TIL: Python Decorators Can Stack — And the Order Matters (2026)

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TIL: Python Decorators Can Stack — And the Order Matters

Hey fellow devs, today I learned something cool about Python decorators: they can be stacked, and the order in which you stack them actually matters. Let's take a look at an example to see what I mean.

Suppose we have two simple decorators, debug and timer, that log information about a function call:

def debug(func):
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        print(f"Calling {func.__name__}")
        return func(*args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper

def timer(func):
    import time
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        start = time.time()
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        print(f" Took {time.time() - start:.2f} seconds")
        return result
    return wrapper

Now, let's apply them to a function in different orders:

@debug
@timer
def add(a, b):
    import time
    time.sleep(1)
    return a + b

@timer
@debug
def subtract(a, b):
    import time
    time.sleep(1)
    return a - b

When you call add(2, 3) and subtract(2, 3), you'll see that the order of the decorators affects the output: debug will only see the result of timer if it's applied first.
The takeaway is that when stacking Python decorators, the order matters because it determines which decorator's wrapper function gets called first.

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