A guide to write better code with the help of the SOLID Design Principles, illustrated by Python examples
As someone who recently started working as a Software Engineer with no formal Computer Science background, I have struggled a lot with coming up with sensible low-level designs and structuring code the right way. Initially, it helped me a lot to think of a checklist of 5 principles to follow, which I will share with you in this post.
SOLID Design Principles
SOLID is the acronym for a collection of 5 object-oriented design principles, first conceptualised by Robert C. Martin about 20 years ago, and they have shaped the way we write software today.
They are meant to help creating simpler, more easily understandable, maintainable and expandable code. This becomes essential when a large group of people is working on codebases that are always growing and evolving, often made up of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of lines of code. The principles are signposting the way to maintaining good practice, and writing better quality code.
The letters stand for:
- Single Responsibility Principle
- Open/Closed Principle
- Liskov Substitution Principle
- Interface Segregation Principle
- Dependency Inversion Principle
They are all simple concepts that are easy to grasp, but really valuable when writing industry-standard code.
#software-design #software-development #python #solid
