Rubber duck debugging
Rubber duck debugging is a debugging technique in software engineering, wherein a programmer explains their code, step by step, in natural language—either aloud or in writing—to reveal mistakes and misunderstandings.
The name is a reference to a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer. It tells a story of a developer who carried a rubber duck and explained their code to it line by line. Variations of the practice use other objects or even pets; teddy bears are especially common.
Approach
Programmers often discover solutions while explaining a problem to someone else, even to people with no programming knowledge. Describing the code, and comparing to what it actually does, exposes inconsistencies. Explaining a subject also forces the programmer to look at it from new perspectives and can provide a deeper understanding.The programmer explaining their solution to an inanimate object has the advantage of not requiring another human, but also works better than thinking aloud without an audience. This approach has been taught in computer science and software engineering courses.