Troubleshooting and Debugging Techniques
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Troubleshooting and Debugging Techniques
This course is part of Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate
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3,096 reviews
What you'll learn
Analyze real-world IT problems and implement the appropriate strategies to solve those problems
Demonstrate techniques to quickly find and solve the root cause of problems in IT infrastructure
Understand the root cause for problems related to speed, crashes, or exhausted resources in your computer
Identify the most common pitfalls of your code and how to fix them
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- Earn a shareable career certificate from Google
There are 4 modules in this course
In this course, we'll give you the tools to quickly identify and solve real-world problems that you might come across in your IT role. We'll look at a bunch of different strategies and approaches for tackling the most common pitfalls of your code and IT infrastructure. You'll learn strategies for approaching almost any technical problem and then see how those apply to solving different real-world scenarios.
We picked examples that include general system issues, issues with software that someone else wrote, and issues with programs that we wrote. We'll talk about problems that can affect any operating system, and we'll also look at challenges specific to certain platforms and scripting languages. We strongly recommend that you’ve taken the prior courses in this program, or already have knowledge of Python and Linux so that you can follow along with our troubleshooting examples.
In this module, you’ll be introduced to the fundamentals of troubleshooting and you’ll learn different strategies and approaches to tackle problems that you might encounter. You’ll learn about the concept of debugging and how debugging is one of the core principles of troubleshooting. You’ll be introduced to some tools that will help you in the debugging process, like tcpdump, ps, top, itrace, and lots more. Next, you’ll explore how to “understand the problem.” This might sound like a no brainer, but it's not as easy as you might think! Next, we’ll dive into the different approaches when troubleshooting reproducing errors versus intermittent errors. Finally, you’ll learn about “binary searching a problem.” We’ll explore the different types of searches, including binary and linear searches. Then, we’ll learn about the concept of bisecting and how it can be used in your troubleshooting approach, and finish up with finding invalid data in a CSV file.
What's included
14 videos7 readings4 assignments1 app item
14 videos•Total 69 minutes
- Course introduction•4 minutes
- Intro to Module 1: Troubleshooting Concepts•2 minutes
- What is debugging?•5 minutes
- Problem solving steps•4 minutes
- Silently crashing application•6 minutes
- "It Doesn't Work"•7 minutes
- Creating a Reproduction Case•4 minutes
- Finding the Root Cause•6 minutes
- Dealing with Intermittent Issues•5 minutes
- Intermittently Failing Script•9 minutes
- What is binary search?•3 minutes
- Applying binary search in troubleshooting•5 minutes
- Finding invalid data•7 minutes
- Module 1 Wrap Up: Troubleshooting concepts•2 minutes
7 readings•Total 30 minutes
- Welcome to the course•4 minutes
- Review: Intermittently failing script•4 minutes
- Linear and binary search (Optional)•4 minutes
- Review: Finding invalid data•4 minutes
- Qwiklabs guidelines and troubleshooting steps•4 minutes
- Exemplar: Debug Python Scripts•8 minutes
- Glossary terms from course 4, module 1•2 minutes
4 assignments•Total 80 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Introduction to debugging•10 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Understanding the problem•10 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Binary searching a problem•10 minutes
- Module 1 challenge: Debug Python Scripts•50 minutes
1 app item•Total 90 minutes
- Qwiklabs assessment: Debug Python scripts•90 minutes
In this module, you’ll learn about what factors can cause a machine or program to act slowly. You’ll dive into ways of addressing slowness by identifying the bottleneck that might be causing the slowness. You’ll learn about tools to identify which resources are being exhausted, including iotop, iftop, and activity monitor in MacOS. Next, you’ll learn how computers use resources, and understand the differences between CPU, RAM, and cache in order to help you find the possible causes for slowness in our machines or scripts.Next up, you’ll learn how to write efficient code, then explore profilers to help you identify where your code is spending most of its time. Next, you’ll dive into data structures and understand which ones are right for you to use. These include lists, tuples, dictionaries, sets, and expensive loops. Then, you’ll dive into complex slowness problems and how utilizing concurrency and adding a caching service can improve the execution of your code. Finally, you’ll understand how using threads can make the execution of your code much quicker.
What's included
15 videos5 readings4 assignments1 app item
15 videos•Total 75 minutes
- Intro to Module 2: Slowness•3 minutes
- Why is my computer slow?•5 minutes
- How computers use resources•5 minutes
- Possible causes of slowness•5 minutes
- Slow web server•10 minutes
- Writing efficient code•4 minutes
- Using the right data structures•4 minutes
- Expensive loops•4 minutes
- Keeping local results•5 minutes
- Slow script with expensive loop•8 minutes
- Parallelizing operations•6 minutes
- Slowly growing in complexity•4 minutes
- Dealing with complex slow systems•4 minutes
- Using threads to make things go faster•6 minutes
- Module 2 Wrap Up: Slowness•2 minutes
5 readings•Total 24 minutes
- Monitoring tools•4 minutes
- More about improving our code•4 minutes
- More about complex slow systems•4 minutes
- Glossary terms from course 4, module 2•4 minutes
- Exemplar: Performance Tuning in Python Scripts•8 minutes
4 assignments•Total 80 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Understanding slowness•10 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Slow code•10 minutes
- Test your knowledge: When slowness problems get complex•10 minutes
- Module 2 challenge: Performance Tuning in Python Scripts•50 minutes
1 app item•Total 90 minutes
- Qwiklabs assessment: Performance tuning in Python scripts•90 minutes
In this module, you’ll get introduced to the age old question, “Why has my program crashed?” You’ll learn how to troubleshoot system crashes and application crashes, what tools can be used to help identify the cause of the crash, and what log files to look at in order to find what might have gone wrong. Next, you’ll dive into investigating why code crashes, and what you can do to prevent that from happening. Then, you’ll explore what happens when an unhandled error occurs and throws an exception. You’ll learn about several debugging techniques, which will help you identify these errors and exceptions. Finally, you’ll explore the concept of handling crashes and incidents at a much larger scale. You’ll delve into a scenario where a large eCommerce site will throw an error 20% of the time. Once that issue has been fixed, you’ll understand the importance of communication and documentation during these incidents, and how writing a post mortem can prevent issues from happening again.
