Engineering PracticePublished

Course 05

Git and GitHub Foundations: From Project Folders to Team Collaboration

Learn Git and GitHub through one small project. Start with the problem of copied folders, then save clear versions, publish them, work on short branches and collaborate through Pull Requests without losing anyone's work.

BeginnerEstimated 7 to 9 hours including practice14 lessonsUpdated October 2026

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Learning outcomes

Explain the difference between a working folder, Git and GitHub
Read git status and identify modified, staged and committed work
Create small commits with clear messages and inspect their changes
Publish a local repository and retrieve work from GitHub
Create short branches with clear feature, fix and docs names
Open, review, update and merge a Pull Request
Collaborate from an issue without pushing directly to main
Resolve a simple conflict by making and verifying a human decision
Follow a complete team workflow from task to merged change
Use develop as an integration branch while keeping main stable

Prerequisites

Comfort creating, editing and saving files in a project folder
A terminal, Git and a code editor installed
A GitHub account for the publishing and collaboration modules

Curriculum

A guided path, lesson by lesson

7 modules · 14 lessons

Module 1

Why Save Project History?

Begin without Git, experience the problem of copied folders and separate Git from GitHub.

Before Git: The Copied Folder Problem

Discover why project history is useful before learning any command

20 min 2

Git and GitHub Are Different

Separate the local history tool from the online hosting service

25 min

Module 2

Save One Clear Version

Create a local repository, understand Git's three places and record one small change.

Start a Local Repository

Ask Git to follow a project and read what it sees

30 min 2

From a Change to a Commit

Move one modification through Git's three places

40 min

Module 3

Build a Useful History

Inspect changes, choose what belongs together and keep generated or secret files out of Git.

Read Changes and Write Clear Commits

Review what changed before recording one coherent intention

35 min 2

Keep Unnecessary and Private Files Out

Use .gitignore and stop before publishing sensitive data

30 min

Module 4

Publish and Receive Work

Connect the local repository to GitHub, publish commits and retrieve a repository safely.

Publish a Local Repository to GitHub

Connect two locations and send local commits

40 min 2

Clone a Repository and Pull New Work

Get a first copy, then update an existing copy

35 min

Module 5

Change the Project through a Branch

Start from one task, create a clearly named branch and propose the change through a Pull Request.

One Task, One Short Branch

Protect main while working on one clearly named change

45 min 2

Open and Update a Pull Request

Propose a branch, explain it and respond to feedback

45 min

Module 6

Collaborate without Losing Work

Review, merge, resolve one simple conflict and repeat the complete team workflow.

Review, Merge and Clean Up

Check a proposed change before it becomes shared work

45 min 2

Resolve One Conflict and Repeat the Workflow

Make a human decision when two branches change the same place

60 min

Module 7

Add an Integration Branch

After mastering the simple workflow, add develop between short task branches and the stable main branch.

Why Add a develop Branch?

Separate integrated work in progress from the stable version

30 min 2

Work from develop to a Stable main

Follow the class workflow from one task to the next stable version

45 min