Technical debt is a term that describes the consequences of choosing a quick or easy solution in programming or software development instead of the proper or more complete one, usually to meet a deadline or deliver something faster. This saves time at first, but creates more work in the future.
If you do sloppy work today, you’ll face bigger problems tomorrow
Example:
Imagine you’re building a website and the client wants it ready in 3 days. To meet the deadline:
- You copy-paste similar code in many places instead of organizing it into functions.
- You skip writing tests.
- You don’t write documentation or comments.
The job gets delivered quickly, but technical debt has already built up. Later, when you need to make changes or fix bugs:
- The code is messy.
- One change affects many areas at once.
- You’re not sure what might break.
So, the time you “saved” in the beginning ends up costing you more later.
In simple terms:
Technical debt = If you do sloppy work today, you’ll face bigger problems tomorrow.
