Code Reading Club Session

Writing code and reading code are substantially different activities, particularly when dealing with code that is unfamiliar, authored by someone else, or written in a programming language you're not accustomed to. The ability to read code is a separate skill that is often overlooked, and even programmers lack proficiency or effectiveness in this area. Yet, the capacity to efficiently comprehend and interpret code is crucial for successfully navigating the technological landscape, regardless of one's specific role.

In this 100% hands-on, practical exercise, we will jointly examine an unknown piece of code and use different techniques to get an understanding of the how and why. It is a highly collaborative session in which we will explore some of the following questions:

• What can we do when we approach a piece of unfamiliar code?
• How can we use visualization techniques to understand the data flow?
• Which pieces of information can we use to understand what the code does?
• What can we learn about the decisions made in the code and their consequences?
• How do other people read code?

There is no right or wrong, no winner or competition: The goal is to reflect on how we read code and practice some techniques that can help to get a quicker and deeper understanding of the code.

This session is for all levels, but participants should have had some exposure to code (what are variables, functions, conditions).
The session can provide value for a lot of people in different roles adjacent to coding, but people without basic programming knowledge might get less value out of it.