Code Review
What review is actually for, and how to give and take feedback without burning a week.
5 topics
What code review is for
Review exists to keep the codebase healthy over time and spread context through the team — catching bugs is a side effect, not the goal.
core20 minWhat to look for in a review
Read the change in priority order — design, then correctness, then failure modes, then naming — and stop arguing about anything a tool could enforce.
core22 minGiving review feedback
Say what and why, mark what's optional, ask instead of asserting when you might be wrong, and get the first response back fast.
core18 minReceiving feedback & disagreement
Treat review comments as questions about the code rather than judgements of you, and escalate unresolved disagreement on facts rather than on seniority.
core18 minKeeping changes small
Review quality falls off a cliff past a few hundred lines, so the highest-leverage review skill is splitting work before anyone reads it.
core18 min