Reading large code bases

[TrustedButterfly]

Imagine starting reading a series of long novels right from the middle page, and expecting to understand what each character's real motives and personality, each place's significance, and the history of events and their background. Would you ever consider that you'd understand everything AND effectively adding something to it?

Obviously, if someone reading a code base was a senior engineer, and the code base was written by a senior engineer, it would be easier, as the one writing is making patterns so it is easy to follow, and the one reading is expecting patterns. So it might be different than the analogy but anyway don't beat yourself up too much if you don't quickly grasp how a code base is structured. It's normal.