Code reviews are essential, and here’s how I review code written in an unfamiliar language or an unfamiliar codebase
- Check for code readability
- Check for uniformity in code patterns
- Check for basic non-redundancy of logic
Once, these were pointed out, I started asking many questions to
- Gather context for the changes
- Ensure the correctness of the task it was supposed to accomplish
During the discussion, I try to probe enough to understand things myself (unfamiliar codebase) and challenge the understanding of the engineer. This helps me build the context and familiarity for future code reviews happening in the same codebase.
Once the heavy lifting is done, I take an opinion from someone who knows the language (if possible) to ensure that language-specific features are used correctly and standards are followed diligently.
These pointers seem quite stretched, but given we are unfamiliar with the codebase and language, spending time during initial code reviews means I would be more productive while reviewing other changes happening in the same codebase.
PS: I am not an expert, and these are things I follow, so please take this advice with a pinch of salt.
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