How to determine the level of readability and understanding of code from the perspective of its cognitive load?

The level of readability and comprehensibility of code from a cognitive load perspective can be assessed based on several criteria:

• Number of nested structures: the deeper the nesting (loops, conditions, functions), the higher the load.
• Length of functions and methods: long functions are harder to perceive as a whole.
• Use of complex or non-standard constructs: for example, single-line lambdas with many operations.
• Presence of clear variable and function names: understandable names reduce load.
• Number of simultaneously tracked states and variables: the more there are, the more complex.

For quantitative assessment, metrics are often used, such as cyclomatic complexity (the number of independent paths in the code) or metrics like Halstead. In Python, tools like radon can be used to analyze such metrics.

Example of using radon to assess cyclomatic complexity:

pip install radon
radon cc my_script.py

This will give a numerical estimate of function complexity, helping to understand how difficult the code is to perceive.