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Ladebug: an online tool to help novice programmers improve their debugging skills

Debugging software is challenging, particularly for novices. Despite the importance of debugging, most novice programmers are not formally taught any debugging skills. This paper describes an online tool, Ladebug, that is designed to scaffold the learning of debugging skills. In this environment, students follow a structured debugging process to find and fix errors in predefined exercises. Overall, we find that students are positive about the tool, and report the exercises to be engaging and helpful.