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Dijkstra's Famous Testing Principle
publish date: 2026/06/14 03:12:56.006610 UTC
Complete the famous statement about testing attributed to Edsger Dijkstra: "Testing can only show the (1) of errors, not their (2)."
Please drag and drop the selected option in the right place or type it instead
location
absence
presence
number
Correct Answer
(1) presence
(2) absence
Explanation
Dijkstra stated: 'Testing can only show the presence of errors, not their absence.' This means that no matter how thorough testing is, it cannot prove that a program is completely free of defects.
Reference
Software Engineering, Ian Sommerville, 10th edition