Bitwise Operators (AND, OR, XOR, shifts)

In this lesson you will learn the basics of bitwise operators in Go, and understand what it means to work with a number bit by bit. This is for anyone searching for "Go bitwise operators how to use".

Bitwise operations treat a number as binary and calculate bit by bit. There is & (AND), | (OR), ^ (XOR), and << (left shift), and they show up in permission flags and low-level work.

The sample code applies &, |, and ^ to the integers 12 and 10, and shifts left by two bits with a << 2, which multiplies by four. Thinking in binary makes each operation much easier to follow.

A common stumbling block for beginners is confusing the logical operators &&/|| with the bitwise &/|. Use &&/|| for conditionals and &/|/^ for bit-level work.

In real-world development bitwise operations remain genuinely useful in embedded devices with limited memory and in implementing network protocols.

📖 Reference code

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	a := 12
	b := 10
	fmt.Println(a & b)
	fmt.Println(a | b)
	fmt.Println(a ^ b)
	fmt.Println(a << 2)
}

✍️ Your code

Type your code, then press "Run"

🧪 This site can't compile or run Go directly, so it checks on the spot whether what you typed matches the reference code (scoring happens entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere).