Code Review

For me, code review is a critical phase in software development where the quality of code changes are examined by one or more developers on the team before merging into the main/master codebase. Its main goals are to ensure code quality and find errors early in the development process. After what I've learned everything about Pull Request, now I can go back to the other side, which is Code Review. Here is what I've learned about code review throughout my journey:

1. Preparation: Reviewers should familiarize themselves with the context of the changes before starting the review. That's why include Jira ticket or familiar tools in a PR is one of the best way to speeds up the code review process.
2. Self-Review: Before submitting code for review, I usually encourage myself to self-review my code as a pre-check.
3. Limit the Scope: Code reviews should be concise and focused. This is done so that the code changes can quickly enter the main/master codebase and the review process does not take a long time.
4. Performance Considerations: Review for potential performance impacts, like changes in algorithms, database queries, or loops.
5. Consider User Impact: Review code not only for technical quality but also user impact, such as changes to improve the user experience.
6. Automate automate automate: Use tools to automate repetitive tasks such as syntax checking and code formatting.
7. Two-Way Communication: Effective code reviews are dialogues, not monologues. This is the way~
8. Constructive Feedback: Feedback should be specific, actionable, and kindly phrased to encourage improvement without personal criticism.

Code Review References

Here I got several references or articles from big tech companies about how they do a code review:

1. Yelp's Code Review Guideline
2. Meta Code Review
3. Google Code Review
4. Code Review @ Medium