An approach is provided for predicting an exception during a debugging of software code before the debugging encounters the exception. During a debugging of a line number L of the code and based on an exception being predicted to be encountered at a line number M, a warning is displayed that the exception is to be encountered at the line number M, which is within a range of line numbers L+1 through L+X, where L>0 and X>1. Using a fix written in response to the predicted exception, the software code is modified. During a debugging of the line number M of the code, the modified software code is executed to avoid the predicted exception.