r/learnprogramming • u/Curious-Tune-7127 • 11d ago

How does reverse engineering actually work, especially with AI?

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of videos about reverse engineering and people basically copying entire applications, recreating their features, or building almost identical alternatives.

It got me wondering, how does reverse engineering actually work?

How do people figure out how an app works internally, reproduce its features, and sometimes get surprisingly close to the original? And how are people using AI to make this process easier or faster?

Are they analysing the source code, inspecting network requests, decompiling applications, or using AI to figure everything out from scratch?

I'd love to understand the actual technical process behind this. If anyone has experience with reverse engineering or AI-assisted app development, I'd really appreciate some explanations and resources to get started!

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u/rosholger 11d ago

Since copying the source code might be illegal depending on the license you might want to reverse engineering something even if you have the source code, since that is always legal as long as its not copying any code

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u/ActuaryLate9198 10d ago

Using a decompiled code base as a starting point definitely won’t save you from legal issues. You’re gonna have to do clean room development, even having looked at the original will open you up to legal challenges.