Combinatorial explosion
The rapid growth in the number of combinations as conditions are added.
Definition
Each yes/no condition doubles the combinations: 3 conditions give 8, 10 give 1,024. Testers use decision tables, pairwise testing and risk to choose a sensible subset.
In practice
A form with 12 optional yes/no settings has 4,096 combinations, far too many to test one by one.
Learn it in context
Lessons that use this term.