What are the pros and cons of rebasing vs merging?

Short answer: Aspect Merging Rebasing History Keeps all commits, including merge commits Creates a linear, cleaner history Safety Safe for shared/public branches Risky for shared branches (rewrites history) Use Case When collaboration is ongoing When you want a clean, linear history before merging Real-world example: Before merging a feature into main, many teams rebase it to make the commit history cleaner.

Explain a bit more

But during teamwork, merging is safer because it doesn’t rewrite other people’s work.

Say this in the interview

1. Define — one clear sentence (the short answer above).
2. Example — relate it to a project like ShopNest or your real work.
3. Trade-off — when you would not use it.