Scenario:

You have a Git repository at /home/interview/repo where your feature-refactor branch has four commits in the wrong logical order. The commits should be reversed (oldest to newest becomes newest to oldest) to make more sense for code review. You need to rebase this branch onto the latest main branch while reversing the commit order.

Task:

Navigate to /home/interview/repo, rebase feature-refactor onto main while reversing all commits using interactive rebase, and verify the commits appear in the correct reversed sequence with all changes preserved.

Step 1: Navigate to the repository and view current commit order

cd /home/interview/repo
git log --oneline main..feature-refactor

Step 2: Start interactive rebase

git rebase -i main

Begins interactive rebase onto main branch. Interactive rebase allows manual reordering of commits before replay.

Step 3: Reorder commits in editor

The editor opens showing commits in chronological order (oldest first) with their actual hashes:

pick <hash1> Implement core logic
pick <hash2> Update API documentation
pick <hash3> Refactor error handling
pick <hash4> Add final integration tests

Important: Keep the exact commit hashes shown by Git. Only change the order by moving lines. To reverse, rearrange to:

pick <hash4> Add final integration tests
pick <hash3> Refactor error handling
pick <hash2> Update API documentation
pick <hash1> Implement core logic

Save and close. Git replays commits in the new order. Commit hashes change because parent commits change, but actual code changes remain identical.

Step 4: Verify rebase succeeded

git log --oneline main..feature-refactor

Status should show rebase completed. Log should show commits in reversed order with new hashes.