Various aspects of the disclosed technology relate to predicting physical failure analysis-oriented diagnosis resolution. Fault simulation is performed on a circuit design to derive test responses for a set of faults and test patterns for testing circuits fabricated according to the circuit design. The set of faults is grouped into groups of equivalent faults based on the test responses. A group of equivalent faults consists of faults having the same test responses for all test patterns in the test patterns that can activate the faults. A PFA (physical failure analysis)-oriented diagnosis resolution evaluation value is computed by averaging weighted sizes of the groups of equivalent faults. The weight factors for the groups of equivalent faults with sizes greater than a certain number being smaller than the weight factors for rest of the groups of equivalent faults.