ArjanCodes
21 minutes
10 Tips to Keep Python Code Simple and Maintainable
Simple, maintainable code is achieved by applying a small set of software-design principles that minimize unnecessary code, duplication, complexity, and coupling: YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It), DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself), avoiding over-engineering, cohesion (single responsibility), meaningful naming, intent-revealing documentation, flat structure, automated testing, and continuous small-scale refactoring. These belong to software engineering and code design, where maintainability is treated as the cost of future change, and each principle trades up-front generality against long-term comprehension, testing, and modification effort.