TDD

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

TDD means you write the test BEFORE you write the code. It sounds backwards but it's like writing your recipe before cooking — you know exactly what the dish should taste like before you start. Red (test fails), green (make it pass), refactor (clean it up).

Real Talk

Test-Driven Development is a software development methodology where you write a failing test first, then write the minimum code to make it pass, then refactor. The cycle is Red-Green-Refactor. It forces small, testable, well-defined units of code.

Show Me The Code

// 1. Write failing test (RED)
test('greet returns hello', () => {
  expect(greet('Alice')).toBe('Hello, Alice!');
});

// 2. Write code to pass (GREEN)
function greet(name) {
  return `Hello, ${name}!`;
}

When You'll Hear This

"We practice strict TDD — no code without a failing test first." / "TDD slows me down at first but saves hours of debugging."