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Glossary term
Using mathematical proof to show that a system or program meets its specification.
Formal verification uses mathematics to prove that a program, circuit or protocol meets its specification for all possible inputs, rather than just testing a sample.
It is used for critical systems such as chips, operating system kernels and cryptography, and increasingly to check AI-written code.
Testing can show bugs, but only verification can show their absence, which matters for safety-critical software.