Everything about Debugging

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

1. Read the overview: DebuggingA 5-minute orientation
2. Pick up a classic book: Algorithms and BugsThe most-reprinted book on the subject
3. Read the landmark paper: Mozilla plan seeks to debug scientific codeCited 12 times
4. Go sideways: Stepping (debugging)A closely related topic
5. Go sideways: FuzzingA closely related topic

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

• Mozilla plan seeks to debug scientific code

  Erika Check Hayden · 2013 · Nature · 12 citations

• Debug all your code

  Byeongcheol Lee, Martin Hirzel, Robert Grimm · 2009 · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 5 citations

• Adding domain data to code profiling tools to debug workflow parallel execution

  Vítor Silva, Leonardo Neves, Renan Souza · 2020 · Future Generation Computer Systems · 3 citations

• Code-Specify-Test-Debug-Prove: Flexibly Integrating Separation Logic Specification into Conventional Workflows

  Zain K Aamer, Rini Banerjee, Hiroyuki Katsura · 2026 · Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages · 3 citations

• A Case for Dynamic Reverse-code Generation to Debug Non-deterministic Programs

  Jooyong Yi · 2013 · Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science · 1 citations

• An exploratory eye tracking study on how developers classify and debug Python code in different paradigms

  Samuel W. Flint, Jigyasa Chauhan, Niloofar Mansoor · 2026 · Empirical Software Engineering · 0 citations

📚 Books worth reading

• Algorithms and BugsElizabeth Tweedale, Heather Lyons · 2017
• 📕Code SpelunkingGeorge V. Neville-Neil · 2001
• Name What BrokeRavi Vale · 2026
• Debugging Macintosh software with MacsBugKonstantin Othmer · 1991

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics

• Stepping (debugging) Program animation or stepping refers to the debugging method of executing code one instruction or line at a time. The programmer may examine the state…
• Fuzzing In programming and software development, fuzzing or fuzz testing is an automated software testing technique that involves providing invalid, unexpected…
• Computer programming Computer programming is the composition of sequences of instructions, called programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It typically involves…
• Heisenbug In computer programming jargon, a heisenbug is a software bug that seems to disappear or alter its behavior when one attempts to study it. The term is…
• Breakpoint In software development, a breakpoint is an intentional stopping or pausing place in a program, put in place for debugging purposes. It is also sometimes…
• Software bug A software bug is a defect (bug) in computer software. A computer program with many or serious bugs may be described as buggy. The effects of a software…
• Software regression A software regression is a type of software bug where a feature that has worked before stops working correctly. This may happen after changes are applied…
• Software archaeology Software archaeology or source code archeology is the study of poorly documented or undocumented legacy software implementations, as part of software maintenanc…