Dev.to
6/20/2026
Developer builds Solana counter with
Original: How I Built a Counter Program in Anchor and Learned to Trust My Tests
Short summary
A developer documents the 57–61 day journey building a Solana smart contract counter using Anchor, discovering how intentionally breaking code and comprehensive testing deepens understanding beyond rote pattern-matching. The author explores three key insights: Anchor's accounts struct abstractions, constraint-based validation patterns like has_one, and how comprehensive test coverage (both success and failure paths) proves correctness. This is a practical guide to moving from tutorial-follower to confident smart contract developer.
- •Intentionally broke code three ways to verify tests caught each failure
- •Understanding constraint-based validation requires grasping the why, not just copying patterns
- •Tests must cover both happy path and failure paths to truly validate correctness
Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.
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