🧠 How to Review AI-Generated Code Like a Senior Engineer

AI can write code very fast. Tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and ChatGPT can generate functions, APIs, and even full features in seconds. But speed isn’t the hard part. The real challenge is knowing whether the code is safe to ship to production. Senior engineers don’t just read code. They question the code. Here’s a simple way experienced developers review AI-generated code. ✅ 1. Check Edge Cases First AI usually writes code for the happy path. But real systems fail in unexpected ways. Review whether the code handles: ✔ Empty inputs ✔ Null or undefined values ✔ Invalid data formats ✔ Network failures ✔ Timeouts and retries Senior engineers assume inputs will break and design the code to handle it. ✅ 2. Validate Assumptions AI-generated code often hides assumptions. Examples: 🔹 “The API always returns status 200” 🔹 “The list will never be empty” 🔹 “This ID always exists in the database” Before accepting the code, ask: ✔ Where does this data come from? ✔ Is this value guaranteed? ✔ W