Reading other people’s code is a good way to learn. You gain insight into how other people solve a problem, and you see what makes code readable and understandable to you.

While it may feel like the focus of the course is on writing code, programmers generally spend more time reading it. Remember the target audience of your code is other humans, not the computer.

How we code review

Before code review

Make sure your own project is ready to be reviewed:

• Push the latest changes to GitHub
• Make sure the code you want reviewed is merged into the main branch
• Deploy the latest version so it can be viewed online
• Make sure there’s a README.md that describes the project
  • The readme must contain instructions on running the project locally
  • If there are required secrets share them privately with your cohort

Do not work on your own project during code review time.

This makes the team you’re reviewing miss out on valuable feedback, and it’s hard to review your code if it keeps changing.

The reviewing process

You’ll be swapping with another team. They review your project and you review theirs.

• Open the repo on GitHub and read the readme
• Open the deployed version and play around with the UI
• Does the project meet the user stories for that week?
• Does it demonstrate the learning outcomes for that week?
• Can you see any obvious bugs or areas to improve?
• Clone the repo and follow the instructions to run it locally