Why are Boolean conditions important when hand-tracing code?

Boolean conditions are crucial in hand-tracing code as they directly dictate the flow of execution within if-statements and loops. These conditions evaluate to true or false, which determines whether a particular block of code should be executed or if the control should move to the next part of the program. For instance, in an if-statement, if the Boolean expression evaluates to true, the statements within that block will run, and if false, they will be skipped. Similarly, in loops, the Boolean condition is checked before each iteration to decide whether to continue looping or to terminate. Understanding how these conditions operate allows one to predict how the code will behave under different input scenarios, making it essential for debugging and ensuring the correctness of the program’s logic.