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Troubleshooting and Debugging Techniques

Approx. 19 hours to complete

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Course Summary

Learn techniques to troubleshoot and debug software efficiently with this course. Explore methods to identify and resolve issues in a variety of programming languages and environments.

Key Learning Points

Discover lesser-known debugging techniques to improve your software development skills
Learn how to efficiently identify and resolve software issues
Explore methods to debug software written in various programming languages and environments

Learning Outcomes

Ability to identify and resolve software issues more efficiently
Understanding of lesser-known debugging techniques
Improved software development skills

Prerequisites or good to have knowledge before taking this course

Basic programming knowledge
Access to a computer with programming software installed

Course Difficulty Level

Intermediate

Course Format

Online
Self-paced
Video lectures
Assignments
Quizzes

Similar Courses

Debugging and Troubleshooting Techniques
Debugging and Problem-Solving
Debugging and Unit Testing in Visual Studio

Related Education Paths

Notable People in This Field

Linus Torvalds
Grace Hopper
John Carmack

Related Books

Description

In this course, we'll give you the tools to quickly identify and solve real-world problems that you might come across in your IT role. We'll look at a bunch of different strategies and approaches for tackling the most common pitfalls of your code and IT infrastructure. You'll learn strategies for approaching almost any technical problem and then see how those apply to solving different real-world scenarios.

We picked examples that include general system issues, issues with software that someone else wrote, and issues with programs that we wrote. We'll talk about problems that can affect any operating system, and we'll also look at challenges specific to certain platforms and scripting languages. We strongly recommend that you’ve taken the prior courses in this program, or already have knowledge of Python and Linux so that you can follow along with our troubleshooting examples.

Knowledge

Analyze real-world IT problems and implement the appropriate strategies to solve those problems
Demonstrate techniques to quickly find and solve the root cause of problems in IT infrastructure
Understand the root cause for problems related to speed, crashes, or exhausted resources in your computer
Identify the most common pitfalls of your code and how to fix them

Outline

Troubleshooting Concepts
Course Introduction
Intro to Module 1: Troubleshooting Concepts
What is debugging?
Problem Solving Steps
Silently Crashing Application
"It Doesn't Work"
Creating a Reproduction Case
Finding the Root Cause
Dealing with Intermittent Issues
Intermittently Failing Script
What is binary search?
Applying Binary Search in Troubleshooting
Finding Invalid Data
Module 1 Wrap Up: Troubleshooting Concepts
Welcome to the Course
Linear and Binary Search (Optional)
How to Log in to Qwiklabs
Practice Quiz: Introduction to Debugging
Practice Quiz: Understanding the Problem
Practice Quiz: Binary Searching a Problem

Slowness
Intro to Module 2: Slowness
Why is my computer slow?
How Computers Use Resources
Possible Causes of Slowness
Slow Web Server
Writing Efficient Code
Using the Right Data Structures
Expensive Loops
Keeping Local Results
Slow Script with Expensive Loop
Parallelizing Operations
Slowly Growing in Complexity
Dealing with Complex Slow Systems
Using Threads to Make Things Go Faster
Module 2 Wrap Up: Slowness
Monitoring Tools
More About Improving Our Code
More About Complex Slow Systems
Practice Quiz: Understanding Slowness
Practice Quiz: Slow Code
Practice Quiz: When Slowness Problems Get Complex

Crashing Programs
Intro to Module 3: Crashing Programs
Systems That Crash
Understanding Crashing Applications
What to do when you can't fix the program?
Internal Server Error
Accessing Invalid Memory
Unhandled Errors and Exceptions
Fixing Someone Else's Code
Debugging a Segmentation Fault
Debugging a Python Crash
Crashes in Complex Systems
Communication and Documentation During Incidents
Writing Effective Postmortems
Module 3 Wrap Up: Crashing Programs
Resources for Understanding Crashes
Resources for Debugging Crashes
Practice Quiz: Why Programs Crash
Practice Quiz: Code that Crashes
Practice Quiz: Handling Bigger Incidents

Managing Resources
Intro to Module 4: Managing Resources
Memory Leaks and How to Prevent Them
Managing Disk Space
Network Saturation
Dealing with Memory Leaks
Getting to the Important Tasks
Prioritizing Tasks
Estimating the Time Tasks Will Take
Communicating Expectations
Dealing with Hard Problems
Proactive Practices
Planning Future Resource Usage
Preventing Future Problems
Module 4 Wrap Up: Managing Resources
Congratulations!
Sneak Peek of Next Course
More About Managing Resources
More About Making the Best Use of Our Time
More About Preventing Future Breakage
Practice Quiz: Managing Computer Resources
Practice Quiz: Managing Our Time
Practice Quiz: Making Our Future Lives Easier

Summary of User Reviews

Read reviews about the Troubleshooting and Debugging Techniques course on Coursera. Users highly recommend this course for its practical approach to solving problems. Overall, this course is highly rated for its in-depth coverage of troubleshooting and debugging techniques.

Key Aspect Users Liked About This Course

The course provides practical and applicable techniques for solving real-world problems.

Pros from User Reviews

The course is well-structured and easy to follow.
The instructors are knowledgeable and engaging.
The course provides hands-on exercises that help reinforce the concepts.
The course covers a wide range of troubleshooting and debugging techniques.

Cons from User Reviews

Some users found the course to be too basic for their level of expertise.
The course can be time-consuming, especially for those with busy schedules.
The course could benefit from additional real-world examples.
Some users found the course material to be outdated or irrelevant.

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