# Study of Google Critique: Taking the pain out of Code Reviews

**URL:** <https://discuss.coding.social/t/study-of-google-critique-taking-the-pain-out-of-code-reviews/478>\
**Category:** SX solution development\
**Tags:** best-practice\
**Created:** [December 4, 2023, 4:46pm UTC](https://discuss.coding.social/t/study-of-google-critique-taking-the-pain-out-of-code-reviews/478 "2023-12-04T16:46:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aschrijver](https://discuss.coding.social/user_avatar/discuss.coding.social/aschrijver/32/3_2.png) [@aschrijver](https://discuss.coding.social/u/aschrijver)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 4:46pm UTC](https://discuss.coding.social/t/study-of-google-critique-taking-the-pain-out-of-code-reviews/478/1 "2023-12-04T16:46:59Z")

</div>

> **[How Google takes the pain out of code reviews, with 97% dev satisfaction](https://engineercodex.substack.com/p/how-google-takes-the-pain-out-of)**
>
> A study of Google's code review tooling (Critique), AI-powered improvements, and recent statistics

This article focuses on Google’s code review tool Critique, used by Googlers internally. The article was also [discussed on HN](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38518473). Posting here, since this tool is deeply loved by people using it.

The article also highlights Code Review best-practices used by Google and informing the tool design. Referenced are:

- [How Google writes clean, maintainable code](https://engineercodex.substack.com/p/how-google-writes-clean-maintainable)
- [The Standard of Code Review | eng-practices](https://google.github.io/eng-practices/review/reviewer/standard.html)
- [Google Style Guides | styleguide](https://google.github.io/styleguide/)

Note: Google uses a modified Perforce VCS internally and follows terminology of [“Changelists”](https://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.051/manuals/p4guide/07_changelists.html) instead of Pull Requests / Merge Requests.

Here are some Code Review best-practice bullet points:

- **Continuous improvement over perfection**
- **Maintain or improve the health of the codebase**
- **Follow the Style Guide**
- **Always Share Knowledge**
- **Write Small Changes**
- **Strict Standards for Lightweightness**
- **Politeness and Professionalism**

The article explains in detail the workflow that is followed and why Critique is so well-loved. A recommended read.

Note: [CodeApprove](https://codeapprove.com/), created by an ex-googler, is inspired by Critique, and works enhances Github PR’s.