How to use this course
Beginner Core Git
Why this matters
Git has a reputation for being hard. Most of that comes from learning commands without the picture behind them, and from being afraid of breaking something. This course fixes both: it builds the picture first, shows every task in the tool you actually use, and gives you a safe place to practice.
What this course is, and is not
It is a complete path from zero to expert, written for people who are not developers but work with them: technical writers, testers, analysts, product and project people, support and operations staff. It is also a reference you will keep coming back to: a glossary, a command reference, decision guides and a troubleshooting section.
It is not a programming course. You will run small programs and make small edits, but you will not be asked to write code.
The four levels
Every lesson carries a level badge. Stop at the level you need; come back later for the rest.
| Level | You are | After it you can |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | new to Git, maybe to the terminal | commit, push and pull on your own, read history, undo simple mistakes |
| Intermediate | working in a team | branch, open and review merge requests, resolve conflicts, read pipelines, use VS Code and IntelliJ |
| Advanced | the person people ask | recover anything, rebase, cherry-pick, handle wrong-branch and force-push situations |
| Expert | curious how it all works | internals, hooks, signing, worktrees, repository maintenance, automation |
The path by role page tells you which sections matter most for your job.
How a lesson is built
Every lesson has the same shape, so you always know where to look:
- Before this lesson · What you will learn · After this lesson you can. Check the first box before you start; if a prerequisite is unfamiliar, follow the link.
- Why this matters. The real-life problem, in two or three sentences.
- The concept, with an analogy and often a diagram.
- How to do it, in five tabs: Terminal, VS Code, IntelliJ IDEA, GitLab web, GitHub web.
- Under the hood. What the button actually ran, and which of Git's areas changed.
- Example with the fictional Northwind Trails team: Ana (technical writer), Ben (developer), Chloe (QA), Dev (maintainer), and you.
- Do / Don't, then Common mistakes with the exact error messages.
- Try it yourself in the playground, with the expected result and a solution you can reveal.
- Check yourself: a short quiz with explanations.
- Key terms and Related lessons.
Pick your tool once
The Preferred tool menu in the top bar switches every tabbed example on every page to the tool you chose. Clicking a tab does the same. Your choice is remembered in this browser.
Badges you will see
- Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert.
- Stability: Core Git concepts never change. Git CLI commands change rarely. GitLab UI, GitHub UI, VS Code UI and IntelliJ UI steps describe menus that move from time to time; the versions page explains how to cope.
- Safety on command pages: Safe cannot lose work, Careful can if used wrongly, Dangerous rewrites or deletes.
Track your progress
Every lesson ends with a Mark as done button. The sidebar shows a tick next to finished lessons and a count per section; the bar in the top corner shows the total. Progress lives only in this browser; the progress page lets you copy it to another computer or reset it.
Search
Press / anywhere to jump to the search box. It understands command names (git reset), plain words (“undo”, “token”, “conflict”), and fragments of error messages (“rejected”, “publickey”). Results are labelled Lesson, Command, Error, Term or Lab.
Keyboard shortcuts: / search · ] next lesson · [ previous lesson · Esc close.
Practice without risk
Set up the playground before Section 4. It is a small sample project you can break, delete and recreate as often as you like. Every "Try it yourself" and every lab uses it.
Suggested pace
| If you have | Do this |
|---|---|
| One hour | Sections 1–2: the picture. You will understand what people are talking about. |
| One day | Sections 1–5 and Lab 1: you can commit on your own. |
| One week, an hour a day | Sections 1–9 and Labs 1–4: you can work in a GitLab team. |
| A month | Everything, including the IDE sections and Labs 5–6. |
Try it yourself
Goal: get comfortable with the site itself.
- Open the Preferred tool menu in the top bar and choose the tool you use most.
- Press /, type
undo, and open the first result. Come back with the browser's back button. - Click Mark as done at the bottom of this page, then look at the sidebar: this lesson has a tick and "Start Here" shows 1 of 6.
Expected result: your tool is selected, you found a page about undoing, and the progress counter moved.
Show solution
The tool menu is at the top right (or on the second row on a phone). Search results open with Enter. Progress is stored in your browser only; the count updates immediately.