Large Language Models for Software Testing: A Research Roadmap

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25043v1
• Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2025 16:58:21 GMT
• Title: Large Language Models for Software Testing: A Research Roadmap
• Authors: Cristian Augusto, Antonia Bertolino, Guglielmo De Angelis, Francesca Lonetti, Jesús Morán,
• Abstract summary: Large Language Models (LLMs) are starting to be profiled as one of the most significant disruptions in the Software Testing field.<n>LLMs have been successfully applied in software testing tasks such as generating test code, or summarizing documentation.
• Score: 3.264404947368307
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) are starting to be profiled as one of the most significant disruptions in the Software Testing field. Specifically, they have been successfully applied in software testing tasks such as generating test code, or summarizing documentation. This potential has attracted hundreds of researchers, resulting in dozens of new contributions every month, hardening researchers to stay at the forefront of the wave. Still, to the best of our knowledge, no prior work has provided a structured vision of the progress and most relevant research trends in LLM-based testing. In this article, we aim to provide a roadmap that illustrates its current state, grouping the contributions into different categories, and also sketching the most promising and active research directions for the field. To achieve this objective, we have conducted a semi-systematic literature review, collecting articles and mapping them into the most prominent categories, reviewing the current and ongoing status, and analyzing the open challenges of LLM-based software testing. Lastly, we have outlined several expected long-term impacts of LLMs over the whole software testing field.

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