Hey, Developer, Does Your Code Smell Good?

How to Spot and Fix Code Smells Before They Become a Nightmare

Photo by Pankaj Patel on Unsplash

A Code Smell That Almost Tanked a Major Project

I still remember the time my code turned a straightforward client demo into a high-stress fire drill. It wasn’t catastrophic, but it was close — and I was at the center of it.

I’d been up late building a key feature for a client presentation. Everything seemed fine in development, but once it hit production, the cracks started showing. Performance issues, bugs, and errors began to pile up like an avalanche. The root cause? A sprawling, unreadable function packed with nested if statements.

When my team lead reviewed the code, he leaned back, smirked, and said, “This code smells.”

That phrase stuck with me. I realized that writing code isn’t just about making it run; it’s about making it robust, maintainable, and collaborative.

What Are Code Smells, Really?

“Code smells” are those subtle hints in your codebase that something’s off. They don’t always break your app immediately, but they’re red flags for potential problems down the road.

Think of it like finding rust on a car. It’s not a breakdown today, but if you ignore it, you’ll end up…