White-box testing techniques in Software Engineering - Mini Project: Build & Apply

White-box Testing Techniques

📖 Scenario: You are part of a software development team. Your team wants to improve the quality of the code by testing it thoroughly. You will learn how to apply white-box testing techniques to check the internal workings of a simple function.

🎯 Goal: Build a step-by-step understanding of white-box testing techniques by creating a simple function, setting up test conditions, applying a white-box testing method, and completing the test coverage.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a simple function with conditional logic

Define a variable to track test coverage

Apply a white-box testing technique (e.g., statement coverage)

Complete the test setup to ensure all paths are tested

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

White-box testing helps developers find bugs by checking the internal logic of their code. It ensures all parts of the code work as expected.

💼 Career

Software testers and developers use white-box testing techniques to improve software quality and reliability before release.

1

Create a simple function with conditional logic

Write a Python function called check_number that takes one parameter num. The function should return the string 'Positive' if num is greater than zero, 'Zero' if num is zero, and 'Negative' if num is less than zero.

Software Engineering

# Your code here

Hint

Use if, elif, and else statements to check the value of num.

2

Define a variable to track test coverage

Create a variable called coverage and set it to an empty list. This list will store the names of the branches tested in the function.

Software Engineering

def check_number(num):
    if num > 0:
        return 'Positive'
    elif num == 0:
        return 'Zero'
    else:
        return 'Negative'

# Your code here

Hint

Use an empty list [] to start tracking coverage.

3

Apply a white-box testing technique (statement coverage)

Write three lines of code that call check_number with the values 5, 0, and -3. After each call, append the string 'Positive', 'Zero', or 'Negative' respectively to the coverage list to track which branches have been tested.

Software Engineering

def check_number(num):
    if num > 0:
        return 'Positive'
    elif num == 0:
        return 'Zero'
    else:
        return 'Negative'

coverage = []
# Your code here

Hint

Call the function with each test value and append the result to coverage.

4

Complete the test setup to ensure all paths are tested

Add a line of code that creates a set called tested_branches from the coverage list to show unique branches tested. This helps confirm all branches in the function have been covered.

Software Engineering

def check_number(num):
    if num > 0:
        return 'Positive'
    elif num == 0:
        return 'Zero'
    else:
        return 'Negative'

coverage = []
coverage.append(check_number(5))
coverage.append(check_number(0))
coverage.append(check_number(-3))
# Your code here

Hint

Use the set() function to get unique tested branches.