Team Collaboration Simulation

Overview

Most Git problems only happen when two people change the same project at the same time — and that is hard to practise alone. In this project you simulate a team: two folders on your computer act as two developers, Priya and Arjun, both connected to one GitHub repository for their study group’s website.

You will see everything a real team meets in its first week: parallel feature branches, a push that GitHub rejects, a pull that refuses to guess, and a merge conflict on the same line — with the exact messages Git prints and how to respond to each.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Priya Starts the Project

Make a folder for each developer. As Priya, create the repository with a README and a schedule:

mkdir priya arjun
cd priya
git init study-group-site
cd study-group-site

# Study Group Site

Notes and schedule for our weekend coding study group.

# Schedule

- Saturday 10:00: JavaScript basics
- Sunday 10:00: Git practice

git add .
git commit -m "Start study group site"
git remote add origin https://github.com/priya-sharma/study-group-site.git
git push -u origin main

Step 2: Arjun Joins

Open a second terminal for Arjun. He clones the repository into his own folder:

cd arjun
git clone https://github.com/priya-sharma/study-group-site.git
cd study-group-site

So his commits show his own name, give this one repository a local identity (no --global):

git config user.name "Arjun Mehta"
git config user.email "arjun@example.com"
git config user.name

Step 3: Parallel Work on Branches

Arjun adds a resources page on his own branch and pushes it:

git switch -c add-resources
# ...create resources.md...
git add resources.md
git commit -m "Add list of learning resources"
git push -u origin add-resources

At the same time, Priya adds a members page on her branch:

git switch -c add-members
# ...create members.md...
git add members.md
git commit -m "Add members page"

Step 4: Combine and Share

Priya fetches to see Arjun’s branch, and reviews it before merging — the same thing a pull request’s Files changed tab shows:

git fetch
git log --oneline main..origin/add-resources
git diff --stat main origin/add-resources

Satisfied, she merges both branches into main and pushes:

git switch main
git merge --no-edit origin/add-resources
git merge --no-edit add-members
git push

Arjun switches to main and pulls everything in:

git switch main
git pull
git log --oneline --graph

The first merge was a fast-forward and the second created a merge commit — exactly as in lesson 8. Different files never conflict.

Step 5: The Same Line, Twice

Now both change the Saturday line of schedule.md directly on main. Arjun moves the session to 11:00 and pushes first:

git commit -am "Move Saturday session to 11:00"
git push

Priya, who has not pulled, changes the topic on the same line:

git commit -am "Change Saturday topic to functions"

Step 6: Rejected Push and Divergent Branches

git push

GitHub refuses, because pushing would erase Arjun’s commit. The hint says to pull first:

git pull

Both sides have a commit the other lacks, so Git asks how to combine them instead of guessing. If you set pull.rebase false in lesson 2 you skip this step; otherwise choose merging for this repository and pull again:

git config pull.rebase false
git pull

Step 7: Resolve and Push

cat schedule.md

This time the incoming side is labelled with Arjun’s commit ID rather than a branch name, because Priya pulled main from GitHub. Both changes are valid, so she keeps both — Arjun’s new time and her new topic — and deletes the markers:

# Schedule

- Saturday 11:00: JavaScript functions
- Sunday 10:00: Git practice

git add schedule.md
git commit --no-edit
git push

Arjun pulls once more, and both copies agree:

git pull
git log --oneline --graph -4
cat schedule.md

Extend This Project

Summary

You simulated a two-person team end to end: reviewing and merging a teammate’s branch, recovering from a rejected push, choosing how pull combines divergent work and resolving a real conflict. These are the exact situations — and messages — you will meet on your first team.