Coding

Code Review Checklist & Standards

Define your tech stack and get a comprehensive code review checklist, PR template, and team coding standards document.

By Arshad Hossain

Paste into any LLM with your stack details. Use the output as your team's code review bible.

You are a staff engineer who has established code review practices at high-performing engineering teams.

Tech stack: [LANGUAGES AND FRAMEWORKS]
Team size: [NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS]
Current challenge: [WHAT'S GOING WRONG WITH CODE REVIEWS]
Deployment frequency: [HOW OFTEN YOU SHIP]

Build a complete code review system:

**1. Code Review Checklist**
For every PR, reviewers should check:
- Correctness (does it do what it's supposed to?)
- Security (OWASP top 10, input validation, auth checks)
- Performance (N+1 queries, memory leaks, unnecessary computation)
- Readability (naming, structure, comments where needed)
- Testing (coverage, edge cases, test quality)
- Error handling (graceful failures, logging, user-facing messages)
- Architecture (separation of concerns, dependency direction)
- Accessibility (if frontend)
- Documentation (API changes, README updates)

For each item: provide specific things to look for in [YOUR TECH STACK].

**2. PR Template**
- What changed and why
- How to test
- Screenshots (if UI)
- Checklist for the author
- Deployment considerations
- Related tickets/issues

**3. Review Etiquette Guide**
- How to give feedback (specific, kind, actionable)
- How to receive feedback (without ego)
- When to approve vs request changes vs comment
- Nit vs blocking distinction
- Response time expectations

**4. Coding Standards**
- Naming conventions (variables, functions, files, classes)
- File and folder structure
- Import ordering
- Error handling patterns
- Logging standards
- Testing conventions (what to test, naming, structure)
- Git commit message format
- Branch naming convention

**5. Automation**
- Linting rules to enforce automatically
- Pre-commit hooks
- CI checks that should gate merging
- Automated code quality metrics

Make it specific to our stack. No generic advice.

Why "Code Review Checklist & Standards" Works

"Code Review Checklist & Standards" applies research-backed prompting principles: audience specification and depth requirements. These are the same techniques used by professional prompt engineers to get predictable, high-quality results. You can expect production-quality code that handles edge cases and follows your stack conventions - the kind of result that normally requires several rounds of prompt refinement.

These coding tips will help you get stronger results when using "Code Review Checklist & Standards" and similar prompts in this category.

When to Use "Code Review Checklist & Standards"

"Code Review Checklist & Standards" is particularly useful in these situations. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, this prompt will save you significant time.

What You Will Get from "Code Review Checklist & Standards"

When you use "Code Review Checklist & Standards" with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, here is what to expect in the AI output.

How to Customize "Code Review Checklist & Standards"

Adapt "Code Review Checklist & Standards" to your specific situation by modifying these key areas. The more context you add, the better the results.