Always validate boundary conditions and termination criteria in algorithms to prevent infinite loops, out-of-bounds access, and incorrect behavior. This includes checking loop bounds against variable type limits, validating range parameters, and ensuring proper termination conditions. Key practices: - Add explicit bounds checking when loop variables might exceed their type limits - Validate range parameters using appropriate logical operators (OR for exclusion, AND for inclusion) - Check boundary conditions before performing expensive operations like recursive searches - Use proper comparison operators that account for edge cases like empty ranges Example from loop bounds checking: ```c // Problem: infinite loop if count > UINT16_MAX for (TSSymbol i = 0; i < count; i++) { ... } // Solution: add explicit bounds check for (TSSymbol i = 0; i < count && i < UINT16_MAX; i++) { ... } ``` Example from range validation: ```c // Problem: incorrect logic for range exclusion if (end_byte <= start_byte && point_lte(end_point, start_point)) { ... } // Solution: use OR for exclusion checks bool node_precedes_range = ( ts_node_end_byte(node) <= self->start_byte || point_lte(ts_node_end_point(node), self->start_point) ); ``` Proper boundary validation prevents algorithmic failures and improves both correctness and performance by avoiding unnecessary computation on invalid inputs.