10 ChatGPT Prompts That Instantly Make You a Better Java Developer

We’ve all been there — staring at messy Java code, wondering if there’s a cleaner, faster way to write it. As developers, we want to write high-performance, maintainable, and bug-free code. But let’s be honest: between deadlines, refactoring, and handling edge cases, we don’t always have the luxury of time.

This is where ChatGPT can help. With the right prompts, it can act as your pair programmer, reviewer, and even performance coach.

In this post, I’ll share 10 powerful ChatGPT prompts every Java developer should use to optimize their code — along with real examples.

1. Refactor for Clean Code

Prompt:
👉 “Refactor this Java code to follow clean code principles (naming, readability, avoiding duplication).”

Before:

public class UserService {
    public void process(User u) {
        if(u != null) {
            if(u.getEmail() != null && !u.getEmail().isEmpty()) {
                System.out.println("Processing " + u.getEmail());
            }
        }
    }
}

After (ChatGPT-suggested):

public class UserService {
    public void process(User user) {
        if (isValidEmail(user)) {…