Code review
Code review is the practice of having another engineer evaluate proposed changes before they merge. It catches bugs, enforces style consistency, distributes knowledge across the team, and surfaces design issues before they ship. Code review is the single most-cited engineering practice in DORA research as a marker of high-performing teams.
Effective code review focuses on the things the author can't easily check alone: correctness in edge cases, readability for someone with less context, security implications, and whether the change is the smallest one that solves the problem. Reviews that focus on style nits or personal preferences slow teams down without improving quality — most teams move style enforcement to automated linters specifically to free review for higher-leverage feedback. Async review is the norm but high-stakes changes benefit from a synchronous walkthrough.
Long-form posts that explore code review in depth — when to use it, common failure modes, how AI helps.
Related terms
- Pull request
A pull request (PR) — also called a merge request in GitLab / Bitbucket — is a proposal to merge changes from one git branch into another, typically with code review and CI checks gating the merge.
- Trunk-based development
Trunk-based development is a source-control workflow where engineers integrate small changes to a single shared branch (trunk / main) at least once per day, gated by automated tests and feature flags rather than long-lived branches.
- Pair programming
Pair programming has two engineers at one workstation, alternating between driver (typing) and navigator (reviewing, suggesting, thinking ahead).