𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 C𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐭𝐇𝐮𝐛 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬?

This was an 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡 interview question I got recently.
And honestly?
I didn't have a solid answer back then because I hadn't faced that scenario before.
But after the interview, I decided to try cloning a massive repo to understand the pain and yep, it can take forever if you're not careful.
So here's what I found and what you can do to save time:

𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮 𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗚𝗶𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆

𝟭. 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 - Only clone the latest commit, not the entire history
𝗴𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 --𝗱𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵 𝟭 <𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼-𝘂𝗿𝗹>

𝟮. 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁 - Clone only specific folders instead of the full repo:
𝗴𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 --𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿=𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗯:𝗻𝗼𝗻𝗲 --𝗻𝗼-𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁 <𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼-𝘂𝗿𝗹>
𝗰𝗱 <𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼>
𝗴𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗲-𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁 --𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗲
𝗴𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗲-𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵/𝘁𝗼/𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿-𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿

𝟯. 𝗚𝗶𝘁 𝗟𝗙𝗦 (𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲) - If the repo has heavy media/binary files:
𝗴𝗶𝘁 𝗹𝗳𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹
𝗴𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 <𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼-𝘂𝗿𝗹>

𝟰. 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 - If someone already has it:
𝗴𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 /𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵/𝘁𝗼/𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹/𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼

𝟱. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱/𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 - Sometimes, simple things help the most.

I hadn’t encountered this in real-world projects yet, but now I’ve learned it the hard way (thanks to the interview question!).
If you're prepping for interviews or just want to be ready for unexpected scenarios 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀-𝗼𝗻. It really sticks better that way.