Definition
Plain language
Studying a program by actually running it and watching what it does, rather than just reading the code.
As stated in the literature
Program analysis performed at runtime, observing execution traces, memory state, and control flow; contrasted with static analysis, which reasons over source or binaries without executing them.
Why it matters: It catches problems that only show up when software actually runs, complementing methods that just inspect the code at rest.
For example, instead of just reading the code, you run the program and watch which memory it touches and which paths it takes to spot a leak.
Heard on the show
“There are two distinct wins from the dynamic analysis here.”Episode 012 — Why AI Coding Agents Keep Trying to Debug Without a Debugger