How do you perform a thorough code review?
Company: Salesforce
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Software Engineering Fundamentals
Difficulty: hard
Interview Round: Take-home Project
You are given several Python backend files to review (treat this as an “OA in code-review format”). The code performs database operations such as SQL INSERTs and SELECT queries.
Your task:
1) Write at least 10 code-review comments, each focusing on a different area (security, correctness, data modeling, concurrency, reliability, maintainability, etc.).
2) Identify likely issues such as:
- Hard-coded secrets/credentials
- Problems in the SQL schema/design
- Race conditions or missing transactional safeguards
3) For each issue you raise, propose a concrete fix or improvement (code change, schema change, configuration change, or testing/monitoring addition).
Assume you cannot run the code; you must review it from reading only.
Quick Answer: This task evaluates a candidate's code-review proficiency across security, correctness, data modeling, concurrency, reliability, and maintainability when inspecting Python backend and SQL-based database code, and is categorized under Software Engineering Fundamentals.