<p>DMF has become a multifaceted solvent and is significantly contributing to synthetic organic transformations. DMF enhances solubility and reactivity while also acting as a moderate C1 source or stabilizing agent in numerous organic transformations. Quinoline-C3-carbaldehyde is a recognized starting precursor that can be transformed into a wide array of quinoline based scaffolds. The literature revealed that DMF has been employed in the synthetic exploration of quinoline-C3-carbaldehyde towards the development of quinoline based molecular hybrids. Multiple transformations, such as the Heck reaction, Michael addition, Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, Sonogashira coupling, cross-coupling, C-H functionalization, [3 + 2] cyclization, deamidation, dehydrogenation, aromatization, nucleophilic/electrophilic substitution, and various transition-metal catalyzed reactions, were successfully executed in the past years to unfold the role of DMF as a solvent. This is the first review that underscores the significant use of DMF in the synthetic exploration of quinoline-C3-carbaldehyde to construct interesting and valuable quinoline based molecular architectures.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>