--- title: You Found a Critical Bug Just Before Release — What... description: A guide for QA engineers on handling the discovery of a critical bug right before a scheduled release. It walks through validating the issue's true severity,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/you-found-a-critical-bug-just-before-release-what-should-you-do--5cc5k2lyd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: You Found a Critical Bug Just Before Release — What Should You Do? | daily.dev og:description: A guide for QA engineers on handling the discovery of a critical bug right before a scheduled release. It walks through validating the issue's true severity,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/you-found-a-critical-bug-just-before-release-what-should-you-do--5cc5k2lyd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5CC5K2LYd.png og:image:alt: You Found a Critical Bug Just Before Release — What Should You Do? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # You Found a Critical Bug Just Before Release — What Should You Do? **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A guide for QA engineers on handling the discovery of a critical bug right before a scheduled release. It walks through validating the issue's true severity, writing a clear defect report, communicating calmly with stakeholders, collaborating on fixes or workarounds instead of assigning blame, being honest about risk when business pressure pushes for release anyway, and reflecting afterward to improve test coverage. It also frames the scenario as a common interview question and offers a sample interview-ready answer. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How Coding with QA in Mind Has Made Me a Better Developer](https://daily.dev/posts/how-coding-with-qa-in-mind-has-made-me-a-better-developer-g9hgvoo1g) · Atomic Spin · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [You Just Found Bad Data in Production. Now What?](https://daily.dev/posts/you-just-found-bad-data-in-production-now-what--nerttjamy) · SQL Authority · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Don’t say “I found a problem.” Say … “I found a problem, here’s a solution .. and proof.”](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-say-i-found-a-problem-say-i-found-a-problem-here-s-a-solution-and-proof--n2d3qxifp) · Confessions of a Data Guy · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Before You Fix the Bug, Make Sure You Understand the Problem](https://daily.dev/posts/before-you-fix-the-bug-make-sure-you-understand-the-problem-ifoiqdpal) · Medium · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [A Seasoned Tester's Crystal Ball: Breaking what you thought you knew about testing in 30 minutes](https://daily.dev/posts/a-seasoned-tester-s-crystal-ball-breaking-what-you-thought-you-knew-about-testing-in-30-minutes-pymghmzfo) · A Seasoned Tester's Crystal Ball · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#interview-questions](https://daily.dev/tags/interview-questions) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/you-found-a-critical-bug-just-before-release-what-should-you-do--5cc5k2lyd) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"You Found a Critical Bug Just Before Release — What Should You Do?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/you-found-a-critical-bug-just-before-release-what-should-you-do--5cc5k2lyd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/you-found-a-critical-bug-just-before-release-what-should-you-do--5cc5k2lyd"},"datePublished":"2026-08-21T11:10:56.882Z","dateModified":"2026-08-21T11:30:52.922Z","description":"A guide for QA engineers on handling the discovery of a critical bug right before a scheduled release. 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