How Does Conflict Exist?

New Git learners often worry about conflicts. If we plan our branches carefully, the conflicts are usually not difficult to fix.

Merge different branches versus fast-forward

Conflict exists when we merge two branches that edit the same line of the source file or if a file is deleted in one branch but its contents are updated in another. Conflicts don’t happen when the merge is fast-forwarding. It may occur when the git merge merges two different branches, but Git doesn’t know which change it should keep and which one it should discard.