Study Technique—Rubber Duck Debugging
❤ Rubber Duck Debugging: A Simple Yet Powerful Technique ❤
3 min readJun 1, 2024
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.