What is Pair Programming?
Turkish: Pair Programming
Pair programming is an Agile practice where two developers work on the same code simultaneously — one writes, the other reviews.
What Is Pair Programming?
Pair programming is a software development practice where two developers work on the same problem at the same time. One usually acts as the driver and writes code, while the navigator follows the approach, catches issues, thinks about tests, and questions design choices in real time.
The goal is not to make two people do the same task twice. It is to discuss hard decisions early, share context, and catch mistakes while the code is still being written.
How It Is Practiced
- Driver / navigator: Roles switch at short intervals.
- Ping-pong pairing: One developer writes a test, the other writes code to pass it.
- Strong-style pairing: The person with an idea explains it and lets the partner implement it.
- Remote pairing: Teams use screen sharing, shared IDE sessions, or terminal sharing.
To work well, the problem should be split into small steps, neither person should become passive, and sessions should have a reasonable time box. All-day pairing is exhausting for many teams.
Business Use
Pair programming is useful for complex refactoring, critical payment or security code, onboarding a new engineer, debugging a difficult issue, and work that requires architectural judgment. It is not always necessary for routine, well-defined tasks.
Code review gives feedback after code is written; pair programming moves feedback into the writing process. In Agile teams, selective pairing is a strong learning and quality practice when knowledge should not remain with one person.