In computer programming

Computer programming

Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...

 blind faith (also known as blind programming or blind coding) is a situation whereby a programmer

Programmer

A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...

 develops

Software engineering

Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...

 a solution or fixes a computer bug and deploys

Software deployment

Software deployment is all of the activities that make a software system available for use.The general deployment process consists of several interrelated activities with possible transitions between them. These activities can occur at the producer site or at the consumer site or both...

 it without ever testing his creation. The programmer in this situation has blind faith in his own abilities.

Another form of blind faith is when a programmer calls a subroutine

Subroutine

In computer science, a subroutine is a portion of code within a larger program that performs a specific task and is relatively independent of the remaining code....

 without checking the result. E.g.: A programmer calls

System call

In computing, a system call is how a program requests a service from an operating system's kernel. This may include hardware related services , creating and executing new processes, and communicating with integral kernel services...

 a subroutine to save user-data on the hard disk

Hard disk

A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...

 without checking whether the operation was successful or not. In this case the programmer has blind faith in the subroutine always performing what the programmer intends to accomplish.

Blind faith is an example of an Anti-pattern. Other common names for blind faith include "God oriented programming" and "divine orientation".

Blind faith programming can also be used as a challenge to test programming skills.

The recommended alternative to blind programming is test-driven development

Test-driven development

Test-driven development is a software development process that relies on the repetition of a very short development cycle: first the developer writes a failing automated test case that defines a desired improvement or new function, then produces code to pass that test and finally refactors the new...

.