Get Smart with Smart Questions
24 Jan 2024How To Ask Questions like a Software Engineer
Every software engineer gets stuck from time to time in their line of work. Typically, when you are dealing with a difficult technical problem, asking for help or guidance from the community can be very effective in resolving your issue in a timely manner. However, the returns you might get from asking for help heavily depend on the quality of your question. Approaching asking questions in a smart way allows readers to understand your issue as efficiently as possible without possible confusion and to post your question in the appropriate forum so that it can reach the most amount of people. A smart question is something that could not be easily resolved through a quick google search and is not answered explicitly in a manual/guide. You will know if your question is smart if it through its resolution, other users are able to learn from it and use it as reference.
An example of a smart question is the stack overflow page “How to do this in Typescript: using the default value when the computed property does not exist?”. Although the title could use a bit of refinement in what exactly they are trying to accomplish in Javascript, their overall goal is clear. In their question, they gave clear examples, using minimal code, to show what they are trying to accomplish, showing precision in defining their problem. The poster also provided the corresponding compiler error to their code and their failed attempt to resolve it after searching the web, showing that it might be worth while for people to assist with. At the end, the poster summarized how the issue was resolved, citing the multiple ways to fix the issue with proper citations.
In contrast, the stack overflow page titled Oracle JDK 17 license is an example of a bad question and is ineffective at getting a meaningful answer. The first blunder of the question was the ambigous title which tells users nothing about what the post is really about. Moreover, the real question can be answered in a yes or no format and has typos. Last but not least, the question is not appropriate for stackoverflow as it does not pertain to programming or development, resulting in it being closed by the site.
Therefore, Smart questions in the context of software engineering involve asking for help or guidance in a way that maximizes the likelihood of receiving meaningful and efficient assistance. A smart question provides clarity, specificity, and the demonstration of effort to ensure it isn’t trivial. Smart questions are those that cannot be easily resolved through a quick google search or found explicitly in a manual or guide. Lastly, its resolution should contribute to the learning of other users.