Pitfalls for new Developers!

In the last few years while doing code review of junior developers I have noticed several recurring programming pitfalls. Goes on to say, if unchecked such sub-par coding will lead to buggy production releases and also cause Performance SLA breaches. In this post I will be sharing these points which may help junior developers to put them to use in their own code.

Reflecting at past few years of my own coding experience, I have been lucky to get few bugs in my code. I always thought I was lucky as I didn’t do anything special in my code. But recently I scoured through the internet and found a couple of programming best practices. I realized unknowingly I had been following these practices all along.

Before you go any further, I reckon you may be interested in a Step-by-step guide of preparing for Product based company interview. Here is the link for that Guide for you. Alright, here’s the list of pitfalls for new developers and they are reworded to sound funny and be less boring for you:

• Between Code-Optimization & Code-Readability, choose Code Readability. Always.

• Kids write huge monolithic function. Legends keep it simple: One method – one task.

• Modular code is our mantra. We always write Modular code. Wait, what is “Modular code” again?

• Writing Single line fancy code is cool. But then, verbose code gets fewer bugs in production.

• Avoid Fancy code 101: Choose Switch-case instead of Ternary operator or huge single line if block.

• Avoid Fancy code 101: Always use Curly braces {} around if-else, switch-case and for loops

• I promise to maintain my written Code for the next 10 years. So I will not write Comments in my code. Would you promise the same?

• I have the sharpest Memory in my entire team. I remember all my code. So I will not write Comments in my code. What about you?

• Loosely coupled code, Modular code & Refactored code are the same thing. Google them today.

• Your b.ful Code has right to get reviewed. Remember your rights. Ask for code review and feedback every time.

• Move repetitive code into a generic utility function. At least try once, you will thank me later.

• Write a sufficient amount of debug logs in your code. Remember overconfidence killed the cat.

• Feel proud if you could write 5 Unit test cases for just 1 new Function you wrote.

• Unit-test and Code-coverage are different things. Google “Code coverage” today.

• Global variables are your enemy. Avoid them in your code, if you can.

• Integration testing and Unit-testing are not the same. What are you testing?

• ‘My test-case is my test-case, none of your test-case’ :) Well, all I am sayin’ is: Don’t share your test-cases with your Tester teammate.

• Add documentation for each function you write. You will forget in 6 months what your own Function does.

• Adopt Functional programming constructs like Map, reduce, Filters in your code. Declarative code is fun to write and more readable.

• Immutable variables have saved many lives. Try final or const(whichever keyword your Language supports) variables today in your code.

• NullPointer exception misses you a lot. Let it miss you more, put the Null check in your code.

• Your function has dozens of if-else blocks? Smells like data handling in the name of business logic. Move data out of the code into separate file eg. .json/.yaml/.xml

• It is tempting to catch the Parent/Generic exception, isn’t it? It’s sinful, don’t do that, catch and handle particular exception.

• Did you forget to Close the Resources your Code consumed, such as IO connection, DB connection?

• Always let your Function Handle the Exception, don’t wait for your calling/parent function to handle it. Don’t be lazy.

• Updating a List/Map while iterating over it is Bad programming. Use functional programming concept of Map-Reduce instead.

• 80% of the time you are working on someone else’s legacy code. Respect others, Write simpler readable code.

• Cover edge cases in your code. Don’t wait for the tester to find them and log a bug in your name

• Write functions that work on Immutable variables. You will thank me later in a Multithreaded environment.

• Don’t write code logic in Exception Catch block. High-schoolers do that. Wait, are you a high-schooler?

• Design patterns are god-sent tools. Google and use them in your code today

Happy coding fellas!!

Image credit: Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash