Software Quality Assurance Practice Exam

Which of the following is a brute-force debugging technique?

1. Process of elimination

2. Studying error symptoms

3. Dumping memory locations

4. Backtracking

The correct answer is: Dumping memory locations

Brute-force debugging refers to a technique that systematically examines a program's internal state and behavior to identify issues, often involving a direct examination of memory and other fundamental components of the program. Dumping memory locations is a quintessential example of this approach, as it involves retrieving and reviewing the contents of memory at specific addresses. This allows the debugger to see the exact state of the program at a given moment, helping to pinpoint where things may have gone wrong. In contrast, the other options involve different strategies for identifying bugs. The process of elimination requires a logical approach to narrow down potential causes by systematically ruling out possibilities. Studying error symptoms involves analyzing the outputs and behaviors that arise from the program errors, which is more about observation and interpretation rather than direct access to program state. Backtracking, while an important debugging technique, refers to retracing steps in the program flow to identify where things might have deviated from expected behavior, rather than examining the internal memory directly. Thus, dumping memory locations is distinctly aligned with the essence of brute-force debugging, as it involves a hands-on, exhaustive method of identifying the state of the system to locate errors.