IDEs and Editors

Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code with C# Dev Kit, and JetBrains Rider: choosing, configuring and using them productively for .NET 10 work.

1. What are the main IDEs and editors for .NET development, and how do Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code and JetBrains Rider differ?

   Compares Visual Studio, VS Code with C# Dev Kit and JetBrains Rider for .NET 10 work: platforms, language engines, debugging, licensing and when to choose each.

   Beginner Theory IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups
2. How do you set up Visual Studio Code for C# and .NET development, and what do the C# extension and C# Dev Kit each provide?

   Setting up VS Code for .NET 10: the SDK, the C# extension's Roslyn language server and debugger, C# Dev Kit's Solution Explorer and Test Explorer, launch configuration and licensing.

   Junior Theory IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups
3. Which Visual Studio edition and workloads does a .NET 10 team need, and how do you keep everyone's installation consistent?

   Visual Studio 2026 editions (Community, Professional, Enterprise), workloads and components, and using a .vsconfig file to give every developer the same installation.

   Junior Theory IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups
4. The IDE shows red squiggles and IntelliSense errors, but `dotnet build` succeeds. How do you diagnose and fix it?

   Diagnosing mismatches between IDE diagnostics and the real build: design-time builds, SDK resolution and global.json, stale caches, restore problems, source generators and multi-targeting.

   Mid-Level Debugging IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups · 🛠 1 real-world
5. How do you use .editorconfig to keep C# code style consistent across Visual Studio, VS Code and Rider, and enforce it in the build?

   Using a hierarchical .editorconfig for formatting, code style and analyser severities that every IDE honours, and enforcing it with EnforceCodeStyleInBuild and dotnet format in CI.

   Intermediate Theory IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups
6. What does JetBrains Rider offer a .NET team compared with Visual Studio, and what are the trade-offs?

   JetBrains Rider for .NET 10: its ReSharper and IntelliJ architecture, refactoring and inspections, shared settings layers, built-in tools, licensing, and where Visual Studio still leads.

   Mid-Level Theory IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups · 🛠 1 real-world
7. Your team uses Visual Studio, VS Code and Rider across Windows, macOS and Linux. How do you standardise the developer environment so builds and behaviour match CI?

   A senior plan for a reproducible multi-IDE, multi-OS .NET 10 environment: CLI and CI as the source of truth, global.json, .editorconfig, Directory.Build.props, shared IDE files, Dev Containers and secrets hygiene.

   Senior RealWorldScenario IDEs and Editors · 🔗 3 follow-ups · 🛠 1 real-world
8. Review this launchSettings.json. What does the file do, which tools use it, and what would you change?

   A code review of an ASP.NET Core launchSettings.json: how launch profiles are used by Visual Studio, Rider, VS Code and dotnet run, and fixing committed secrets, the wrong environment and unsafe URLs.

   Intermediate CodeReview IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups · 🛠 1 real-world
9. What is .NET Hot Reload, how does it work under the hood, and when does it fall back to a restart?

   Hot Reload in Visual Studio, Rider, VS Code and dotnet watch: Roslyn deltas applied through the runtime's metadata update API, Edit and Continue, rude edits, cache invalidation with MetadataUpdateHandler, and limits.

   Mid-Level Theory IDEs and Editors · 🔗 2 follow-ups · 🛠 1 real-world