What to Do When Faced with a Bug?

If you’ve been in the development field long enough, you’ve likely encountered errors or strange software behavior. Nowadays, we have various platforms that help us solve our problems, like Stack Overflow and ChatGPT. But what do you do when it seems like no one has resolved your bug before?

Recently, I had the experience of encountering a bug, and I remember reaching page 25 on Google looking for a solution. I stopped when the pages were no longer written in my local alphabet! Of course, I was desperate, feeling like I was the only person in the world dealing with that specific situation.

So, here’s a list of small things that work for me and might help you too:

1. Don’t Panic. It sounds obvious and like motivational talk, but staying calm is super important. Remember that the problem will seem like something harmless and you’ll laugh at once you solve it.
2. Increase the Log Level. Change the log level to DEBUG or TRACE. This will help you analyze step-by-step what is happening and provide you with more detailed information about the issue.
3. Make Good Use of Version Control Tools. Try to identify when the error started happening and see what was changed. The error might be right there.
4. Don’t Blindly Trust Item 3! We all know that software has improbable interconnections, and an error in Brazil can reflect all the way in Japan!
5. Keep an Open Mind! It’s normal to filter possibilities and narrow down your hypotheses as you conduct tests. But when things don’t work out, try taking a step back and starting over.
6. Check the Version of the Libraries You’re Using. It might be the case that the specific version has a bug or incompatibility, and using a newer version could solve the problem.
7. Change One Thing at a Time. Make a change and test. If it doesn’t work, undo the change. If you keep stacking changes, you might end up adding more errors to your application.
8. Step Away from the Problem for a Moment. Try working on something else, go to sleep, or relax a bit. I can’t explain this very well, but it works for me. I’ve gone to bed frustrated from not solving a problem, only for the solution to simply appear the next morning.

These are some actions that work for me and might help you too. Remember, everyone will have their approach to dealing with problems.