anti-pattern
Counterproductive common practice
An anti-pattern is a common approach to a problem that seems intuitive but produces poor results—the opposite of a best practice.
The term comes from software development, where anti-patterns are design choices that create more problems than they solve: Storing passwords in plain text is a classic anti-pattern.
The concept has spread to management, organization, and any field where recurring bad solutions deserve a name.
Hidden danger or drawback
- defectInherent imperfection or fault
- bugCrawling creature or defect
- shortcomingA fault or weakness
- weaknessDeficiency in force
oversight · bottleneck · redundancy · glitch · fault · inefficiency · workaround · technical debt
Indicator of danger
- code smellIndicator of flawed design
- cautionary taleStory illustrating consequences
- smellOlfactory perception
- symptomIndicator of disease
bad example · indicator · signal · telltale sign · warning sign · diagnostic · canary
Poorly structured program
- cargo cultRitual mimicry expecting material return
- golden hammerPreferred fix applied everywhere
- dead codeProgram logic never executed
- magic numbersUnexplained literal values in code
hard coding · lava flow · reinventing the wheel · feature creep · overengineering
pitfall
Hidden danger or drawback
- defectInherent imperfection or fault
- bugCrawling creature or defect
- shortcomingA fault or weakness
weakness · oversight · bottleneck · redundancy · glitch · fault · inefficiency · workaround · technical debt · code smell
red flag
Indicator of danger
- code smellIndicator of flawed design
- cautionary taleStory illustrating consequences
- smellOlfactory perception
bad example · symptom · indicator · signal · telltale sign · warning sign · diagnostic · canary
spaghetti code
Poorly structured program
- cargo cultRitual mimicry expecting material return
- golden hammerPreferred fix applied everywhere
- dead codeProgram logic never executed
magic numbers · hard coding · lava flow · reinventing the wheel · feature creep · overengineering
anti-patterndesign pattern
Proven solution template
best practice · pattern · clean code · industry standard · gold standard
anti-patternbest practice
Accepted superior method
industry standard · gold standard · benchmark · paradigm · model