Most Engineers Debug the Code. Great Engineers Debug the Thinking.

Written by Ishwar Chandra Tiwari, creator of CodeWithIshwar When a bug appears, most developers immediately start searching through the code. They check the latest commits, inspect functions, and trace execution paths. But the real issue often starts before the code was written. Many bugs originate from earlier decisions. Common sources include: Wrong assumptions Unclear requirements Missing edge cases Weak system thinking By the time the bug appears in the code, the root cause may already exist in the thinking behind the implementation. Coding Is Often the Final Step Software development is not just writing code. Before the first line is written, engineers make many decisions: What assumptions are we making? What inputs could break this system? What happens when the system scales? What happens if external services fail? If these questions are not considered early, bugs will eventually appear — even if the code itself is syntactically correct. A Common Example Imagine building an API e