28
votes
Accepted
Code that handles n% of test cases but not all
If the code produces wrong answers for some test cases, then the author is aware that the code is not working correctly as intended, and the question is thus prima facie off-topic for Code Review.
...
- 144k
27
votes
Accepted
Can I request that someone look over my legal code?
Based on the guidelines in the Help Center, questions asking to review license text would be off-topic, as it's not code.
If you have a specific question about a legal principle related to licensing, ...
- 144k
22
votes
Is asking for a review of boiler plate for a minimal repro okay?
The line between real and hypothetical code is sometimes blurry, but I would consider this code sample to be on the wrong side of the line for Code Review. Code that contains ...
- 144k
21
votes
Can I request that someone look over my legal code?
No.
Code Review is for the review of "code" in the sense of interpreted or compiled programming languages. Not for any other sort of "code" such as "legal code".
- 25.2k
21
votes
Accepted
Is asking about open source code OK?
In a code review, the person doing the code review is the one who should be asking the questions, like: "Why did you put that line of code in there? What does it do?"
It's back to front to ask: "Hey, ...
- 97.3k
20
votes
Accepted
Reviewing Programming Challenge requirements and givens
Is it on-topic to review a challenge's requirements? To the extent that the requirements force bad code, Yes.
The core of every question at Code Review is "How can I make this code better?" It is not ...
- 1,016
19
votes
Accepted
Can I ask for review for something specific without posting too much context?
Strictly speaking, Code Review requires you to post real code from a project that you are working on.
In practical terms, though, any plausible realistic code is acceptable too. If your real project ...
- 144k
18
votes
Accepted
Should I post about my design and architectural concerns on Code Review or Software Engineering?
Short answer: Will you be posting your actual existing, working code? If yes, then I believe Code Review is better.
Our help center does state:
However, if your question is not about a particular ...
- 59.1k
17
votes
If SO had a standard off-topic reason for code review requests, how should it be worded?
Some wording we came up with in chat:
Questions about reviewing or improving existing, working code and lacking a specific question statement are off-topic for Stack Overflow. You may be able to ...
- 20.1k
17
votes
Accepted
"Who Wrote This?" and What Do We Actually Consider Authorship?
I think the close vote is inappropriate.
The close reason says "author or maintainer".
In this case I think it makes sense to assume that the poster is the maintainer of the cloned code,
especially ...
- 111k
16
votes
Accepted
Are you allowed to post incomplete programs that you still want reviewed?
The help center helps out:
I'm confused! What questions are on-topic for this site?
Simply ask yourself the following questions. To be on-topic the answer must be "yes" to all questions:
...
MastMod
- 13.1k
16
votes
Are vectorization requests on-topic?
I'm going to come off a bit harsh with this, but wow does that tag need help.
I think that, in the case of vectorization, the tag itself has a lot of problems.
First off, the tag-usage wiki doesn't ...
- 20.1k
15
votes
Accepted
What should we do about questions asking to "fix" warnings?
The same thing we do when someone asks us to optimise a specific section of code: We review any and all facets of the code.
I wouldn't strictly say we ignore their comment so much as we're not ...
- 3,763
15
votes
Accepted
Rehash “How secure is my X” cryptography questions
With so many Stack Exchange sites, there is bound to be some overlap of scopes. And that's OK. The important principle to note is that a question being a better fit elsewhere is not a sufficient ...
- 144k
15
votes
Accepted
They asked me to write awkward code – how did I do?
Should I refrain from answering such questions in the future?
You should refrain from answering off-topic questions. This was not an off-topic question.
All on-topic questions should be answered. ...
MastMod
- 13.1k
14
votes
Accepted
What are the conditions for asking a Wolfram Mathematica question here?
There are a couple of things Code Review wants from a question.
There must be code. (We're not a code writing service)
The code must be in the question. (Not on a third party site)
The code must work ...
PeilonrayzMod
- 42.7k
14
votes
Are questions with undiscovered bugs allowed?
For this particular case, it's a common beginner error, that wouldn't show up during runtime unless the out-of-bounds reads lead to a win because it happened to look like 4 in a row. I've had plenty ...
- 5,178
14
votes
Accepted
Acceptability of questions about checking for race conditions
If you know that your code has a race condition then it is broken. Take it home and fix it then bring it back. If it might have a race condition but you just aren't certain then it certainly falls ...
- 2,334
14
votes
Is a changeset reviewable?
I'm not asking to review the code
This alone dismisses the idea of a meta-review as invalid, for me. We only review code. The OP could easily just post the new code and receive valuable feedback ...
- 59k
13
votes
Accepted
I think my code might have a bug, but I am not sure if it actually does, is it broken code?
If that message isn't the intended behavior, and you're looking for a solution to that specific issue, the right thing to do is to post a MCVE that reproduces the problem on Stack Overflow.
If that ...
- 75k
13
votes
Are questions with undiscovered bugs allowed?
If you ask yourself:
Can you play a game of connect four with their code?
And your answer is:
Yes, except in some special case - which someone may be unlikely to test.
Then no the question ...
PeilonrayzMod
- 42.7k
12
votes
One Question Per Question
The size of the post should not be a major consideration. We've had questions about everything from one-liners up to the 64 kB limit.
Rather, the issue is whether there is unity in the question — a ...
- 144k
12
votes
Accepted
Clarification as to why a question was closed as off-topic
When the question was posted, your question was probably perfectly on-topic. However, as sites grow and evolve, their scope and requirements for on-topic questions change.
In this case, it is ...
- 59.1k
12
votes
Accepted
Is nitpicking worthy of a full answer?
What is left after that are details: naming conventions, style conventions, things that are not bugs that affect results, things that are not important.
I beg to differ. Readability is a major point ...
MastMod
- 13.1k
12
votes
Does a single shell command constitute reviewable code?
Short answer: Yes.
Longer Answer: As long as it works and all requirements for a request are met I see no reason why not; code length has never been an explicit requirement of any review request.
...
- 9,819
12
votes
Accepted
Can I include a short story of implementation?
There is an existing mechanism to deal with "I had this specific problem X and fixed it using Y" in the context of the Stackexchange network:
A self-answered question. Since you're describing ...
- 25.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Can I ask to review my ebuild or rpmspec file?
Sure, questions like that would be on-topic. I would consider them similar to makefile and dockerfile questions. We encourage you to post your scripts for review.
- 144k
12
votes
When are Machine Learning questions on-topic?
I'll replace the "Machine Learning" parts of your question with "code" to keep it simple. After all, that's what it is.
"My code is learning too slow"
But it works, right? If that's the only issue,...
MastMod
- 13.1k
12
votes
Are vectorization requests on-topic?
Specific question
Since I hammer-closed the question, and I added the comment, let me explain the reasoning I had, starting with a hypothetical case:
Hypothetically, someone asks a question: "this ...
- 97.3k
12
votes
Accepted
Requesting a comparative review of own code with third-party code
Code Review only allows for reviews of code that is written/maintained by the author. We have that requirement for multiple reasons, including legal (copyright) and moral (to avoid code-shaming).
...
- 144k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible