Piggo :verified_horse: compilers do stupid optimizations based on supposed UB all the time. And this particular code seems to compile correctly* today: godbolt.org/z/E5YccWc31 but I'm not asking if it compiles correctly* today. I'm asking if the C standard requires the compiler to compile it correctly* or if it allows a stupid optimization. *by "correctly" I mean preserving the null check before the dereference