ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Concolic testing

Concolic testing is a way for computers to try to find problems in programs by simulating how they might run.

Think of it like a pretend game where the computer pretends to be a program, and it plays out different scenarios to see what might happen.

In this pretend game, the computer starts by picking a point in the program to start from. Then, it pretends to have some input (like a number or a word) that it feeds into the program. The computer then watches what the program does with this input, and keeps track of what part of the program it goes through.

As the pretend game goes on, the computer uses information it has gathered to make smarter guesses about what it should try next. For example, if the program seems to have trouble with large numbers, the computer might try some more big numbers.

Through this pretend game, the computer can find out when the program gets stuck or when it gives the wrong answer. It can then use this information to try to change the program so it works better.

Overall, concolic testing is like playing a game with a program to make it better and catch problems that might be hard to find otherwise!