55 ChatGPT Prompts for Developers and Programmers

Act as a senior software engineer doing a thorough code review. Review this [language] code: [paste]. Evaluate: code quality and readability, potential bugs or edge cases, performance concerns, security vulnerabilities, adherence to best practices and SOLID principles, and test coverage gaps. Provide specific feedback and summarise the top 3 priority improvements.

You are a security-focused engineer. Perform a security audit on this code: [paste]. Identify: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF or auth vulnerabilities; hardcoded secrets; insecure dependencies; and input validation issues. For each: explain the risk, show the vulnerable line, and provide a secure replacement.

Act as a debugging expert. I have this bug in my [language] code: [describe]. Here is the code: [paste]. Error message: [error]. Walk me through: what could cause this, what to check first, the most likely root cause, and a fixed version with explanation of what was wrong and why the fix works.

You are a performance optimisation specialist. This function is running too slowly: [paste code]. It processes [describe scale]. Analyse time and space complexity, identify the bottleneck, and provide an optimised version with Big O explanation and trade-offs.

Act as a principal software architect. I need to design a system for [describe: e.g. 'real-time notification service for 1M users']. Walk me through: overall architecture, technology choices with justification, how you'd handle scale and reliability, data storage strategy, API design considerations, and what to build first as MVP vs later.

You are a database architect. Design a database schema for [application]. Requirements: [list]. Provide: an entity-relationship diagram in text format, complete SQL schema with data types and constraints, indexing strategy, and recommendations on relational vs NoSQL vs hybrid.

Act as a technical writer. Write comprehensive documentation for this function/API: [paste code]. Include: description of purpose, all parameters with types, return value, usage examples (at least 3), edge cases and error handling, and a brief 'Why this exists' section. Format in Markdown.

You are a TDD expert. Write a comprehensive test suite for this function: [paste code]. Include: unit tests for all happy paths, edge cases (null, empty, boundary), error scenarios. Use [Jest/PyTest/JUnit]. Aim for 100% branch coverage and explain your testing strategy.

Act as a patient programming tutor. Explain [concept] to me. Start with a real-world analogy, then explain the technical concept, show 3 progressively complex code examples, explain common beginner mistakes, and finish with a small coding challenge for me to try.