Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has started coding again after a 20-year break, using an AI coding assistance tool.

The Pragmatic Engineer, a website that provides explanatory articles and news for people working in the IT industry, reported that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has started writing code again after 20 years. This news has elicited various comments from prominent figures in the industry.

The Pulse: Industry leaders return to coding with AI
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-industry-leaders-return

Mark Zuckerberg is back to landing diffs, 20 years later. Using Claude Code to do so.

From today's @Pragmatic_Eng at https://t.co/LqhjCPZcZE pic.twitter.com/FpCwNVm4LX

— The Pragmatic Engineer (@Pragmatic_Eng) April 2, 2026

While Zuckerberg wrote much of the code himself in the early days of Facebook, that amount decreased over time, and the last time he made changes to Facebook's code was 20 years ago, in 2006. However, 20 years later, in March 2026, he reportedly made three changes to Facebook's code himself using an AI coding assistance tool.

Even though the changes were made by the CEO himself, the standard procedure of submitting code changes, undergoing code review, receiving 'approval,' and then merging them was followed. It has been reported that one of the three changes submitted by Zuckerberg received more than 200 'approvals.'

The authors of The Pragmatic Engineer state that 'a large number of founders and executives with software engineering backgrounds are returning to the field' and 'I have never seen so many technology leaders in so many different places directly working with previous technologies.'

Founders + C-level folks who come from a software engineering background are all getting back to it.

Never seen eng leaders get hands-on with a previous technology at so many different places. https://t.co/DlPvlfHXt0

— Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz) April 2, 2026

Veteran engineer Abhishek Rey points out, 'I've heard from several engineering lead friends that top executives in companies have all started writing code again.' He speculates the reason is, 'Once leaders start using AI tools, others will follow suit.'

yeah heard the same from a few friends who are eng leads that everybody is getting back to writing code

one of the reasons folks mentioned is that once they see their leads adopting these tools - others will follow their lead as well

— Abhishek Ray (@abhishekray) April 2, 2026

JuliusAI CEO Rahul commented, 'It's easy to approve Zach's changes, but do you have the courage to ask for modifications to those changes?'

it's easy to approve zuck's diff, but do you have the courage to request changes on zuck's diff? pic.twitter.com/OSZyxllMjF

— rahul (@0interestrates) April 3, 2026

Google engineer Nick commented, 'Everyone thinks Zack is a top-tier engineer until he drops his 2,000-line change, but you have to decide if it's worth losing badge access for a minor correction.' Even in the world of engineers, where there's a craftsman mentality where 'code quality is everything,' it's understandable that people would be hesitant to criticize code written by the boss of a huge organization, given the risk of being fired.

everyone's a principal engineer until zuck drops a 2k line diff and you have to decide if that nit is worth your badge access

— nick (@thecsguy) April 3, 2026

Entrepreneur Gerrard joked, ''I'm the boss'—Merge has been approved.'

'I'M THE BOSS'

- merge proved

— gelado (@gldgab) April 2, 2026

Dan Liu, founder and CEO of the event management tool Luma, commented, 'It would be funny if Zac intentionally left a bug in the changes and fired everyone who approved them.' It's a terrifying thought if you could be fired not only for pointing out a bug, but also for approving it.

it'll be funny if zuck intentionally left a bug in the diff and then fired everyone approving it https://t.co/jdhl0sJxej

— Dan Liu (@danliu) April 2, 2026