140 Tips for Clean Code is a practical, experience-driven guide for developers who want to write better software every day, not someday. Distilled from three decades of hands-on software development across multiple programming languages, this book delivers hard-won insights into what actually makes code clean, maintainable, and resilient in real-world systems. It is written for practitioners who value clarity, discipline, and craftsmanship over theory and buzzwords.
This is not an academic treatise or a collection of abstract opinions. At 200 pages, the book is intentionally dense and focused, offering 140 carefully curated tips with zero filler. Each tip is designed to be immediately actionable, allowing busy developers to apply improvements directly to their daily work. Whether you are refactoring legacy code, designing new systems, or reviewing pull requests, the guidance in this book is meant to pay off immediately.
The tips span the full spectrum of modern software development including topics such as:
- Clean code definition, fundamentals, benefits and psychology
- KISS, YAGNI and DRY
- Object-oriented programming: Basics and beyond
- SOLID principles deep-dive
- Functional programming: How to apply SOLID and clean architecture
- Design patterns: Essentials only
- Domain-driven design: Strategic and tactical
- Architecture: SoC, layered, DDD, clean, vertical slice, screaming
- Code organization
- Programming: refactoring, avoiding common code smells and unnecessary comments
- Naming conventions and strategies
- Collaboration
- Quality control
- AI-assisted development
140 Tips for Clean Code is written to elevate developers at every level focusing on all important areas where small decisions compound into long-term success or failure. Junior engineers gain a clear mental model for writing professional-grade code, while senior developers and architects will sharpen their instincts and validate, or challenge, their existing practices. If you are serious about improving the quality of your code and the longevity of your systems, this booklet serves as a concise, authoritative companion you will return to repeatedly.
