diff --git a/docs/pages/api-reference.md b/docs/pages/api-reference.md
index 75d2935..95a0f58 100644
--- a/docs/pages/api-reference.md
+++ b/docs/pages/api-reference.md
@@ -263,6 +263,36 @@ return `/home/somedir/config/config.json`.
 Credits to https://stackoverflow.com/a/59004672/8255842
 
 
+##### `read_last_n_lines`
+
+```python
+def read_last_n_lines(file_path: str,
+                      n: int,
+                      ignore_trailing_whitespace: bool = False) -> List[str]
+```
+
+Read the last `n` lines of a file.
+
+    The function returns less than `n` lines if the file has less than `n` lines.
+    The last element in the list is the last line of the file.
+
+    This function uses seeking in order not to read the full file. The simple
+    approach of reading the last n lines would be:
+
+    ```python
+    # read the last 10 lines
+    with open(path, "r") as f:
+        return f.read().split("
+")[:-10]
+    ```
+
+    However, this would read the full file and if we only need to read 10 lines
+    out of a 2GB file, this would be a big waste of resources.
+
+    The `ignore_trailing_whitespace` option to crop off trailing whitespace, i.e.
+    only return the last `n` lines that are not empty or only contain whitespace.
+
+
 ## `tum_esm_utils.github`
 
 Functions for interacting with GitHub.
diff --git a/tests/test_files.py b/tests/test_files.py
index 53735b3..01e4ebf 100644
--- a/tests/test_files.py
+++ b/tests/test_files.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import os
-import shutil
+import tempfile
 import polars as pl
 import tum_esm_utils
 
@@ -75,3 +75,63 @@ def test_rel_to_abs_path() -> None:
         os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), "tests", "data", "some.csv"
     )
     assert a1 == expected
+
+
+def test_read_last_n_lines() -> None:
+    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as d:
+        filepath = os.path.join(d, "file.txt")
+        with open(filepath, "w") as f:
+            for i in range(10):
+                f.write(f"{i} {'c'*(i+1)}\n")
+
+        r1 = tum_esm_utils.files.read_last_n_lines(
+            filepath,
+            3,
+            ignore_trailing_whitespace=True,
+        )
+        print(f"r1 = {r1}")
+        assert r1 == [
+            "7 cccccccc",
+            "8 ccccccccc",
+            "9 cccccccccc",
+        ]
+
+        r2 = tum_esm_utils.files.read_last_n_lines(
+            filepath,
+            3,
+            ignore_trailing_whitespace=False,
+        )
+        print(f"r2 = {r2}")
+        assert r2 == [
+            "8 ccccccccc",
+            "9 cccccccccc",
+            "",
+        ]
+
+        with open(filepath, "w") as f:
+            for i in range(3):
+                f.write(f"{i} {'c'*(i+1)}\n")
+
+        r3 = tum_esm_utils.files.read_last_n_lines(
+            filepath,
+            2,
+            ignore_trailing_whitespace=True,
+        )
+        print(f"r3 = {r3}")
+        assert r3 == ["1 cc", "2 ccc"]
+
+        r4 = tum_esm_utils.files.read_last_n_lines(
+            filepath,
+            3,
+            ignore_trailing_whitespace=True,
+        )
+        print(f"r4 = {r4}")
+        assert r4 == ["0 c", "1 cc", "2 ccc"]
+
+        r5 = tum_esm_utils.files.read_last_n_lines(
+            filepath,
+            4,
+            ignore_trailing_whitespace=True,
+        )
+        print(f"r5 = {r5}")
+        assert r5 == ["0 c", "1 cc", "2 ccc"]
diff --git a/tum_esm_utils/files.py b/tum_esm_utils/files.py
index 35daedc..cb05460 100644
--- a/tum_esm_utils/files.py
+++ b/tum_esm_utils/files.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 import traceback
-from typing import Any, Optional
+from typing import Any, List, Optional
 import hashlib
 import json
 import os
@@ -156,3 +156,62 @@ def rel_to_abs_path(*path: str) -> str:
             *path,
         )
     )
+
+
+def read_last_n_lines(
+    file_path: str,
+    n: int,
+    ignore_trailing_whitespace: bool = False,
+) -> List[str]:
+    """Read the last `n` lines of a file.
+
+    The function returns less than `n` lines if the file has less than `n` lines.
+    The last element in the list is the last line of the file.
+    
+    This function uses seeking in order not to read the full file. The simple
+    approach of reading the last n lines would be:
+
+    ```python
+    # read the last 10 lines
+    with open(path, "r") as f:
+        return f.read().split("\n")[:-10]
+    ```
+
+    However, this would read the full file and if we only need to read 10 lines
+    out of a 2GB file, this would be a big waste of resources.
+    
+    The `ignore_trailing_whitespace` option to crop off trailing whitespace, i.e.
+    only return the last `n` lines that are not empty or only contain whitespace."""
+
+    with open(file_path, "rb") as f:
+        f.seek(-1, os.SEEK_END)
+
+        if ignore_trailing_whitespace:
+            while f.read(1) in [b"\n", b" ", b"\t"]:
+                try:
+                    f.seek(-2, os.SEEK_CUR)
+                except OSError:
+                    # reached the beginning of the file
+                    return [""]
+
+            f.seek(-1, os.SEEK_CUR)
+            # now the cursor is right before the last
+            # character that is not a newline or a space
+
+        last_characters: bytes = b""
+        new_line_chars_seen: int = 0
+
+        while True:
+            try:
+                new_character = f.read(1)
+                if new_character == b"\n":
+                    new_line_chars_seen += 1
+                if new_line_chars_seen == n:
+                    break
+                last_characters += new_character
+                f.seek(-2, os.SEEK_CUR)
+            except OSError:
+                # reached the beginning of the file
+                break
+
+    return last_characters.decode()[::-1].split("\n")