Bitwise operators are like the secret handshake of the programming world - if you know them, you're part of the club. They're used to perform operations on individual bits of binary numbers, which is about as low-level and hardcore as it gets.

How to use it in a sentence

• I was trying to impress this new developer on the team by casually mentioning bitwise operators, but they just rolled their eyes and said "weird flex but ok."

• My code review got flagged because I used a bitwise operator instead of a boolean, and apparently that's "not readable" and "unnecessarily clever." Whatever, I thought it looked cool.

If you actually want to learn more...

• Bitwise operators are often used in low-level systems programming, like operating systems or device drivers. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, check out this article on bit manipulation tricks.

• If you're more of a visual learner, this interactive tutorial lets you play around with bitwise operators and see how they work on binary numbers. It's like a sandbox for your inner geek.

• For a deeper dive into the world of bits and bytes, check out this guide to bit manipulation. It covers everything from the basics to advanced techniques used by 10X developers like us.

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.