A simple, selective, and stability-indicating high pressure liquid chromatographic method with diode array detection was developed for the analysis of lamivudine in tablets. The separation was performed on a C 18 (octylsilyl) BDS Hypersil ® column (4.6 × 150 mm × 5 µm), with isocratic elution of the mobile phase composed of acetonitrile and 50 mM phosphate buffer of pH 4 (adjusted using phosphoric acid) in a ratio of (10:90) v/v. The mobile phase was pumped at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/ min. The detector was set at 280 nm and quantification of the analyte was based on peak area measurement. The method was validated with respect to linearity, range, precision, accuracy, selectivity, robustness, LOD and LOQ. The investigated drug exhibited a linear relationship between concentration and peak area in the range of 5-150 µg/mL with correlation coefficient > 0.999. Lamivudine was subjected to forced degradation studies under two conditions: mild and extensive stress testing. These studies included the effect of hydrolysis (neutral, acidic, and alkaline), oxidation, photolysis, and dry heat. The proposed method proved to be stability-indicating by the resolution of the drug from its forced degradation products, making use of DAD as a tool for peak identity and purity confirmation. By virtue of its sensitivity, the developed method was also extended to analyze lamivudine in biological fluids such as human plasma and urine with good recovery values (Graphical abstract).