Hacker News Reader

The problem is that doing a proper code review is actually hard and thankless work. It’s one thing to skim a medium sized change and another to actually go through every line and every condition, consider second order effects, check what’s missing in the change, etc.

I’ve seen estimates that it takes 1h to properly review 400 LOC and the reviewer then needs a long break after that time regardless of whether they’re done reviewing or not.

View on HN

I've argued to management that it's no less than 50% of the time it took to develop. If you're actually reviewing functionality, you need to understand the original ticket, and at least loosely architect it in your mind.

Anything less than that is basically just checking code style or egregious errors.

If your work isn't being adequately acknowledged and appreciated, that's a major culture problem. I've never felt that my code reviews were thankless. In fact, as I've become a more senior developer on the team, I've found that my code reviews or suggestions can sometimes crowd out acknowledgment for more junior members, so I try to redirect praise where appropriate—code reviews are in my mind the most pure expression of pair programming, where you get a collaborative outcome that's better than either the programmer or the reviewer would be able to achieve independently.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com