Mutation analysis

Question

Mutation analysis

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Begin by restating the scenario: the question concerns mutation analysis and presents four possible statements to evaluate.
Option A: 'Evaluates the statement coverage obtained.' This is not what mutation analysis targets. Mutation analysis focuses on introducing small faults (mutants) to assess test effectiveness, not merely checking whether statements are executed. Statement coverage is a separate metric and does not capture the fault-detection goal of mutation testing.
Option B: 'Evaluates the branch coverage obtained.' While branch coverage measures whether each branch of conditional statements is executed, mutation analysis goes beyond execution paths to test the ability of tests to catch injected faults. Therefore this option describes a different testing metric rather than mutation analysis itself.
Option C: 'Evaluates the strength of assertions.' Assertions relate to runtime checks within code, but mutation analysis concerns how well tests detect deliberately introduced faults, not the inherent strength of assertions used in the program. Thus this option does not capture the essence of mutation testing.
Option D: 'Evaluates the robustness of the program.' Mutation analysis aims to assess robustness in the sense of fault-detection capability of the test suite—how well tests reveal defects when mutants are introduced. This aligns with the overarching purpose of mutation analysis: measuring how robust a suite is at catching faults, rather than merely exercising code or evaluating individual components in isolation.
In summary, the statement in Option D most closely describes the goal of mutation analysis, since mutation testing is a technique designed to gauge and improve the fault-detection strength—or robustness—of tests by evaluating their ability to detect introduced mutants. The other options refer to different testing concepts (coverage metrics or assertion strength) that do not capture the core idea of mutation analysis.

SOFT3202 COMP9202 (ND) Quiz 6

Mutation analysis

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