Debugging is an essential skill that every software engineer must master.
Debugging requires a combination of technical skills and critical thinking.
Debugging is not just about fixing these issues but understanding why they occur and how to prevent them in the future.
Before diving into techniques, it’s important to understand a few guiding principles that will shape your debugging process.
A good debugging strategy always starts with understanding your code.
Modern integrated development environments (IDEs) come with built-in debuggers that allow you to set breakpoints, step through code line by line, inspect variables, and watch how the program’s state changes over time.
While debuggers are great, sometimes the simplest solution is to add print statements or logging to your code.
Unit testing can help catch bugs early, and writing tests before you start coding (Test-Driven Development or TDD) encourages you to think about edge cases and potential issues before they arise.
Sometimes the best way to debug is to ask for help.
Debugging is a critical skill that every software engineer must develop.