I still remember my first pull request(we called it “diff” in FB) got rejected 5 times before it’s finally get approved. Like most noobs, I basically made all the mistakes I could which pushed reviewers impossible to allow it to be merged into the master branch. Fortunately, I was supported by a group of patient reviewers who listed out all the places I need to correct in the comments. These comments guided how to write a proper pull request, hold a high quality for myself, and never cut corners.

Fast forward to now, I’ve reviewed 1000+ pull requests across different languages(C++ to Javascript). As a tech lead, scoping out the engineering work and reviewing code are my top duties. Through these experiences, I’ve summarized a handful of tips that I believe could help you get your “Pull Request” approved faster.

Focused Change

“If you have a word ‘and’ in the subject line, you need to split”

Squeezing too many changes into one request is the #1 mistake. Reviewers are allergic to pull requests which can’t be explained in one short sentence. Long, complex code changes in single pull request make reviewers confused about your you want to accomplish and hard to validate.

#software-engineering #software-development #code-review #visual studio code