> Such as in your elevator example, make it so that the operation of the elevator is tested with a heavy load approaching the desired safety factor, and evaluat

> Such as in your elevator example, make it so that the operation of the elevator is tested with a heavy load approaching the desired safety factor, and evaluating the performance under this heavier than normal load? Yes, this is a reasonable way to test an elevator. "Cheating" in this context might mean surreptitiously swapping out the load for a lighter load, so that the elevator appears to pass the test while not actually supporting the heavy load during real operation. For a real-world example, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal There is unlikely to be a silver bullet that can make any test completely immune to cheating.