En anglais

Cornering bugs step by step

Computing · Programming · ages 17-18

Name ______________________ Date ____________

What counts as a reproduction?
- Steps showing the fault every run
- A guess about the cause
- A finished fix
What is your first move on a vague fault report?
- Edit five lines at once
- Build steps that reproduce it every time
- Rewrite the whole file
How do you halve the suspect region?
- Read the whole file slowly
- Switch off half and see if the fault stays
- Delete the tests
What is a debugging hypothesis?
- Five edits applied together
- A backup copy of the file
- A cause claim plus one check refuting it
Your hand trace and the machine disagree on a line. What does that mean?
- The computer is always wrong
- Tracing never helps
- Your model breaks exactly there
After forming a hypothesis, change one thing and rerun the reproduction.
Circle one: True False
A student changed five things and the fault vanished. What is the risk?
- The code runs too fast now
- Notes write themselves
- Nobody knows which change mattered
The fault is cornered to one line. What now?
- Rewrite unrelated modules too
- Ship without rerunning
- Change one thing and rerun to verify

Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Steps showing the fault every run · Reproduction means reliable, not lucky.
Build steps that reproduce it every time · A repeatable case grounds every later check.
Switch off half and see if the fault stays · Halving rules out half the code per check.
A cause claim plus one check refuting it · Even a failed check teaches where the bug is not.
Your model breaks exactly there · The gap marks where your reading differs from the run.
True · Single changes keep cause and effect readable.
Nobody knows which change mattered · Without one change per check, the cause stays unknown.
Change one thing and rerun to verify · Editing is allowed once the line is cornered and checked.