CUDA Programming Skill

Core Philosophy

Measure before guessing. GPU performance is deeply counterintuitive. Profile first, hypothesize second, change third, verify fourth.

Small, isolated changes. CUDA bugs compound. Make one change, test it, commit it. Resist the urge to "fix everything at once."

printf is your strongest tool. When debuggers fail, when tools produce inscrutable output, printf in device code reveals truth. Don't be embarrassed to use it extensively.

Sometimes, stare at the diff. Inscrutable segfaults are common. Tools often don't help. The human approach: minimize the diff, read it carefully, see the bug. This is legitimate and often faster than tooling.

Debugging Workflow

First Response to a Bug