Mutation Testing is a type of software testing where we mutate (change) certain statements in the source code and check if the test cases are able to find the errors. It is a type of White Box Testing which is mainly used for Unit Testing. The changes in mutant program are kept extremely small, so it does not affect the overall objective of the program.
The goal of Mutation Testing is to assess the quality of the test cases which should be robust enough to fail mutant code. This method is also called as Fault-based testing strategy as it involves creating a fault in the program
Mutation was originally proposed in 1971 but lost fervor due to the high costs involved. Now, again it has picked steam and is widely used for languages such as Java and XML.
