diff --git a/.golangci.yaml b/.golangci.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5a887a56d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.golangci.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+run:
+  timeout: 30m
+  skip-files:
+  - "api\\*.go$"
+  - "backend\\api\\*.go"
+
+issues:
+  max-same-issues: 0
+
+linters:
+  disable-all: true
+  enable: # please keep this alphabetized
+    - gocritic
+    - gosimple
+    - govet
+    - ineffassign
+    - misspell
+    - staticcheck
+    - stylecheck
+    - unused
+
+linters-settings: # please keep this alphabetized
+  misspell:
+    locale: US
+  staticcheck:
+    checks:
+      - "all"
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index f9fcd93630..49e5c41120 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -46,3 +46,16 @@ repos:
         # docformatter messes up certain sphinx link formatting.
         # The kubernetes_platform/python docstrings are heavy on links, so ignore.
         exclude: (sdk/python/kfp/compiler/compiler_test.py|kubernetes_platform/python/)
+
+  # Golang pre-submit hooks
+  - repo: https://github.com/golangci/golangci-lint
+    rev: v1.52.2
+    hooks:
+      - id: golangci-lint
+        name: golangci-lint
+        description: Fast linters runner for Go.
+        entry: golangci-lint run --new-from-rev HEAD --fix
+        types: [go]
+        language: golang
+        require_serial: true
+        pass_filenames: false
diff --git a/backend/README.md b/backend/README.md
index 74c403113c..ecbad2f390 100644
--- a/backend/README.md
+++ b/backend/README.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ Pipelines backend.
 
 ## Building & Testing
 
-To run all unittests for backend: 
+To run all unittests for backend:
 
 ```
 go test -v -cover ./backend/...
@@ -17,17 +17,15 @@ go build -o /tmp/apiserver backend/src/apiserver/*.go
 
 ## Code Style
 
-Use [gofmt](https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/gofmt) package to format your .go source files. There is no need to format the swagger generated go clients, so only run the following command in `./backend/src` and `./backend/test` folder.
+Backend codebase follows the [Google's Go Style Guide](https://google.github.io/styleguide/go/). Please, take time to get familiar with the [best practices](https://google.github.io/styleguide/go/best-practices). It is not intended to be exhaustive, but it often helps minimizing guesswork among developers and keep codebase uniform and consistent.
 
-```
-go fmt ./...
-```
+We use [golangci-lint](https://golangci-lint.run/) tool that can catch common mistakes locally (see detailed configuration [here](https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/blob/master/.golangci.yaml)). It can be [conveniently integrated](https://golangci-lint.run/usage/integrations/) with multiple popular IDEs such as VS Code or Vim.
 
-For more information, see [this blog](https://go.dev/blog/gofmt).
+Finally, it is advised to install [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/) in order to automate linter checks (see configuration [here](https://github.com/kubeflow/pipelines/blob/master/.pre-commit-config.yaml))
 
 ## Building APIServer image locally
 
-The API server image can be built from the root folder of the repo using: 
+The API server image can be built from the root folder of the repo using:
 ```
 export API_SERVER_IMAGE=api_server
 docker build -f backend/Dockerfile . --tag $API_SERVER_IMAGE