Programming Tricks Every Developer Should Know: 10 Game-Changers

Ever looked at someone whip through their code with a few fast keyboard shortcuts and thought, “How the heck are they this fast?” It’s not magic. They just know some killer programming tricks that you probably haven’t picked up yet. Forget spending hours dragging your mouse around—most power moves happen when you stick to your keyboard and let muscle memory do the work.

Let’s be real, programming isn’t just about knowing what a function does or which framework is hot right now. Most of the time, what makes you a faster and better developer is those behind-the-scenes hacks—like using multi-cursor editing, command palette tricks, and knowing how to kill bugs before they spiral out of control. Ever seen someone squash a stubborn bug in minutes, when you’ve spent hours? They’re not smarter; they just use better tools and habits.

Here’s where things get interesting. You don’t need to memorize entire languages or read endless documentation. But knowing *how* and *where* to automate the dull stuff, jump straight to what’s broken, or even just write code that’s actually easy to come back to—that’s the real cheat code. If you’re ready for real-world tricks that skip the fluff and stick with you, keep scrolling.

• Editor Shortcuts and Tricks
• Debugging Like a Pro
• Write Smarter, Cleaner Code
• Automating the Boring Stuff

Editor Shortcuts and Tricks

Think about how much time you waste reaching for your mouse or scrolling through endless lines of code. It might not sound like much, but those seconds add up. Pro devs blaze through files because they’ve burned keyboard shortcuts into their brains. Top editors like VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and Sublime Text are loaded with shortcuts—most folks barely scratch the surface.

Let’s get practical. Here are some shortcuts that almost every developer should memorize (and trust me, you’ll thank yourself for it):

• programming tricks start with fast navigation. Use Ctrl+P (VS Code and Sublime) or Shift+Shift (JetBrains) to jump instantly to any file by typing part of its name.
• Need to go to a symbol or function in the file? Try Ctrl+Shift+O (VS Code) or Ctrl+F12 (JetBrains). You’ll slice through a long script in seconds.
• Multi-cursor editing is a game-changer. Hold Alt and click (or Ctrl+D for the next match in VS Code/Sublime) to edit several lines or words at once.
• Refactoring on the fly is easy—just hit F2 in VS Code or Shift+F6 in JetBrains to rename variables everywhere at once, so you don’t break your code with a typo.
• Want to quickly comment or uncomment a block? Try Ctrl+/ (almost all editors) and keep that toggle handy when debugging.

Ever noticed your hands leave the keyboard for basic edits? Learn these commands and you’ll keep momentum way up. Now, to back this up with some numbers—research from Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey found that devs who use keyboard shortcuts save on average 2+ hours per week compared to those who don’t bother. That’s over 100 hours a year!

Set aside maybe 15 minutes a week to learn and practice a new shortcut or trick in your editor of choice. Trust me, it pays off big. These little moves stack up and soon you won’t want to work any other way.

Debugging Like a Pro

No developer escapes debugging—it’s just part of the deal. But the gap between spinning your wheels and zapping bugs fast comes down to using the right tools, asking the right questions, and making the most out of your debugging session.

First things first: ditch print statements for serious bugs. Every solid editor, from VS Code to JetBrains IDEs, gives you real-time debugging tools. You can set breakpoints, pause code, watch variable values, and see the call stack unfold. If you're in Chrome or Firefox, DevTools are absolute gold for web debugging. The difference? Instead of guessing, you see exactly what’s going wrong—when it’s happening.

• Breakpoints: Place them where the bug starts. Don’t spam them everywhere. One breakpoint at the right spot saves hours of confusion.
• Watches: Add variables you’re unsure about to the watch list. Track every change as your code runs.
• Step Into/Over/Out: Get comfy with these buttons. They let you move through code line by line, skip certain sections, or pop out of functions when you know they aren't the problem.

Next up: learn to read stack traces. Sounds boring, but it’s actually a lifesaver. Stack traces show you exactly where your code fell apart, often with file names and line numbers. If you’re using Python, JavaScript, or Java, you’re going to see stack traces often. Don’t just glance at them—follow the clues. They’re like a GPS for bug fixing.

Another strong move: reproduce the bug before hunting it down. Sometimes, you chase ghosts that only show up in certain environments or data. Make it happen on your machine, use the same inputs, and make sure you can trigger the glitch every time. No reproducible bug? It may not even be your code at fault.

Finally, get used to reading code backwards from the error, not forwards from the top. Start at the line where things failed and work your way up the call stack. Most hard bugs live just before the crash, not way back at the start.

When you do run into a stubborn one, take a quick break. It sounds like a cliché, but stepping away works. More than once, I’ve found myself staring blankly for an hour, grabbed a coffee with Serena, then spotted the missing semicolon in two minutes flat. Your brain works out problems on its own sometimes.

Write Smarter, Cleaner Code

You can spot a good developer by how easy it is to read their code a month later. Writing code that’s clean and smart isn’t some fancy art—it's just making decisions your future self will thank you for. Forget about clever one-liners that are impossible to understand. The real flex is when your code is simple, bug-free, and anyone else can pick it up without cursing your name.

Start small: pick names that actually mean something. A function called getItems() says nothing, but getActiveUsers() tells you exactly what’s happening. Don’t be shy with comments, either. Just enough to answer “why” you did something unusual—not every single line.

• Stick to one job per function. If a function is handling more than one responsibility, it’s time to break it up. The Single Responsibility Principle makes code way easier to test, reuse, and update.
• Use linters and formatters. Tools like ESLint and Prettier (JavaScript) or Black (Python) will catch messy code and style problems before they pile up. Most editors even support real-time linting.
• Refactoring isn’t just for big rewrites. After each feature, take a couple of minutes to clean things up. It saves time in the long run.
• Favor meaningful defaults and safe fallbacks. If you always check for nulls or handle errors gracefully, you’ll avoid weird bugs and panicked 3am messages from your teammates.

Here’s a quick look at how much better code quality gets when you’re actually intentional about it:

That’s a huge difference. When your focus is on code efficiency—not just making things shorter, but making things clear—you spend less time panicking over bugs and more time shipping stuff that actually works.

One more trick that saved me (and probably my relationship with Serena): automated testing. Even a handful of basic unit tests can smoke out problems before they wreck your day. Set it up early and let the test runner do the boring checks every time you push code. Less stress, more time for whatever you actually want to do.

Automating the Boring Stuff

You know those chores that eat up your time—renaming files, running tests over and over, or pushing changes to different places? There’s no prize for doing them by hand every day. With basic scripts and the right tools, you can kick those dull jobs to the curb. As a developer, you want to spend your brainpower solving new problems, not handling the same old busywork.

If you haven’t messed with task runners like programming tricks experts use—think Bash scripts, Python’s os and shutil modules, or automation tools like Make, npm scripts, or Git hooks—you’re missing out on a productivity boost. Setting up even a handful of scripts can save hours each month. For example, you might automate:

• Backups of code and config files every night—no more frantic searches after an accidental delete
• Linting and formatting code on save, so you never worry about style guides
• Syncing your local environment when a branch changes
• Batch-renaming or moving files in a project with a single command

Want proof this works? Here’s a breakdown of how much time you could claw back each week with even a handful of basic automations:

Start small: try building a Bash script or a Python “helper” (I have a buddy who even zaps his browser cache with a button). Next, plug these scripts into your editor or use task runners, and let the drudge work disappear. Every minute you save is more time you get back for the actual fun parts of coding.