Bug Triage & Debugging Checklist

14 items · Technical · Medium difficulty · 1 hour

Systematic steps to triage, fix, and prevent bugs.

• Confirm and document the bug report

  Include environment, exact steps, expected vs actual, screenshots, and timestamps.

• Attempt to reproduce the bug locally

  Follow reporter steps in the same environment; try clean state and variations.

• Record a minimal reproducible test case

  Strip unrelated steps or code until the problem still occurs; capture a script or snippet.

• Collect relevant logs and telemetry

  Gather server/app logs, browser console, request IDs, and timestamps around the failure.

• Search recent changes and existing issues

  Check the issue tracker, recent commits, and deployment history for related changes.

• Scan logs for error patterns and stack traces

  Look for exceptions, error codes, repeated warnings, and correlated timestamps.

• Generate hypotheses for the root cause

  List possible causes and rank them by likelihood and ease of testing.

• Create a targeted failing unit or integration test

  Write a deterministic test that reproduces the bug under CI or locally.

• Isolate the failing component using binary search

  Bisect commits, disable modules, or narrow configuration to find the fault scope.

• Use debugger and add temporary logging or assertions

  Step through code, inspect state, and log key variables to confirm hypotheses.

• Implement a minimal, well-documented fix

  Make the smallest change that addresses the root cause; include comments and rationale.

• Write regression test(s) that cover the bug

  Add tests that assert the fixed behavior so the bug cannot reoccur unnoticed.

• Run full test suite and targeted regression tests

  Execute CI or local suites and address any failures or flaky tests before merging.

• Prepare release notes and close the issue

  Document the fix, link PR/commits, notify stakeholders, and close the ticket.

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