GO · PICTO

Why defer runs in LIFO order

Deferred calls stack; the last one you register runs first when the function returns.

3 min read Jun 2026

In Go, defer schedules a function call to run when the surrounding function returns. Stack a few of them and the order surprises almost everyone the first time.

The one rule

Deferred calls run last-in, first-out. The most recently deferred call runs first. Picture a stack of plates: you add to the top, and you take from the top.

Go
func process() {
    defer fmt.Println("third")
    defer fmt.Println("second")
    defer fmt.Println("first")
    // prints: first, second, third
}

RULE OF THUMB Read your defers from the bottom up. The last one you write is the first to run.

That ordering is exactly what you want for cleanup: open a file, defer its close; grab a lock, defer its unlock. Resources are released in the reverse order they were acquired — which is almost always the correct order.