Study Technique—Rubber Duck Debugging

❤ Rubber Duck Debugging: A Simple Yet Powerful Technique ❤

Anthony Wong
3 min readJun 1, 2024
Rubber Duck Debugging. Photo courtesy of Duckly.

Introduction

  • Rubber duck debugging is a software development technique that involves explaining a problem to a rubber duck (or any inanimate object) as a way to debug and solve programming issues.

The Essence of Rubber Duck Debugging

  • The idea behind rubber duck debugging is that the act of explaining a problem out loud, step by step, can help the programmer identify the root cause of the issue.

How Rubber Duck Debugging Works

  • Describe the Problem: When faced with a programming problem, the developer picks up a rubber duck (or any other object) and begins to explain the problem to it, verbatim.
  • Verbalize the Code: As the developer explains the code, they often find themselves uncovering inconsistencies, logical errors, or missing pieces of information that they had not noticed before.
  • Identify the Solution: By walking through the problem and verbalizing the code, the developer is often able to spot the root cause of the issue and come up with a solution.

Benefits of Rubber Duck Debugging

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Anthony Wong

Toronto | Hong Kong | Content Creator | Update Daily | Follow-For-Follow | Find me at: pkanthonywong.medium.com