Coding secrets: practical tricks to code faster and cleaner
A startling fact: about 80% of bugs often come from 20% of the code. That means small changes in how you write and approach code can cut huge amounts of pain. This page collects real, usable coding secrets—no fluff—so you can ship more, stress less, and keep your sanity.
Fast habits that actually work
Name things clearly. If a variable or function needs a sentence to explain it, rename it. Clear names save mental time when you return to code days later.
Small functions beat giant ones. Break ideas into focused functions that do one thing. They’re easier to test, read, and reuse.
Use your editor like a superpower. Learn search/replace, multi-cursor, snippets, and at least five keyboard shortcuts. If you can shave seconds off repeated tasks, those add up every day.
Automate repetitive work. Use scripts, templates, and simple generators for boilerplate. If you copy-paste the same block more than twice, automate it.
Write tests for tricky bits first. You don’t need 100% coverage—start with edge cases and the logic that breaks most often. Tests speed up debugging later, not slow you down.
Debugging secrets you’ll use tomorrow
Read the stack trace before guessing. The trace is a map to the problem. Look for the first file in your codebase, not the last error line.
Binary search your bug. Comment out or disable half the code path to find which half contains the issue. It’s faster than stepping through every line.
Use logging strategically. Add context (user id, request id, key inputs) and log levels. When a bug hits in production, logs are your fastest way to understand what happened.
Learn one profiler and use it. CPU and memory hotspots are usually obvious once you profile—don’t guess where the slow part is.
When stuck, explain the problem out loud or to a rubber duck. Talking forces you to structure your thinking and often reveals the bug.
Commit small, often, with clear messages. Small commits and feature branches make pull requests easy to review and roll back if needed.
Use linters and type checks. They catch trivial mistakes before you run anything. Types also document how functions are used, which reduces misunderstanding.
Refactor mercilessly for clarity, not style points. Clean code costs time up front but saves weeks later when you add features or fix bugs.
Finally, learn one reliable library or framework well instead of half-using five. Depth beats breadth when you need to move fast under pressure.
If you adopt just a few of these habits—clear names, small functions, tests for edge cases, smart logging, and frequent commits—you’ll notice fewer late-night bug hunts and faster feature delivery. Try one change this week and measure the difference next week.
