How to Ask Good Coding Questions That Get Great Answers | Zell Liew

Have you ever asked code-related questions and never got a response? Even if you got a response, did you go through multiple back-and-forth clarification questions before you finally get a useful answer?

It happens. A lot.

It happens because you didn’t ask questions that were good enough for anyone to answer you immediately. In this article, I’ll help you learn the art of asking good coding questions so you’ll always get great answers.

But first off, don’t get pissed (or feel that you’re not good enough) if you didn’t get a response.

Why People Don’t Answer Questions

Contrary to what you may believe, people DO answer questions, even if they’re busy. Many experts actively answer questions via their email whenever they can; some reply Github issues at the speed of light; others browse through Stack Overflow to help answer questions on a daily basis.

But nobody wants to spend 100% of their time answering questions . Everyone has their priorities. Answering questions, frankly, falls to the bottom of these priorities. The onus is on you to craft questions that others can understand and reply quickly

So, what makes a great question that people want to reply to?

Structure of a Great Question

It’s specific

It’s clear and concise

It shows you’ve put work into it.

There’s no fixed structure. As long as you covered the three guidelines above, you’re good to go.

Here’s an example of a question that I procrastinated before answering (any procrastination from your answerer is bad because they might end up skipping them entirely):

Let’s break it down why this question doesn’t get answered immediately, and how<br>it can be improved.

First, it’s not specific enough. There are three instances where being more specific will greatly improve the question:

What should I comment on? How should I comment? Do I have to justify my work to him? Is he asking for help?

What does accessibility mean? Accessibility is a big word and can mean a number of things.

What are my scaling techniques? Which technique is he specifically referring to?

Second, the lack of specificity in this question made it unclear . Even if I wanted to answer the question, I can’t answer it without asking further.

Third, it’s unclear how much work was put into (1) crafting the question and (2) trying out the techniques mentioned . Here, the lack of specificity shows that this guy hasn’t sat down and crafted the question carefully. Besides, has he even tried the scaling techniques before asking about it? Trying to ask a broad question without first getting your hands dirty doesn’t provide any value to you, usually.

Because of the ambiguity, I can spin 27 angles to this question. Answering every angle is exhausting and well, frankly, I don’t want to.

What I do usually, is to ask clarifying questions to narrow down these angles. By the way, asking clarifying questions is a pain in the ass. Many people don’t even reply to them, and the effort I put into asking (almost) always go to the trashcan. /rant

Note: You don’t always have to ask about code. In this case, I get a sense that he’s unwilling to even begin trying the techniques I mentioned because he doesn’t know if the techniques scale (whatever it may mean).

After some clarifying questions, I realized that what he wanted was the ability for people to zoom in / out of the webpage while retaining the proportions of elements on a page.

Here’s one way to make the question better:

Hey Zell,

Thanks for all the articles you wrote about responsive typography. It helped me xxxx.

I have one question that I’m confused about. When you use em and rems, will you be able to keep the proportions between elements on a page consistent even if someone else zooms in or out?

To make it clearer, let’s say the font-size of my body text is 16px while the font-size of h1 is twice of that at 32px. Will the font-size of h1 always be twice of the body text?

Thanks,<br>Name-of-awesome-question-asker

Let’s break it down why this works:

First, the question started off with a “thanks” that makes the answerer feel good. It also helps contextualize the situation, which makes it easier to answer.

Second, there is only one specific question . It’s clear and specific. You immediately know what he’s asking, so it’s much easier to answer.

Third, it’s painfully clear . Words can mean different things to different people. If need be, you can make it painfully clear by providing examples so there’s no misunderstanding in your question. This helps to get the correct answer immediately. Clarity always beats conciseness.

Finally, it shows that the guy has done his work . It’s difficult to boil down your question into a specific question. Doing that is already a bonus point. It also shows that the person has internalized (or at least tried things in his mind). People want to help others who put in work. They know the effort used to answer the questions will be put...