General and technique-independent challenges of Search-based software testing

In the development of a software system, different factors are involved. Due to the complexity of the work, the occurrence of human errors is inevitable. These errors cause the software to behave unpredictably and destructively in the real execution environment. For example, in some programming languages, there is an error called buffer overflow. It may cause unauthorized grants or access to the system in the network and security applications and even endanger user’s privacy or can cause different problems in embedded systems. So software testing is required to increase the reliability and security of the developed software. There are several techniques for testing, among which, the search-based software test (SBST) and the automatic test case generation have a special place. The search-based software test is trying to convert the test problem into an optimization problem and achieve a better solution by searching the problem space. In addition to the benefits of a search-based test, there are challenges. This article provides a comprehensive overview of SBST problems. Understanding challenges is important because it helps scholars find solutions to these challenges or prepare new ideas that will ultimately help improve the quality of future tests and can bring greater security and confidence to the users.