What does "coverage" mean in programming?

coverage is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.

Definition

A metric that measures how much of the source code is executed by the test suite. High coverage does not guarantee bug-free code, but low coverage means large portions of the code are untested.

Example

"The team requires at least 80% test coverage before merging a pull request."

Related terms

unit test
integration test
assertion
test suite
end-to-end test

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