How to Give Effective Code Reviews

Code reviews are one of the highest-leverage activities an engineer can do. But bad reviews waste everyone’s time.

Focus on What Matters

Don’t nitpick formatting — use linters for that. Focus on logic, architecture, and potential bugs.

Instead of “this is wrong,” say “this could cause a null pointer if X happens — consider adding a check here.”

Large PRs get rubber-stamped. Encourage smaller, focused pull requests that are easier to review thoroughly.

Static analysis, formatting, and test coverage should be automated. Save human reviews for what machines can’t catch.