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One Diff, One Thesis - What Every Code Review Should Be Like

10/06/2022

Here's the full masterclass session on code review, which is where this clip was taken from.

Core points:

  • Every commit and pull request (PR) you put out should have a singular focus. Don't just dump your entire feature into 1 massive 2,500 line PR; it's extremely difficult to review and you are robbing yourself of real technical feedback.
  • A good average range for a PR is 50-250 lines of code. If it's substantially higher than 250, there's a good chance your PR is simply too big.
  • Breaking up your pull requests will take more time initially (10-15 minutes), but it's completely worth it as it saves you time in the long-term. Smaller, more focused PRs get better feedback and are merged in faster.
  • Having this habit alongside all the other good code review behaviors (linked below) is one of the most straightforward way to get a stellar performance review as an earlier-in-career engineer. Conversely, not following these guidelines is one of the easiest ways to have bad performance as a software engineer.

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