Git is non-negotiable. Every professional developer team uses it. And the way you use Git signals your level more than your code does. A senior developer can look at your commit history and know immediately whether you've worked on a real team before.
Commit messages: the one thing most juniors get wrong
A good commit message is a sentence that completes 'This commit will...'. Examples of bad messages: 'fix', 'update', 'wip'. Examples of good messages: 'Add password reset via email token', 'Fix race condition in cart checkout API', 'Refactor user query to eliminate N+1'.
Branch naming
- ✓feature/user-authentication
- ✓fix/cart-total-calculation
- ✓chore/update-dependencies
- ✓docs/api-endpoint-reference
The pull request ritual
Every change should go through a pull request, even if you're the only developer on the project. PRs force you to review your own code, write a description of what you changed and why, and think about whether the change is complete. At Junior Mentor, every project submission is a PR reviewed by a mentor.
Git rebase vs merge: when to use which
Merge when you're integrating a completed feature into main — it preserves history. Rebase when you want to update your feature branch with the latest changes from main — it keeps history linear and easier to read.
Git in practice at Junior Mentor
Every project at Junior Mentor uses a real Git workflow — feature branches, PRs, and mentor code reviews. By the time you graduate, you'll have months of professional Git history to show employers.
Enroll at Junior Mentor →Written by
Lungelo Khumalo
Backend Engineer & Mentor at Junior Mentor
