Web Scraping22 min read
Debugging Scrapers
Learn how to debug broken scrapers using status codes, printing HTML, and browser inspection.
David Miller
December 21, 2025
1.5k71
Scrapers break often because sites change.
You must know how to debug.
Check status code
res = requests.get(url)
print(res.status_code)
Print partial HTML
print(res.text[:500])
Save page for inspection
with open("page.html", "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
f.write(res.text)
Open it in browser and inspect.
Debug flow
flowchart TD
A[Scraper Fails] --> B[Check Status]
B --> C[View HTML]
C --> D[Update Selectors]
Remember
- Websites change
- Debugging is part of scraping
#Python#Intermediate#Debugging