Stage 2 · Lesson 5 of 9

Branches and pull requests

A is a separate line of work. You create one with git switch -c add-login, make commits on it, and leave main (your project's main line) working while you experiment. A pull request on asks to merge that branch into main.

It shows the , the exact lines that changed, so someone can do a and comment line by line before the change goes in. Almost every software team works this way, so doing it on your own projects is real preparation. Use one branch per feature or fix.

Keep pull requests small enough to review in ten minutes, and describe what changed and how you tested it. Merging your own pull request still counts; getting a friend to review it is better.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 2 cheat sheet entries come with the full roadmap. Unlock

Resources for this stage

Start with· follow one of these

GitHub repoFree
GitHub Skills: Introduction to GitHub
GitHub · Beginner
Free hands-on exercise: branch, commit, open and merge a pull request in about an hour
CourseFree
The Missing Semester of Your CS Education
MIT · Beginner
MIT lectures on the tools degrees skip; the shell and version control lectures are enough here

Practise

Learn Git Branching
Draws the commit graph as you type, so branches and merges finally make sense
First Contributions
Your first real pull request, on a repository that exists to accept it

Keep handy

Managing Your Profile README (GitHub Docs)
Official steps for the profile README that sits at the top of your GitHub page
Oh Shit, Git!?!
Plain-English fixes for the day a commit, merge or push goes wrong

Also worth your time

Creating a Winning Coding Portfolio to Impress Interviewers (opens in a new tab)Read
How to choose, structure and present projects so a reviewer sees your best work first