Branch
A parallel working copy of a project's code, where a change gets built without disturbing the version everyone else uses.
What it tells you about a developer
Fluency with branching workflows signals real experience on a shared team codebase. A history of branches, reviews, and merges is direct evidence that someone has worked alongside other developers.
A developer creates a branch, builds their change on it, then merges it back into the main branch after review. The main branch, which older projects call master, holds the official current version of the code. Branching is how a team works on one project at the same time without collisions.