Course Details:
Git & GitLab (with GitHub) — Modern Developer Workflow

This hands-on course provides a modern, practical introduction to Git and collaborative development workflows using GitLab and GitHub. Participants learn how to work confidently with version control in real-world team environments, focusing on branching strategies, merge and pull requests, code reviews, and safe collaboration practices.

Through guided labs and realistic examples, students build strong Git fundamentals while gaining a clear understanding of how GitLab and GitHub support modern development workflows. The course also introduces CI/CD concepts, showing how automated pipelines build, test, and deliver code, and what developers need to know to work effectively with them.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to use Git productively in daily development work, collaborate efficiently with teams on GitLab or GitHub, and understand how their code moves from commit to deployment in a modern DevOps environment.

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