Testing Deep Dives
Work in progress – 2 articles livePractical test strategies, tools, and patterns that actually work. No religious wars about coverage percentages. No exhaustive integration tests of third-party libraries. Just pragmatic approaches to catching bugs before your users do.
What to Test (and What to Burn)
Not everything deserves a test. Some code should be tested rigorously. Some should be tested lightly. Some should be deleted. Learn to tell the difference before you waste a week testing getters.
The Testing Pyramid in the Age of AI
The testing pyramid was designed for a world without AI code generation. When AI can write unit tests faster than you can read them, what's actually worth testing? Spoiler: not your mocks.
E2E Testing Done Smarter (ish)
End-to-end tests are slow, brittle, and expensive. They're also the only tests that actually verify your application works. Here's how to write E2E tests that catch real bugs without becoming a maintenance nightmare.
Mutation Testing: Watch Out for the Wolverine
Your tests pass. Your coverage is at 95%. You deploy. Everything breaks. Mutation testing kills parts of your code to see if your tests notice. If they don't, your tests are lying to you.
About This Section
These articles complement the Boring Reliability Wards. While the Wards cover GS-TDD philosophy and workflow, Testing Deep Dives focus on specific testing techniques, tools, and strategies. All written with the assumption that you have better things to do than worship at the altar of 100% code coverage.