<p>I think you'll get different perspectives on this from different people depending on how &quot;basic&quot; we are talking, the PR author and whether the PR is high priority and already obtaining a lot of review from others. I'd recommend asking questions about any PR on Libera IRC (#bitcoin-core-pr-reviews) and attending the weekly <a href="https://bitcoincore.reviews/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bitcoin Core PR review club</a> sessions first. This will help you gauge which questions should be submitted as comments on a PR to help move the review of that PR forward and which questions should be asked on IRC for your own personal understanding. Certainly general questions on source code not being changed by any particular PR should be asked about on IRC rather than on a random PR.</p>
<p>Generally if you submit a review comment on the PR explaining what you've looked at or tested the PR author will appreciate the effort and answer a question or two. Obviously taken to extremes lots of basic questions on the PR aren't going to help move the review of that PR forward and should be taken to IRC or here on Bitcoin StackExchange.</p>
<p>For additional guidance on reviewing PRs see this <a href="https://jonatack.github.io/articles/how-to-review-pull-requests-in-bitcoin-core" rel="nofollow noreferrer">doc</a> from Jon Atack.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-10T20:06:35.440Z
@Murch Thanks, that is so useful for me.
Amir reza Riahi
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-10T05:35:51.773Z
I would not ask general questions about source code on random PR :) but I meant asking related question to the PR, but at a very basic level. Although, I have a background in c++ so try to first investigate my self before posting a comment. But thanks for your answer.
Amir reza Riahi
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-10T12:06:56.723Z
This is good advice. We use the [tag:bitcoin-core-development] tag to collect questions about the Bitcoin Core source code, so you may find some interesting topics labelled such already.
Murch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-09T21:43:40.353Z
2022-06-10T09:03:36.870Z
2022-06-10T09:03:36.870Z
Michael Folkson
<p>I'm not sure even this question is off-topic or not. But bear with me.
Currently I have a good knowledge of bitcoin protocol and network but know very little about its source code and implementation but want to contribute to the project.
So I started reading bitcoin-core source code and learning about it. One of the first steps is reviewing other pull requests. I want to know is it okay to ask my very basic questions about source code as comments in reviewing these pull requests? Or these basic questions may be better to asked in another place? (such as IRC chat rooms)</p>

<bitcoin-core-development><source-code><bitcoincore-review><contribution>
Is commenting on github as reviewer good place to ask questions about source code?
Amir reza Riahi
# Is commenting on github as reviewer good place to ask questions about source code?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-06-09)

I'm not sure even this question is off-topic or not. But bear with me.
Currently I have a good knowledge of bitcoin protocol and network but know very little about its source code and implementation but want to contribute to the project.
So I started reading bitcoin-core source code and learning about it. One of the first steps is reviewing other pull requests. I want to know is it okay to ask my very basic questions about source code as comments in reviewing these pull requests? Or these basic questions may be better to asked in another place? (such as IRC chat rooms)

**Tags:** bitcoin-core-development, source-code, bitcoincore-review, contribution


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-06-09. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

I think you'll get different perspectives on this from different people depending on how "basic" we are talking, the PR author and whether the PR is high priority and already obtaining a lot of review from others. I'd recommend asking questions about any PR on Libera IRC (#bitcoin-core-pr-reviews) and attending the weekly [Bitcoin Core PR review club](https://bitcoincore.reviews/) sessions first. This will help you gauge which questions should be submitted as comments on a PR to help move the review of that PR forward and which questions should be asked on IRC for your own personal understanding. Certainly general questions on source code not being changed by any particular PR should be asked about on IRC rather than on a random PR.

Generally if you submit a review comment on the PR explaining what you've looked at or tested the PR author will appreciate the effort and answer a question or two. Obviously taken to extremes lots of basic questions on the PR aren't going to help move the review of that PR forward and should be taken to IRC or here on Bitcoin StackExchange.

For additional guidance on reviewing PRs see this [doc](https://jonatack.github.io/articles/how-to-review-pull-requests-in-bitcoin-core) from Jon Atack.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I would not ask general questions about source code on random PR :) but I meant asking related question to the PR, but at a very basic level. Although, I have a background in c++ so try to first investigate my self before posting a comment. But thanks for your answer.  
> **username_2**: This is good advice. We use the [tag:bitcoin-core-development] tag to collect questions about the Bitcoin Core source code, so you may find some interesting topics labelled such already.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 Thanks, that is so useful for me.  

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