Branch protection rules in Git - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

What is the primary purpose of branch protection rules?

Branch protection rules in Git repositories help teams maintain code quality and control. What is the main goal of these rules?

A To allow anyone to force push changes anytime

B To automatically merge all pull requests without review

C To delete branches after every commit

D To prevent direct pushes to important branches without review or checks

💡 Hint

Think about how teams avoid mistakes on main branches.

Branch protection rules stop direct pushes or force pushes to critical branches, requiring reviews or passing tests first.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of listing branch protection rules with GitHub CLI?

Using GitHub CLI, you run the command to list branch protection rules for the 'main' branch. What output do you expect?

Git

gh api repos/owner/repo/branches/main/protection

A {"required_status_checks":{"strict":true,"contexts":["ci/test"]},"enforce_admins":true,"required_pull_request_reviews":{"required_approving_review_count":2}}

B Error: branch 'main' not found

C Permission denied: cannot access branch protection

D No protection rules set for branch 'main'

💡 Hint

Think about what a successful API call returns.

The command returns JSON showing the protection rules like required status checks and review counts.

❓ Configuration

advanced

Which YAML snippet correctly enforces branch protection in GitHub Actions workflow?

You want to enforce that pull requests to 'main' must pass tests before merging. Which YAML snippet correctly configures this?

A

on:
  pull_request:
    branches-ignore:
      - main
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo "Run tests here"

B

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo "Run tests here"

C

on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - run: echo "Run tests here"

D

on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - develop
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo "Run tests here"

💡 Hint

Which event triggers the workflow for pull requests targeting 'main'?

Option C triggers on pull requests to 'main', running tests before merging. Others either trigger on push or wrong branches.

❓ Troubleshoot

advanced

Why does a force push to a protected branch fail?

You try to force push changes to a protected branch but get an error. What is the most likely reason?

A Your local Git client is outdated and cannot push

B Branch protection rules disallow force pushes to prevent overwriting history

C The remote repository is full and cannot accept new commits

D You forgot to pull the latest changes before pushing

💡 Hint

Think about why force pushing might be blocked on important branches.

Force pushes rewrite history and can cause data loss, so branch protection rules block them on protected branches.

🔀 Workflow

expert

In what order should these steps be configured to enforce branch protection with required reviews and status checks?

Arrange the steps to correctly set up branch protection rules that require pull request reviews and passing status checks before merging.

A 3,2,1,4

B 2,3,1,4

C 1,3,2,4

D 3,1,2,4

💡 Hint

Think about selecting the branch first, then defining checks and reviews, then saving.

You first select the branch, then specify required status checks, enable review requirements, and finally save the settings.