For my 200 and 300 level embedded software papers, I was essentially stuck with using flashing leds and printf to debug code. For my 400 level embedded systems

For my 200 and 300 level embedded software papers, I was essentially stuck with using flashing leds and printf to debug code. For my 400 level embedded systems design paper (which was actually a hardware design paper, we weren't graded on the code), we built boards that we could program and debug with JTAG. I was stuck on a pain point for hours until one of the tutors showed me how to use GDB with the boards via JTAG. It took me literally 5 minutes to fix the problem. Being able to step through the code line by line allowed me to see exactly where it was breaking, and why it was breaking. If I'm ever doing embedded development again (unlikely as I'm now employed as a web developer), I don't think I'll be able to function at all without a proper debugging environment.