foundation
KISS
Prefer the simplest design that satisfies current requirements, makes behavior readable, and leaves obvious room for safe change.
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) favors the simplest design that meets current requirements and stays readable to the next maintainer. Resist clever one-liners, premature patterns, and configurability nobody asked for. Simplicity is not laziness—it is disciplined scope control.
Readable code with straightforward control flow beats abstract machinery until complexity is measured, not imagined.
On interviews: simplify an over-engineered factory diagram into direct code and explain what you deferred.
Common pitfalls: golf-style brevity, framework fascination, and solving hypothetical scale on day one.
The trade-off is future flexibility you did not need versus immediate clarity and delivery speed.
Checklist:
- Solve today's requirement plainly.
- Add indirection only with evidence.
- Prefer boring, obvious names and flow.