Technical Debt: Extra future work caused by choosing a quick or messy solution now instead of a better one.
Example
To meet a deadline, the same validation code was copied into five places; changing it now means editing all five.
Why Technical Debt matters for IT interns
It explains why teams sometimes spend a sprint "cleaning up" instead of adding new features.
Where you will hear it
You will hear this term in development teams, in code reviews and technical discussions, and in technical interviews. If someone uses it and you are not sure what they mean in your project, it is completely fine to ask; every team uses terms a little differently.
Related terms
- Runtime: The environment your program runs in, or the time when it is running.
- SDK: Software Development Kit: a set of tools, libraries and documentation for building software for a particular…
- Software Development: The whole work of planning, building, testing and maintaining software.
- Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC): The stages software goes through: requirements, design, development, testing, deployment and maintenance.
- Testing Environment: A separate setup, similar to production, where testers and the team check changes before release.
- Unit Testing: Testing small pieces of code, such as a single function, on their own — usually with automated tests.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Technical Debt?
Extra future work caused by choosing a quick or messy solution now instead of a better one.
What is an example of Technical Debt?
To meet a deadline, the same validation code was copied into five places; changing it now means editing all five.
Why does Technical Debt matter for IT interns?
It explains why teams sometimes spend a sprint "cleaning up" instead of adding new features.
Explore more internship terms
The IT Internship Glossary explains 199 terms you will hear before and during your internship, with simple definitions and real examples.
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About the author
Dhaivat has 16+ years of experience in the IT industry, working on AI and cloud technologies, project delivery, and engineering leadership. He has interviewed and mentored many interns, wrote The Lost Intern, and runs the non-commercial Career Impact Initiative, mentoring students for free.