Doubles rules in table tennis

Question

I curious about what the official rules are for playing doubles in table tennis. It seems like every time I play, someone has a different set of rules from what I've played before.
For instance:

• Do the partners have to alternate returning the ball?
• How does serving work?
• I.e. when do you alternate who serves and whom will receive the serve?

Answer 1

Article from allabouttabletennis.com explains it pretty well.

Generally speaking, the main 3 rules that most people playing doubles observe are

1. the required serve location (to the opposite diagonal section of the table) and
2. switching sides between service games/servers.
3. Then of course, you also alternate which player has to hit the ball each time (the sequence of who hits the ball - nobody should hit the ball more than once every 4 hits).