A synthesized Schiff base N,N'-bis(4-hydroxybenzaldehyde)-2,2-dimethylpropandiimine (p-HBDP) was studied as green inhibitor for the corrosion of low carbon steel in 1 M HCl solution using electrochemical, surface and quantum chemical methods. Results showed that the inhibition occurs through the adsorption of the inhibitor molecules on the metal surface. The inhibition efficiency was found to increase with increasing inhibitor concentration and de-creased with increasing temper-ature, which is due to the fact that the rate of corrosion of steel is higher than the rate of adsorption. Thermodynamic parameters for adsorp-tion and activation processes were determined. Polarization data indicated that this compound act as mixed-type inhibitors and the adsorption isotherm basically obeys the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The calculations of reactivity indices of p-HBDP such as softness and natural charge distributions together with local reactivity by means of Fukui indices were used to explain the electron transfer mechanism between the p-HBDP molecules and the steel surface.