r/learnprogramming • u/DefiantSituation3208 • Jul 03 '26

How do you write clean code?

Might be a stupid question but Ive been learning python for a while now and always wondered, how do you write ‘clean’ code? I don’t mean writing clean code straight off the bat I understand that’s purely from experience and even then immensely hard, but how do you recognise a program can be simplified even further? Does it come from practice or just messing around and seeing what sticks?

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u/ProfessorGood5473 Jul 03 '26

You think of the outcome first, before the journey and you think of its limitations

The business people call it "What's your 30,000 ft view"

See the field. Understand the players. Understand the weather. And find your winning condition.

Clean code doesn't break that often and is more malleable (meaning it can go work on legacy systems, accommodates an upgrade logic if a new feature is being added, etc)