A source-backed Rankhog guide to r/SoftwareEngineering: public rules, community context, posting fit, and startup-promotion risk before you publish.
By Anthony Riera, founder and operator of Rankhog.
Subreddit guides combine public Reddit source URLs, captured rules, visible verification dates, and Rankhog's account-safety workflow.
Current public stats
Rules can change, so Rankhog keeps verification dates and the original public Reddit sources visible.
This community is about software engineering as a discipline, meaning the analysis of user needs and the design, construction, and testing of applications using programming languages, all guided by engineering principles. The people posting here want to talk about the craft itself, so the room is full of engineers discussing how software gets built properly. The rules make the boundaries very clear. Career topics like bootcamps, college, and career changes are out, tech support and coding help are out, and even general workplace gripes are out. This is a community about the principles of building software, not about the tools, the jobs, or the drama around them.
The rule that decides most marketing posts here is “Self promotion”, which only allows content from engineering blogs, and only if you are discussing something novel and interesting, did real research, and are not dropping the same link in every subreddit you can find. If your site shows a phone number, a mailing list, or sells services, the post gets removed, and repeat self promotion means a permanent ban. “Moderator Approval” matters just as much, because original content that could count as self promotion, any ask me anything, and any survey must be approved by a moderator before it goes live, and commercial surveys are never allowed at all. “Career Discussion” rules out bootcamp, college, and career change talk, and “Job Post” rules out hiring, CVs, and work ideas, so any post angled at recruiting or selling to job seekers is dead on arrival. “Hardware Advice / Tech Support / Gift Idea” bans coding help and debugging, so you cannot dress up a support question as content. Finally, “Artificial Inteligence” only allows AI discussion in technical terms, so AI product talk about repercussions or workplace impact will not survive.
A good post here is a technical piece about software engineering itself, like how you designed, built, or tested something, written with real research behind it. If it comes from your own blog, it should read as novel and interesting, not as a pitch, and it should not carry your phone number, a mailing list signup, or a services offer anywhere on the page. Before you post anything that could look like self promotion, message the moderators and get approval first, because that is what their rules ask for. Good shapes include a writeup of a technical problem you solved, a deep dive into an engineering principle, or a workplace question that is strictly about the software engineering craft, like how teams handle task sizing in agile. Keep the whole thing focused on the engineering, and let the quality of the thinking be what earns you attention.
Do not post coding help, debugging questions, tech support, or hardware advice, because “Hardware Advice / Tech Support / Gift Idea” bans all of that outright. Do not post job ads, hiring requests, your CV, or the classic idea for an app that just needs someone to build it, because “Job Post” covers all of that. Skip career topics like bootcamps, college, and career changes, and skip general workplace complaints, because “Career Discussion” and “Workplace Discussion” both remove them. No memes or funny media under “No Memes”, and no AI talk about repercussions or how it changed your life, only the technology itself in technical terms, under “Artificial Inteligence”. Never post a survey, because commercial surveys are never allowed, and never post a link to a site that sells something or collects emails, because “Self promotion” says repeat offenders get a permanent ban, which is about as harsh as subreddit rules get.
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Only if it is an engineering blog, the content is novel, interesting, and researched, you are not posting the same link across many subreddits, and the page has no phone number, mailing list, or services offer on it. Original content that could be seen as self promotion also needs moderator approval before posting.
No. If your company offers services, or your site carries your number or a mailing list, the post gets removed, and repeated self promotion leads to a permanent ban.
No. Surveys need moderator approval and commercial surveys are never allowed, so a market research survey has no path through here.
No. The “Job Post” rule bans hiring, work opportunities, CVs, and ideas that just need someone to build them.
No. Tech support, coding help, and debugging questions are all banned under “Hardware Advice / Tech Support / Gift Idea”.
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