Medium👤 3-5 years👤 8-15 years 1 min read
What is the difference between git merge and git rebase?
Asked inDeloitteAccenture
☕Coffee Chat Question
Concept Made Simple
“What is the difference between git merge and git rebase?”
🧠Mind Map Answer
Remember It Faster
Merge→Combines branches, keeps history, adds a merge commit
Rebase→Replays your commits on top — linear history
Golden rule→Never rebase shared/public branches
⌨️Hands-on Keyboard
Learn by Doing
bash
git checkout feature
git rebase main # replay feature commits on latest main
# vs
git merge main # creates a merge commit🔥What If?
Think Beyond the Expected
Why is rebasing a shared branch dangerous?
Rebase rewrites commit hashes. If teammates already pulled those commits, their history diverges and they get painful conflicts on the next pull.
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Plain-language foundations
I'm preparing for a software engineering interview and want to understand this from scratch, as a beginner. Topic: Merge vs Rebase (Git) Interview question: "What is the difference between git merge and git rebase?" Please: 1. Explain the core idea in simple, plain language, using an everyday analogy. 2. Define any technical terms you use. 3. Walk through one small, concrete example. 4. Finish with a single sentence I can easily remember. Keep the tone friendly and assume I'm new to this topic.
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