Reordering commits in Git - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🔀 Workflow

intermediate

Reordering commits using interactive rebase

You want to reorder the last 4 commits in your branch so that the oldest commit becomes the newest. Which command sequence correctly starts this process?

A git rebase -i HEAD~5

B git rebase -i HEAD~1

C git rebase -i HEAD~3

D git rebase -i HEAD~4

💡 Hint

Remember that HEAD~N means the commit N steps before HEAD, and you want to include exactly 4 commits.

To reorder the last 4 commits, you need to start an interactive rebase from HEAD~4. This includes the last 4 commits for editing.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

Result of reordering commits in interactive rebase

After running 'git rebase -i HEAD~3' and swapping the order of the last two commits in the editor, what will be the effect on the commit history?

A The rebase will fail with a conflict error

B The last two commits will swap places in the history

C The commit messages will be swapped but the order stays the same

D The commits will be merged into one commit

💡 Hint

Interactive rebase allows you to reorder commits by changing their order in the editor.

Swapping the order of commits in the interactive rebase editor changes their order in the commit history after the rebase completes.

❓ Troubleshoot

advanced

Resolving conflicts during commit reordering

During an interactive rebase to reorder commits, you encounter a conflict. What is the correct sequence of commands to resolve the conflict and continue the rebase?

A Fix the conflict, git add <files>, git rebase --continue

B Fix the conflict, git commit, git rebase --skip

C Fix the conflict, git reset, git rebase --abort

D Fix the conflict, git stash, git rebase --continue

💡 Hint

After fixing conflicts, you need to stage the changes before continuing the rebase.

When a conflict occurs during rebase, fix the files, stage them with git add, then run git rebase --continue to proceed.

🧠 Conceptual

advanced

Understanding the effect of reordering commits on commit hashes

What happens to the commit hashes of the reordered commits after completing an interactive rebase that changes their order?

A All reordered commits get new hashes because their parent commits changed

B Commit hashes remain the same since content is unchanged

C Only the first commit in the reordered list gets a new hash

D Hashes change only if commit messages are edited

💡 Hint

Commit hashes depend on the commit content and its parent commit hash.

Changing the order changes parent commits, so all reordered commits get new hashes.

✅ Best Practice

expert

Best practice when reordering commits on a shared branch

You want to reorder commits on a branch that others have already pulled. What is the best practice to avoid problems?

A Force push immediately after reordering to update remote

B Delete the remote branch and push a new one with reordered commits

C Avoid reordering commits on shared branches to prevent rewriting history

D Rebase and merge the branch into main without pushing

💡 Hint

Rewriting history on shared branches can cause confusion and conflicts for others.

Reordering commits rewrites history. On shared branches, this can cause problems for collaborators, so it is best avoided.