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6 stages of debugging: 3. That shouldn't happen

You have steps that reproduce the bug.

Looking at the code, it’s unclear how the bug is happening at all. Everything looks right!

It might be a tricky scenario where nothing has changed recently, yet the bug just started happening. Or there is test coverage that should expose the bug, but it doesn’t.

This stage can be emotional. It’s easier when you start investigating and bam! The bug is right there. It’s frustrating when you analyze logic and it doesn’t match observed behaviour.

The key is to move on to the next step: figuring out why it’s happening - despite how it shouldn’t be.

- Karl

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