How do I ask a good question?
We’d love to help you. To improve your chances of getting an answer, here are some tips:
Search and research
…and keep track of what you find. Even if you don’t find a useful answer elsewhere on the internet, keep a note of your finding, share it while posting a question, and justify that your question is not answered anywhere.
Write a title that summarizes the specific problem
The title is the first thing potential answerers will see; if your title isn’t relevant, it won’t get the attention. So make it count:
- Pretend you’re talking to a busy colleague and have to sum up your entire question in one sentence: what details can you include that will help someone identify and solve your problem? Include any error messages, key APIs, or unusual circumstances that make your question different from similar questions already on the internet.
- Do not make spelling or grammatical mistakes. Also, punctuations are important! Don’t ignore it.
- If you’re not able to think of the right title, write the title last — sometimes, writing the rest of the question first can make it easier to describe the problem.
Examples:
- Bad: Getting an error with Pandas
- Good: I am getting the IndexError error when filtering by multiple columns in pandas.
Introduce the problem before you post any code
In the body of your question, start by explaining the summary you kept as the title. Elaborate on the problem you encountered and any difficulties that have prevented you from solving it yourself. Obviously, keeping the first paragraph as engaging and informative as possible will curiosity the attention of the readers.
It will be great if your code is reproducible.
Make sure to include the code if your problem is the same. But don’t just copy in your entire program! Also, be careful sharing sensitive information.
- Include minimal code to allow others to reproduce the problem. For help with this, read How to create a Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example.
- DO NOT post images of code, data, error messages, etc., copy or type the text into the question. Although diagrams or demonstrating rendering bugs, things that are impossible to describe accurately via text.
Proofread before posting!
Hold on before you hit the submit button, take a deep breath, and read through it from start to finish. Assume you’re seeing it for the first time: does it make sense? Try reproducing the problem yourself in a fresh environment, and make sure you can do so using only the information included in your question. Add any details you missed and read through it again. Now is a good time to make sure that your title still describes the problem!
Include all relevant tags/category
Attaching or posting with the right tags will help answerers find fresh questions in the feed.
Do not forget to REACT
- Reply to follow-up questions instantly to arrive at the solution as quickly as possible.
- Mark the question as Solved
- DO NOT FORGET to appreciate/upvote the answerers for their generous help.
After you post, leave the question open in your browser for a bit, and see if anyone comments. If you missed an obvious piece of information, be ready to respond by editing your question to include it. If someone posts an answer, be ready to try it out and provide feedback!
⚠️ ALERTS ⚠️
- Do not ask/address two questions in one post.
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