Code Reviews

A code review is when a software engineer checks another engineer's code before it goes to production. This can help prevent bugs, improve code quality, share knowledge, encourage mentorship, and improve overall development velocity.

What You'll Learn

Intro to Code Reviews
Guidance for the Code Author
Guidance for the Code Reviewer
Example Code Review Policies
Further Reading

Intro to Code Reviews
- My Code Review Journey
  Jonathan Stanton, Software Engineer, Convoy
  One engineer's journey to discovering the value of code reviews. Includes helpful advice for all parties in a code review system: authors, reviewers, and leaders.
Guidance for the Code Author
- Writing pull requests your coworkers might enjoy reading
  Ryan Greenberg, Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Slack
  A Twitter engineer shares advice for getting people to review your code: discuss code changes beforehand, make them small, and describe them clearly.
- The 10 commandments of navigating code reviews
  Angie Jones, Principal Developer Advocate, Applitools
  Angie discusses how code review feedback can often lack thoughtfulness, and how to take it in stride.
Guidance for the Code Reviewer
- How to Do Code Reviews Like a Human (Part One)
  Michael Lynch, Software Engineer, Google
  Michael explains what is a code review and why are they hard, and then covers 8 techniques for how to do them well: Let computers do the boring parts; Settle style arguments with a style guide; Start reviewing immediately; Start high level and work your way down; Be generous with code examples; Never say “you”; Frame feedback as requests, not commands; Tie notes to principles, not opinions
- What to look for in a code review
  Google, Editorial Team, Google
  In Google's internal documentation for code reviews, they cover these categories of what to look for: Design, Functionality, Complexity, Tests, Naming, Comments, Style, Consistency, Documentation, Every Line, Context, & Good Things
- Code Review Best Practices
  Kevin London, Software Development Engineer II, Amazon
- A Guide to Mindful Communication in Code Reviews
  Amy Ciavolino, Engineering Manager, Kickstarter
  Amy offers some tips for both code reviewers and authors on practicing mindful communication to maximize the teaching and learning value of code reviews.
Example Code Review Policies
- GitLab's Code Review Guidelines
  GitLab, Editorial Team, GitLab
  Gitlab's code review guidelines for GitLab team members and wider community members to ensure code is effective, understandable, maintainable, and secure.
- Code Review Guidelines
  Jonathan Maltz, Software Engineer, Yelp
  Yelp's code review goals, guidelines and checklists.
- On Code Review
  Glen D Sanford, Software Engineer, Slack
  Glen emphasizes that code review should be the top priority for all team members, and offers advice to reviewers and submitters.
Further Reading
- Characteristics of Useful Code Reviews: An Empirical Study at Microsoft
  Michaela Greiler, Software Engineer, Microsoft
  An in-depth, quantitative study on the effectiveness of code reviews.

BestPracticer

Code Reviews

What You'll Learn

Intro to Code Reviews

Guidance for the Code Author

Guidance for the Code Reviewer

Example Code Review Policies

Further Reading

Related Skills