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Before Writing Code, Search the Codebase: A Lesson in Avoiding Duplication

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A fictional mentorship series follows an experienced engineer guiding his nephew through real-world software development practices. In this episode, the uncle advises against immediately writing new code when requirements are ready, urging the nephew to first search the existing codebase using synonyms of the feature name. The nephew discovers a pre-existing FavoritesService and database table that covers much of the Wishlist feature's functionality. The uncle introduces a three-step framework — Search, Understand, Extend — to help developers reuse and adapt existing code rather than duplicate logic. The core lesson is that senior engineers distinguish themselves not by how much they build, but by how little new code they need to write to solve a problem.

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Before Writing Code, Search the Codebase: A Lesson in Avoiding Duplication · ShortSingh