MediumExperience level: 3-5 years · 8-15 years1 min read

What is the difference between git merge and git rebase?

Reviewed by Gurusankar M.

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Concept Made Simple

Coffee Chat Question

“What is the difference between git merge and git rebase?”

Remember It Faster

Mind Map Answer

Merge
Combines branches, keeps history, adds a merge commit
Rebase
Replays your commits on top — linear history
Golden rule
Never rebase shared/public branches

Learn by Doing

Hands-on Keyboard

bash
git checkout feature
git rebase main     # replay feature commits on latest main
# vs
git merge main      # creates a merge commit

Think Beyond the Expected

What If?

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.
Open inChatGPTGeminiClaude

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