What is technical debt?

Technical debt is the accumulated cost of shortcuts, quick fixes, and deferred maintenance in software.

Like financial debt, it compounds over time - what starts as a small workaround becomes a major issue that slows development and increases costs. Common causes include: rushing to meet deadlines, skipping code reviews, using outdated technologies, not writing tests, and adding features without refactoring. Technical debt makes every future change harder, slower, and more expensive. Managing it requires regular code cleanup, keeping dependencies updated, and occasionally investing sprints in refactoring rather than new features. The best prevention is building it right the first time with clean, well-documented code.