Which design approach focuses on building software by reusing existing libraries and APIs rather than starting from scratch?

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The idea being tested is designing software by assembling prebuilt components. Bottom-up design starts with existing libraries, APIs, and reusable modules, then stitches them together to form the full system. This approach leverages proven functionality, speeds up development, and makes it easier to swap implementations as needed because the emphasis is on integrating ready-made pieces rather than building everything from scratch.

If you think about other options, top-down design begins with a broad overall goal and breaks it into smaller parts, focusing on decomposing the system rather than reusing existing components. Modular programming emphasizes organizing code into well-defined modules with clear interfaces, which helps manage complexity but doesn’t inherently center on reuse of external libraries. Stepwise refinement is about adding detail progressively, not specifically about reuse.