GitHub Basics

GitHub is not the same thing as Git.

Git is the version control tool.

GitHub is a platform built around Git repositories.

What GitHub adds

Git can track history locally.

GitHub adds collaboration around that history:

• remote repository hosting,
• pull requests,
• code review,
• issues,
• project discussions,
• repository permissions,
• releases,
• GitHub Actions,
• branch protection rules.

In simple words:

Git remembers code history. GitHub helps people collaborate around that history.

Repository on GitHub

A GitHub repository usually contains:

• code,
• README,
• commit history,
• branches,
• issues,
• pull requests,
• settings,
• automation workflows.

The code history is Git.

The collaboration interface is GitHub.

Issues

Issues are used to track work, bugs, tasks, or discussions.

Example:

Issue: Login API returns 500 for invalid email

A developer can create a branch, fix the issue, and open a pull request.

Pull requests

A pull request asks:

Please review these branch changes before we merge them.

PRs let the team:

• discuss code,
• run automated checks,
• request changes,
• approve work,
• merge safely.

Branch protection

Teams often protect main.

That means you cannot directly push random commits to it.

Rules may require:

• pull request review,
• passing tests,
• no unresolved conversations,
• up-to-date branch before merge.

This protects important branches from accidental changes.

GitHub in a normal team

Typical flow:

Create issue -> create branch -> push commits -> open PR -> review -> merge

Git handles commits and branches.

GitHub handles the team workflow around them.

Interview answer

GitHub is a platform for hosting Git repositories and collaborating on code. It adds features like pull requests, reviews, issues, branch protection, releases, and GitHub Actions. Git is the underlying version control system; GitHub is the remote collaboration platform built around Git.