
• Improve daily productivity with Git aliases, stashing, and interactive staging
• Write clear, meaningful commit messages and create atomic commits
• Understand CI/CD fundamentals and how automated pipelines build, test, and deploy code
• Navigate and troubleshoot GitLab CI/CD pipelines and understand GitHub Actions at a high level
• Follow best practices for secure, reliable, and team-friendly version control workflow

This course is designed for software developers and technical professionals who want to use Git effectively in team-based development environments. It is ideal for developers working with GitLab or GitHub who want to strengthen their version control skills and adopt modern collaboration and CI/CD workflows.

The course is also suitable for DevOps engineers, QA engineers, and technical team members who collaborate on shared codebases and need a solid understanding of Git workflows, merge and pull requests, and automated pipelines.

This course provides a hands-on, modern introduction to Git, with a strong focus on GitLab workflows while remaining fully compatible with GitHub. Participants learn best practices for collaboration, branching, rebasing, code review, and CI/CD.

1. Git & Platform Basics

Core Concepts

• What version control is and why it matters
• Git architecture: working tree, index, repository
• Local vs. remote repositories
• Distributed version control fundamentals

Git Installation & Setup

• Installing Git (Linux, macOS, Windows)
• Initial configuration (user.name, user.email)
• Line endings, editors, and defaults

GitLab & GitHub Overview

• Navigating GitLab UI
• Repository structure and permissions
• Comparing GitLab and GitHub concepts

Hands-on

• Initialize a repository
• Create your first commit
• Push to GitLab or GitHub
• Explore repository UI

2. GitLab Flow & Team Workflows

Workflow Models

• GitFlow vs. GitLab Flow
• Trunk-based development
• When to use feature branches

Environment Strategy

• Feature, staging, and production branches
• Release branches vs. tags
• Environment promotion patterns

Collaboration

• Issues, merge requests (MRs), and discussions
• Linking commits to issues
• Approvals and review policies

Optional Platform Features

• GitLab: Protected branches, approval rules
• GitHub: Branch protection, required reviews

3. Branching Strategy

Branching Fundamentals

• Creating and switching branches
• Short-lived vs. long-lived branches
• Naming conventions (feature/, bugfix/, release/)

Visualization & Cleanup

• Visualizing branch graphs
• Deleting merged branches
• Keeping repositories tidy

Releases

• Annotated vs. lightweight tags
• Semantic versioning
• Release notes

4. Configuring Git Like a Pro

Configuration

• Global vs. local .gitconfig
• Editor, diff, and merge tools
• Line ending normalization

Productivity Boosters

• Git aliases
• Shell integrations

Ignoring Files

• .gitignore patterns
• Project vs. global ignores

Authentication & Security

• HTTPS vs. SSH
• Managing SSH keys
• Credential helpers

5. Rebasing (Safely and Effectively)

Concepts

• Rebase vs. merge
• When rebasing is appropriate
• Rewriting history safely

Practical Rebasing

• Rebasing local branches
• Interactive rebase (reword, squash, fixup)
• Cleaning up commit history

Conflict Handling

• Resolving rebase conflicts
• Aborting and continuing rebases
• Common mistakes and recovery

6. Merging & Code Reviews

Merge Types

• Fast-forward merges
• No-fast-forward merges
• Merge commits explained

Platform-Based Merges

• Merge requests (GitLab)
• Pull requests (GitHub)
• Code review best practices

Tooling

• Diff views
• Inline comments
• Review checklists

7. Resolving Merge Conflicts

Understanding Conflicts

• Why conflicts occur
• Common conflict scenarios

Resolution Techniques

• Manual resolution in editors
• Using git status and git diff
• Marking conflicts as resolved

Best Practices

• Small, focused commits
• Frequent pulls/rebases
• Testing after resolution

8. Working with Remote Repositories

Remote Basics

• origin, upstream, and forks
• Cloning vs. forking
• Fetch vs. pull

Collaboration Models

• Shared repository model
• Fork-and-merge model

Tracking & Syncing

• Upstream branches
• Keeping forks up to date

9. Exploring & Managing History

History Inspection

• git log, git show, git diff
• Graph and pretty formats

Accountability Tools

• git blame
• Annotate views in GitLab/GitHub

Undoing Changes

• Amend commits
• Revert vs. reset
• Recovering lost commits

10. Improving Your Daily Git Workflow

Everyday Power Tools

• git stash
• Interactive staging (git add -p)
• Reviewing diffs before commit

Commit Quality

• Writing meaningful commit messages
• Atomic commits
• Conventional commits (optional)

Automation

• Aliases for repetitive tasks
• Git hooks (pre-commit basics)

11. CI/CD with GitLab (and GitHub)

CI/CD Fundamentals

• What CI/CD solves
• Pipelines, stages, and jobs

GitLab CI/CD

• GitLab Runner overview
• .gitlab-ci.yml structure
• Variables and secrets
• Artifacts and caching

Pipelines in Practice

• Build, test, deploy stages
• Visualizing and debugging pipelines
• Optimizing execution time

Optional GitHub Features

• GitHub Actions
• Workflow YAML syntax
• Marketplace actions

Optional Advanced Topics

• Monorepos vs. multirepos
• Submodules vs. subtrees
• Signed commits and tags
• Security scanning (SAST, dependency scanning)
• Release automation
• GitOps concepts

Course Deliverables

• Hands-on labs
• Sample repositories (GitHub & GitLab)
• CI/CD pipeline examples
• Best-practice checklists
• Real-world workflow patterns