Testing

Testing

What to Test

Test behavior, not implementation. A test should verify what a function does, not how it does it. If you refactor the internals and the test breaks, the test was testing the wrong thing.

Good test: "given a valid email, returns true" Bad test: "calls regex.match with pattern /^[a-z].../"

Meaningful Coverage vs Line Coverage

100% line coverage is a vanity metric. You can have 100% coverage and still ship bugs if your tests don't exercise meaningful paths.

Focus coverage on:

• Business logic (the rules that make your app unique)
• Error handling paths (what happens when things go wrong)
• Boundary conditions (empty, null, max values, off-by-one)
• Integration points (where your code meets external systems)

Skip coverage on:

• Simple getters/setters
• Framework boilerplate
• Generated code
• Pure delegation (functions that just call another function)

Edge Cases Worth Testing

Every function has these potential edge cases. Consider which apply:

• Null / undefined / empty string
• Empty array / empty object
• Single element
• Very large input
• Negative numbers / zero
• Unicode and special characters
• Concurrent access
• Network timeout / failure

You don't need to test ALL of these for every function. Think about which ones are realistic for your specific case.

Test-First Workflow

Writing tests first helps when:

• The behavior is well-defined but the implementation isn't clear
• You're fixing a bug (write the failing test first, then fix)
• You're implementing a spec (tests become the spec's executable form)

Test-first hurts when:

• You're exploring and don't know what the API should look like
• You're prototyping and will throw the code away
• The test would be trivial (testing that a constant equals itself)

When doing test-first: write the test, watch it fail, implement the minimum to pass, then refactor. Don't write all the tests up front — go one at a time.

Test Structure

Follow Arrange-Act-Assert (AAA):

// Arrange: set up the test conditions
const input = createValidInput();

// Act: call the thing being tested
const result = processInput(input);

// Assert: verify the outcome
expect(result.status).toBe('success');

Keep tests independent. No test should depend on another test running first. No shared mutable state between tests.

Naming Tests

Test names should read like specifications:

• "should return 401 when token is expired"
• "should merge arrays without duplicates"
• "should create backup directory if it doesn't exist"

Not:

• "test1"
• "it works"
• "handles edge case"

Testing Anti-Patterns

• Snapshot abuse: snapshots test that output didn't change, not that it's correct. Use sparingly and review snapshot diffs carefully.
• Mock everything: if your test mocks 5 dependencies, you're testing the mocking framework, not your code. Prefer integration tests for heavily-connected code.
• Test the framework: don't test that Express routes requests or that React renders components. Trust the framework; test YOUR logic.
• Brittle assertions: asserting on exact error messages or full object shapes when only one field matters. Assert on what matters.
• Slow tests without reason: if a test takes seconds, it's probably doing I/O that should be mocked or it's an integration test that should be tagged separately.

Gotchas

• Flaky tests are worse than no tests. They erode trust in the entire suite. Fix immediately or quarantine with a clear TODO.
• Test data should be self-contained. Don't rely on database state, external services, or file system artifacts from other tests.
• When a test fails, the test might be wrong. Don't assume the code is broken — read the test carefully first.
• Delete tests that test deleted features. Orphan tests confuse and mislead.
• Async tests need proper awaiting. An unawaited assertion silently passes.