Git Branching & Collaboration — Challenge

The goal#

Achieve the same outcome as Git Branching & Collaboration, from an empty starting point, without the steps.

You are contributing to a repository other people are also changing. Main has moved since you branched, your history has a conflict in it, and at some point you will reset something you did not mean to.

All three are normal. None of them should cost you work.

What must be true when you are done#

• A feature branch is merged into main through a pull request, with a linear history.
• You resolved a real conflict — not by taking one side wholesale, but by reading both.
• You recovered a commit after a hard reset, using the reflog.
• You can explain why removing a committed secret from history does not make it safe.

Rules#

• Do not open the guided lab until you are finished, or until you have been stuck on the same thing for 20 minutes. Being stuck is the exercise; staying stuck is not.
• Official documentation is allowed and encouraged. In the job it is the first thing you open.
• Verify every criterion yourself with a command whose output you can read. "It looks right" is not a check.

If you get stuck#

Work in layers rather than restarting things:

1. What did you expect to happen, exactly?
2. What happened instead — the error text, not a paraphrase?
3. Which layer is that error from?
4. What is the smallest command that proves the layer below is fine?

That sequence is the skill this tier exists to build. The commands are lookup-able; the sequence is not.