Git & GitHub Crash Course: Free Hands-On Course Guide

The Git & GitHub Crash Course is a free, hands-on course that teaches version control with Git and team collaboration on GitHub using a lab codebase. It is for beginners, students and working developers who want to stop being afraid of Git and use it confidently: committing work, branching and merging, collaborating through GitHub, automating with GitHub Actions and getting out of trouble when something goes wrong.

The course is 8 videos and about 2.6 hours in total on YouTube. Each main module is a solid practical session of 10 to 32 minutes. This guide explains the modules, why each matters and how to practise them. The full list is on the Git & GitHub Crash Course page.

Who this course is for

This is a Beginner course. It suits you if:

• You have never used Git, or you only know a few commands without understanding them.
• You are a student or new developer who needs Git for projects, internships or a first job.
• You work in a team and want to understand branches, pull requests and reviews on GitHub.
• You want a first look at automation with GitHub Actions.

No previous version-control experience is needed. Being comfortable with a terminal and a code editor will make the labs smoother.

What you will learn

The seven modules cover five themes.

1. Foundations. Git and GitHub Foundations explains what Git does, what GitHub adds on top and why every software team uses version control. Understanding this difference prevents a lot of later confusion.

2. Working alone. The Solo Workflow is your daily routine: making changes, staging them, committing and keeping a clean history. Most of your Git time is spent here, so it is worth getting right.

3. Branching and merging. Branching and Merging, the longest module at about 32 minutes, shows how to work on a feature without breaking the main code and how to bring the work back together. This is the skill that separates casual users from confident ones.

4. Teamwork and automation. Collaboration on GitHub covers working with others through a shared repository on GitHub. Automation with Actions introduces GitHub Actions, so tasks run automatically when code changes.

5. Recovery and putting it together. The Survival Kit is about recovering when things go wrong, which is exactly when most people panic with Git. The Capstone then brings the full workflow together in one exercise.

How the course is organised

There are 8 videos:

1. Course overview (about 2 minutes).
2. 01. Git and GitHub Foundations (about 10 minutes).
3. 02. The Solo Workflow (about 23 minutes).
4. 03. Branching and Merging (about 32 minutes).
5. 04. Collaboration on GitHub (about 28 minutes).
6. 05. Automation with Actions (about 26 minutes).
7. 06. The Survival Kit (about 19 minutes).
8. 07. Capstone (about 14 minutes).

The modules build on each other in order, and the whole course is taught using a lab codebase, so you practise on real files rather than abstract examples.

How to study it step by step

1. Watch the overview and Module 01 to understand what Git and GitHub each do.
2. Install Git and create a GitHub account if you do not have one, so you can follow every module yourself.
3. Repeat Module 02 on your own project. Make several small commits and look at the history afterwards.
4. Practise branching until it feels normal. After Module 03, create a branch, make a change, merge it, then do it again with a change that conflicts and resolve the conflict.
5. Collaborate with a friend or a second account after Module 04, so you experience the team workflow from both sides.
6. Add one simple GitHub Actions workflow after Module 05 and watch it run when you push.
7. Break things on purpose in Module 06. Use the survival kit techniques on a test repository, where mistakes do not matter.
8. Do the capstone without pausing, then re-watch any module where you got stuck.

The course is also on YouTube as a playlist. Once you are comfortable with Git, automation courses such as Step By Step Learn Ansible and Terraform Master Classes – AWS IaaS Automation build on the same habit of keeping everything in version control.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Git & GitHub Crash Course free?

Yes. All 8 videos are free on YouTube. You can follow them in order from the course page or the playlist.

How long does the course take?

The videos total about 2.6 hours. If you repeat each module’s steps on your own repository, as recommended, plan for about a week of short daily sessions.

Do I need a GitHub account?

To follow the collaboration and GitHub Actions modules yourself, yes, you will need a GitHub account. The foundations, solo workflow and branching modules are mainly about Git itself.

Is this course good for complete beginners?

Yes. It is a Beginner level course that starts with Git and GitHub foundations and builds step by step to collaboration, automation, recovery and a final capstone.