Branch and Merge Challenge: Ko Wai Koe

The Big Idea

This is your first real Git workflow challenge. You will clone a shared repo, create your own branch, write a short introduction, and open a pull request for a teammate to merge. By the end you will have completed the full branch → commit → PR → merge cycle.

⚑ This task is assessed This challenge demonstrates your Git workflow. Your branch, commits, and merged PR are all part of your assessment evidence.

Your Roadmap

Before you start

Do not clone this repo (ko-wai-koe) inside an existing Git repo. If you do, the two repos will conflict and things will break. We recommend creating a 'dev-academy' parent directory (which is not a git repo) that can contain your Dev Academy repos.

Create a parent folder that is not a Git repo, and clone everything into it:

Dev-Academy/
  ko-wai-koe/
  git-test/
  git-test-2/

Not this:

Dev-Academy/
  git-test/
    ko-wai-koe/     ← wrong

If you accidentally create a repo in the wrong place, run pwd to confirm your location, then rm -rf .git to remove it.

Challenge steps

1. Clone the repo

Go to the ko-wai-koe repo on GitHub. Clone it to your machine and navigate into it:

git clone git@github.com:dev-academy-foundations/ko-wai-koe.git
cd ko-wai-koe

2. Create your branch

Use your full name in lowercase with a hyphen:

git checkout -b hemi-marton

3. Create your file

touch hemi-marton.md
code .

Open the file and write your mihimihi — a short introduction about yourself. Use this template if you like:

Where I grew up:

Where my family is from:

My name:

Save the file — Cmd+S on Mac, Ctrl+S on Windows/Linux.

4. Stage, commit, and push

git add -A
git commit -m "Add hemi-marton intro"
git push origin hemi-marton

5. Pull the latest main

Before opening your PR, download any changes your teammates may have pushed to main. This keeps your branch up to date and reduces the chance of a merge conflict:

git checkout main
git pull
git checkout hemi-marton

6. Open a pull request

Go to the repo on GitHub. You should see a prompt to open a pull request for your branch. Click it, add a short description, and submit.

7. Ask someone to merge it

Post the link to your PR in your Discord Homegroup and ask a teammate to review and merge it.

8. Pull the merged changes

Once it is merged, pull it down so your local main stays up to date:

git checkout main
git pull

How to know you've nailed it

Resolving merge conflicts

Merge conflicts happen when two people edit the same part of the same file. Git does not know which version to keep, so it stops and asks you to decide. This is normal — every developer hits merge conflicts. It is not a mistake, it is just part of working with others.

Step 1 — Git tells you there is a conflict

When you run git pull and a conflict exists, you will see something like this in your terminal:

Git is telling you: there are conflicts, and you need to resolve them before committing.

Step 2 — Open the file and find the conflict markers

Open the conflicting file in VS Code. Git has inserted markers to show you exactly where the conflict is:

<<<<<<< HEAD
Your version of the text
=======
Someone else's version
>>>>>>> branch-name

• <<<<<<< HEAD marks the start of your version (HEAD means your current branch)
• ======= separates the two versions
• >>>>>>> branch-name marks the end of the incoming version

Here is what it looks like in VS Code:

VS Code also highlights the conflict and gives you clickable options at the top: Accept Current Change, Accept Incoming Change, or Accept Both Changes. You can click one of these instead of editing manually — both approaches work.

Step 3 — Fix and push

Once you have decided which version to keep:

1. Delete everything you do not want, including all three markers (<<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>)
2. Save the file — Cmd+S on Mac, Ctrl+S on Windows/Linux
3. Stage, commit, and push:

git add -A
git commit -m "Resolve merge conflict"
git push

The conflict is resolved. Your branch is clean.

The Big Idea (revisited)

Branch → commit → push → pull request → merge. You have now done the full cycle. This is the workflow you will use every day at Dev Academy and in most development jobs.

Extra Resources

• ◎ Create a Simple Pull Request (YouTube)
• ◎ Atlassian Git Branching