Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

This is an extremely widely used technique as of 2020 and much earlier.

If allows you to amplify "any" sequence of choice (TODO length limitations) between a start and end sequences of interest which you synthesize.

If the sequence of interest is present, it gets amplified exponentially, and you end up with a bunch of DNA at the end.

You can then measure the DNA concentration based on simple light refraction methods to see if there is a lot of DNA or not in the post-processed sample.

Even Ciro Santilli had some contact with it at: Section "How to use an Oxford Nanopore MinION to extract DNA from river water and determine which bacteria live in it", see: PCR!

One common problem that happens with PCR if you don't design your primers right is: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_dimer