DEV Community

Cover image for How I Cut My Debugging Time in Half as a Front-End Developer (A Practical Guide)

How I Cut My Debugging Time in Half as a Front-End Developer (A Practical Guide)

Eleftheria Batsou on December 09, 2025

Debugging is one of those things every developer secretly knows eats up far more time than we’d like to admit. Some studies estimate that up to 50%...
Collapse
 
madza profile image
Madza

Great, practical tips right here! 👍💯

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you Madza! theORQL has been very helpful!

Collapse
 
aloisseckar profile image
Alois Sečkár • Edited

I was recently surprisingly effective with just asking AI chatbot "I am getting XY error message. What can be wrong?" Even if it didn’t guess the real reason correctly, it pointed me just the right way.

But yea - having a solid system ready at your service is even better. Thanks for the tips.

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

AI is definitely getting better and better. We're also probably getting a bit better at prompting... But having a solid system wins every time.

Thanks for checking the article.

Collapse
 
shahrouzlogs profile image
Shahrouz Nikseresht

Really solid breakdown! ⚡

Debugging can easily eat half a developer’s day, and posts like this help reduce that pain.

Your practical tips around structuring console output and using browser devtools more intentionally are super helpful.

Thanks for sharing such actionable frontend advice! 🙌

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

My pleasure, I'm glad I could help!

Collapse
 
dheeraj_jain profile image
Dheeraj

Really enjoyed this! The way you break down debugging habits into practical steps is super helpful. I especially liked the part about isolating state changes, that’s often where bugs hide the longest. Thanks for sharing!

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you so much for the kind comment!

Collapse
 
andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

Good workflow, super insightful!

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you Andrew... And yeah, it took me a while to standardize it as new tools are popping up literally every day.

Collapse
 
shemith_mohanan_6361bb8a2 profile image
shemith mohanan

Really liked how you framed debugging as part of development, not a separate chore. The repeatable process (reproduce → isolate → inspect → patch → validate) is simple but powerful, and theORQL looks interesting for cutting down the constant DevTools ↔ VS Code context switching. Nice practical guide! 🔥🛠️

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you! And that's what I think so too, I'll keep exploring theORQL as new features are on the way!

Collapse
 
nadeem_rider profile image
Nadeem Zia

Very helpful

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you so much 😊

Collapse
 
shemith_mohanan_6361bb8a2 profile image
shemith mohanan

Super useful breakdown. Debugging really does eat half our time, and your framework (reproduce → isolate → inspect → patch → validate) is exactly what most devs skip. Loved the point about reducing context switching — that alone saves hours. Going to try theORQL in my workflow.

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you so much for checking the article. Please try theORQL, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me

Collapse
 
m_josh profile image
Joshua O.

Great piece. Thank you

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thanks for checking!

Collapse
 
adam_wodon_deabae31a2168f profile image
Adam Wodon

The best way... stop using frameworks. Makes it real easy to debug then.

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Hehe! Right now I think that I have found my process, and I'm planning to stick to it - unless something doesn't seem to work and I haven't found it so far :)

Collapse
 
farhadrahimiklie profile image
Farhad Rahimi Klie

debugging skill is take you a junior to Experience Developer. If you very well Debugging skill then you great in Developing stuffs.

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you so much for reading the article! And yes, you're right :)

Collapse
 
maame-codes profile image
Maame Afua A. P. Fordjour

This is very helpful! Thanks for sharing :)

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

My pleasure ✌️

Collapse
 
art_light profile image
Art light

This was a great read; your structured debugging method really resonates with my own approach, and I’m especially interested in seeing how the ORQL fits into my stack.😀

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you so much for reading the article! If you have any questions about theORQL, let me know, and I will be glad to help you.

Collapse
 
rothablaze profile image
RothaBlaze

good

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you for checking! Let me know if you try theORQL!

Collapse
 
bobjames profile image
Bob James

theORQL 👀 the name alone 🙌

as always great article Eleftheria 👏👏

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Yes! 😉😉
Thank you Bob for checking!

