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

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, decorator_a and decorator_b, that just print a message before and after the function they're decorating is called:

def decorator_a(func):
    def wrapper():
        print("Decorator A: before")
        func()
        print("Decorator A: after")
    return wrapper

def decorator_b(func):
    def wrapper():
        print("Decorator B: before")
        func()
        print("Decorator B: after")
    return wrapper

@decorator_a
@decorator_b
def say_hello():
    print("Hello!")

When we call say_hello(), here's what happens:

Decorator A: before
Decorator B: before
Hello!
Decorator B: after
Decorator A: after

As you can see, the decorators are executed in reverse order - decorator_b is applied first, then decorator_a. This makes sense, since decorator_a is the outermost decorator, wrapping the result of decorator_b.
The key takeaway is that when stacking Python decorators, the order of execution is determined by the order in which they are applied, from bottom to top.

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