Debugging

At Level 1, you're learning the basic detective work of software engineering: how to spot when something's wrong and start figuring out why. You're likely working on relatively straightforward bugs or encountering problems during your own development work. You may not yet have a structured approach to debugging, but you’re gaining awareness of tools like logs, breakpoints, and stack traces. Often, your best tool is asking for help—and that’s a good place to start.

At Level 2, you start to debug with intention. You no longer just try things and hope—they’re informed guesses, guided by logs, observations, and experience. You take initiative to investigate bugs, not just wait for others to confirm or explain them. Your toolkit now includes tools like debuggers, error tracking dashboards, test coverage reports, and stack traces. You approach bugs with a method: gather clues, form a theory, test it, and adjust.

At Level 3, you are a go-to debugger. You bring structure, patience, and insight to even the messiest incidents. You take ambiguous bug reports and turn them into clear diagnoses and sustainable fixes. You also help your team debug better—by modeling good habits, sharing strategies, and improving tools or processes that reduce time to resolution.

At Level 4, you reduce the organization’s overall debugging burden. You see the systems, structures, and habits that cause teams to waste time chasing problems—and you improve them. You apply a systemic mindset to reliability. You lead or support incident response, improve diagnostic tooling, and shape processes that reduce recurrence.

At Level 5, you are a strategic leader shaping how an entire organization approaches complexity, failure, and learning. You influence culture, architecture, and operations to ensure that debugging is fast, effective, and deeply integrated into how engineering functions. You aren’t just a strong debugger—you’re a force multiplier for reliability and resilience.