What's included
14 videos15 readings4 assignments1 app item
14 videos•Total 76 minutes
- Intro to Module 3: Crashing programs•4 minutes
- Systems that crash•6 minutes
- Understanding crashing applications•6 minutes
- What to do when you can't fix the program?•5 minutes
- Internal server error•10 minutes
- Accessing invalid memory•7 minutes
- Unhandled errors and exceptions•6 minutes
- Fixing someone else's code•4 minutes
- Debugging a segmentation fault•5 minutes
- Debugging a Python crash•6 minutes
- Crashes in Complex Systems•6 minutes
- Communication and Documentation During Incidents•5 minutes
- Writing Effective Postmortems•4 minutes
- Module 3 Wrap Up: Crashing Programs•2 minutes
15 readings•Total 62 minutes
- Internal server error•4 minutes
- Resources for understanding crashes•4 minutes
- Review: Debugging a segmentation fault•4 minutes
- Review: Debugging a Python crash•4 minutes
- Debugging with print•4 minutes
- Debugging with assert•4 minutes
- Try and catch debugging•4 minutes
- Python logging module•4 minutes
- Python debugging with pdb•4 minutes
- Debugging/ breakpoints in VS Code•4 minutes
- AI infused debugging and paired programming•4 minutes
- Resources for debugging crashes•4 minutes
- Practice writing effective postmortems•4 minutes
- Glossary terms from course 4, module 3•2 minutes
- Exemplar: Fix errors in Python scripts•8 minutes
4 assignments•Total 95 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Why programs crash•10 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Code that crashes•25 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Handling bigger incidents•10 minutes
- Module 3 challenge: Fixing errors in Python scripts•50 minutes
1 app item•Total 90 minutes
- Qwiklabs assessment: Fix errors in Python scripts•90 minutes
In this module, you’ll learn how to manage your applications. You’ll dive into some common issues that may cause your application to crash. You’ll also understand what memory leaks are, and how to troubleshoot and prevent them. Up next, you’ll run down managing disk space; you’ll see some scenarios of how this happens and how to identify what process or application is taking up all your disk space. Then, you'll learn what network saturation is, how it can be caused, and some useful tools and techniques to solve a network saturation problem. Next, we’ll shift from managing applications to managing your time. You’ll get tips on how to prioritize tasks, estimate how long a particular task will take before finishing, and communicate expectations when dealing with important tasks. The final lesson delves into how to deal with hard and complex problems by breaking it down into small, digestible chunks while keeping your eyes on a clear goal. You’ll learn that using proactive approaches, like continuous integration, can help you with future issues that might come up. You’ll also explore how to plan for future resource usage by making good use of monitoring.
What's included
16 videos10 readings4 assignments1 app item
16 videos•Total 72 minutes
- Intro to Module 4: Managing Resources•2 minutes
- Memory Leaks and How to Prevent Them•6 minutes
- Managing Disk Space•6 minutes
- Network Saturation•6 minutes
- Dealing with Memory Leaks•8 minutes
- Getting to the Important Tasks•6 minutes
- Prioritizing Tasks•6 minutes
- Estimating the Time Tasks Will Take•4 minutes
- Communicating Expectations•6 minutes
- Dealing with Hard Problems•5 minutes
- Proactive Practices•5 minutes
- Planning Future Resource Usage•4 minutes
- Preventing Future Problems•4 minutes
- Module 4 Wrap Up: Managing Resources•1 minute
- Congratulations!•1 minute
- Sneak Peek of Next Course•1 minute
10 readings•Total 44 minutes
- More about managing resources•4 minutes
- More about making the best use of your time•10 minutes
- Change management in virtualized environments•4 minutes
- Containerized Applications: Docker•4 minutes
- More about preventing future breakage•4 minutes
- Glossary terms from course 4, module 4•2 minutes
- Exemplar: Debug and solve software problems•8 minutes
- IT skills in action•4 minutes
- Reflect and connect with your peers•2 minutes
- Course 4 glossary•2 minutes
4 assignments•Total 80 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Managing computer resources•10 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Managing our time•10 minutes
- Test your knowledge: Making our future lives easier•10 minutes
- Module 4 challenge: Debug and solve software problems•50 minutes
1 app item•Total 90 minutes
- Qwiklabs assessment: Debug and solve software problems•90 minutes
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Reviewed on Jan 5, 2024
I didn't learn more about troubleshooting, but I did learn a bit. Also, I really like the animations in the videos. My brother thought that some of them were hilarious!
Reviewed on Sep 11, 2024
Excellent course, I loved the didactic! Just had some difficult solving challenges on some Qwiklabs, but in general I learned a lot of new and interesting things!
Reviewed on Mar 20, 2020
This is my best course and I also like how immersive and passionate the instructor was. I thank her for all the skills she imparted and would to her on more courses in the future.
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