Technical craft
Code Review
4 lessons · ~23 min total
01
What review is for
~6 minReview against the bar the change needs to clear, not against the code you would have written.
Key takeaways
- Review against the change's purpose, not a single fixed standard
- Concentrate attention on what is expensive to reverse
- Cheap-to-change details can be merely fine
02
Comments that get acted on
~6 minWrite review comments that separate a blocker from a preference, and that say what to do.
Key takeaways
- Label every comment blocking, suggestion, or question
- Name the consequence and the change you would accept
- Lead with the blocker rather than burying it among preferences
03
Review as teaching, not gatekeeping
~6 minRaise the bar over time without making review a status contest or a bottleneck.
Key takeaways
- Give the reason behind a convention, not just the rule
- Reasons let the author tell you when the reason does not apply
- Volume of comments on an early PR trades independence for compliance
04
Receiving review well
~5 minHandle comments on your own work so the discussion stays about the code and finishes quickly.
Key takeaways
- Answer a review comment with a specific claim about the code
- Arguing about the act of reviewing starts a second conversation that cannot be resolved
- Silently accepting a comment you disagree with discards context only you have
Try a sample check
A sample from the Code Review track. The real checks unlock with an account.
Code Review
Reviewing a colleague’s pull request, you spot something you would have written differently. Which comment is most likely to be acted on correctly the first time?
Start Code Review.
Your first lesson takes five minutes, and you can do it right now without an account.