Skeleton programming is a style of computer programming based on simple high-level program structures and dummy code. Program skeletons resemble pseudocode, but allows parsing, compilation and testing of the code.

Skeleton programming facilitates a top-down design approach, where a partially-functional system with complete high-level structures is designed and coded, and this system is then expanded to fulfill the requirements for the project to a successively higher level of detail.

Program skeletons are sometimes used for high-level descriptions of algorithms.

A program skeleton may also be utilized as a template that reflects syntax and structures commonly used in a wide class of problems.

Skeleton programs are utilized in the template method design pattern used in object-oriented programming. See that article for examples of skeleton programs.