Defensive Readability

Defensive readability

Write code that prevents misreading:

• guard clauses first — fail fast, then the happy path reads straight down without else-nesting:

if (order == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("order required");
if (order.items().isEmpty()) return OrderResult.empty();
// happy path continues at indentation 0

• early returns over else-terraces — each else adds a level the reader must track
• expressions over statements where the name is the point: boolean isAdult = age >= 18; beats re-reading age >= 18 four times
• structure beats cleverness — the branchless bit-trick version of max costs a comment and a future bug; Math.max costs nothing

The test: could a teammate skimming a PR diff misread any line? If yes, rename, extract, or flatten until the answer is no.