General Code Review Skill

A comprehensive code review methodology based on Google's engineering practices. Follow these 5 steps to perform effective and thorough code reviews.

Step 1: Pre-screen

Before diving into the code, perform a quick pre-screening:

Check Size

• Reasonable size: A change list of ~300 lines of code is typically reasonable
• Too large: Larger CLs should be strongly discouraged unless necessary
  • Leave a comment asking if the CL can be broken down into smaller, logically complete parts
  • Ask for the reason if breaking down is not possible
• Small is OK: Even single-line changes are fine as long as they are logically complete

Verify You're the Right Reviewer