Collapse
 
halakabir234hub profile image
Hala Kabir

Thank you Madza! It's really practical and theORQL has been very helpful!

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you so much for reading the article! If you have any questions about theORQL, let me know, and I will be glad to help you.

P.S. My name is Eleftheria

Collapse
 
r_vantwisk_2f2fb216ebc2 profile image
R. van Twisk

It's not so much debugging my own code, but more like understanding what new change has been made to an upstream library without telling me. Good unit and IT tests help. But for crying out load, console.log was used in1998, today we place a breakpoint if we have to. If you cannot because your framework sucks, then ad a 'debugger' statement.

Collapse
 
rokoss21 profile image
rokoss21

Excellent breakdown of the debugging workflow. One observation that resonates with real-world systems: the constraint that bounded tools (Browser DevTools, VS Code debugger) create is often a feature, not a bug.

When you're forced to structure your debugging around these "friction points" — like theOQL examples you mention — you're essentially building a contract between your mental model and the code. This mirrors what happens in production: systems that rely on observable signals (logging, metrics, tracing) tend to be more maintainable than those built for idealized debugging scenarios.

The 5-step framework you outlined could be even more powerful if paired with observability-first design: instrument your code for external visibility from day one. Your future self will debug faster not because of better tools, but because the system was designed to be understood by external observers.

Collapse
 
itsugo profile image
Aryan Choudhary

Really liked this breakdown, especially the part about debugging being development, not something separate. I’m still shaping my own workflow, and the constant context switching between DevTools → VS Code → browser is exactly where I lose most of my time.

The 5-step framework was super clear too. I’ve been trying to get more intentional about “inspect before you patch,” so this landed well.

theORQL looks interesting, I hadn’t seen a tool that pulls runtime errors and network failures into one place and syncs fixes back to VS Code. Might try it on my next project just to see how much friction it removes.

Thanks for writing this, really helpful perspective on a part of dev we don’t talk about enough.

Collapse
 
prismioqr profile image
Prismio QR

Great article! The context switching between DevTools and VS Code is so real.

One thing I've noticed: building client-side-only apps (like PrismioQR - a QR code generator I built) actually simplifies debugging. Since everything runs in the browser, you don't have to worry about server-side state, API timing issues, or network failures affecting your debugging flow.

TheORQL sounds interesting for catching runtime errors. How does it handle Blazor WebAssembly apps? I'm curious if it works with compiled WASM code.

Also, that "reload instead of inspect" mistake hits home. I've wasted so much time refreshing when a quick stack trace would've solved it.

Collapse
 
monahidalgo profile image
Mona Hidalgo

Good read. I think I will look into theORQL. In fact, I’m building a plugin for all JetBrains IDE’s that has an AI INSIGHTS tab and it catches bottlenecks and more in rules I have designed into the plugin. Since, I haven’t used VS or VS CODE much in my work this theQRQL seems exciting to learn about and to use. Debugging is so interesting to do and it part of our work in coding. Nice tips you have shared.

Collapse
 
benjamin_nguyen_8ca6ff360 profile image
Benjamin Nguyen

Cool! I am curious which website did you deploy your project?

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Do you mean what I use in general? Usually it's Vercel...

Collapse
 
benjamin_nguyen_8ca6ff360 profile image
Benjamin Nguyen

Oh yes! Nice!

Collapse
 
emad_mohamed_3c64237c7a7a profile image
Insight Grid News

Good Work

Collapse
 
the_nortern_dev profile image
Jakob Sandström

Great article!
Love your point of view

Collapse
 
eleftheriabatsou profile image
Eleftheria Batsou

Thank you so much, it means a lot!

Collapse
 
prismioqr profile image
Prismio QR

Good workflow !

Collapse
 
woulgethater83 profile image
Shanna

Great tips! I especially loved the practical debugging techniques—definitely going to try them in my KilltonyTour projects to save time and reduce headaches. 🔧💻