What are best practices for exception handling?

Q: What are best practices for exception handling?

Use specific catch blocks, log exceptions, avoid empty catches, and create meaningful custom exceptions.

Q: Why avoid empty catch blocks?

They hide bugs and make debugging difficult.

💡 Concept: Exception Handling Best Practices

Exception handling is critical for building resilient applications. Best practices ensure your code gracefully handles errors without crashing and maintains readability and maintainability.

📘 Quick Intro

Use structured try-catch-finally blocks, avoid swallowing exceptions silently, and create meaningful custom exceptions when needed.

🧠 Analogy

Think of exception handling like a safety net in a trapeze act — it catches errors before they cause a crash, allowing the show to continue safely.

🔧 Technical Explanation

🔄 Always catch specific exceptions instead of general ones.
📝 Log exceptions with sufficient context for debugging.
♻️ Use finally blocks to release resources.
🚫 Avoid empty catch blocks that swallow exceptions.
🛠️ Create custom exceptions to represent domain-specific errors.

🎯 Use Cases

✅ Graceful error recovery in UI applications.
✅ Logging and monitoring errors in server applications.
✅ Validating input and throwing meaningful exceptions.
✅ Propagating exceptions properly for layered architectures.

💻 Code Example


try {
    // Code that may throw exception
    var number = int.Parse(input);
} 
catch (FormatException ex) {
    Console.WriteLine(""Invalid number format: "" + ex.Message);
    // Log exception here
} 
finally {
    Console.WriteLine(""Execution completed."");
}

❓ Interview Q&A

Q1: Why catch specific exceptions?
A: To handle errors appropriately and avoid masking issues.

Q2: What is the purpose of finally?
A: To release resources regardless of success or failure.

Q3: Why avoid empty catch blocks?
A: They hide bugs and complicate debugging.

Q4: What is a custom exception?
A: An exception that represents application-specific errors.

Q5: How should exceptions be logged?
A: With detailed context and stack trace.

Q6: When to rethrow exceptions?
A: When the caller needs to handle them further.

Q7: Can you catch multiple exceptions?
A: Yes, with multiple catch blocks.

Q8: What is exception propagation?
A: Passing exceptions up the call stack.

Q9: Is exception handling costly?
A: It can be, so avoid using exceptions for control flow.

Q10: How to ensure application stability?
A: Proper exception handling and logging.

📝 MCQs

Q1. Why catch specific exceptions?

Ignore all errors
Handle errors properly
Catch generic exceptions
Swallow exceptions

Q2. What does finally do?

Ignores errors
Releases resources
Throws exceptions
Logs errors

Q3. Why avoid empty catch blocks?

Hide bugs
Improve performance
Catch all errors
None

Q4. What is a custom exception?

System errors
App-specific errors
Unhandled errors
Debug info

Q5. How to log exceptions?

Ignore logs
With context
Only messages
No logging

Q6. When to rethrow exceptions?

Never
When caller handles
Always
Randomly

Q7. Can you catch multiple exceptions?

No
Yes
Sometimes
No idea

Q8. What is exception propagation?

Ignoring errors
Passing up call stack
Logging errors
Swallowing exceptions

Q9. Is exception handling costly?

No
Avoid for control flow
Always costly
Cheap

Q10. How to ensure app stability?

Ignore errors
Proper handling and logging
No exceptions
Crash recovery

💡 Bonus Insight

Effective exception handling improves application robustness and provides better user experiences by preventing crashes and enabling diagnostics.

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