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Varshith V Hegde
Varshith V Hegde Subscriber

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Unit Tests: The Greatest Lie We Tell Ourselves?

#webdev #productivity #testing #programming

The Setup: A Developer's Hubris

So there I was, Friday night, 11:47 PM. My test suite? Green as grass. Coverage? A beautiful 94.7%. My code? Love it!! Proud of myself...

I had done everything right:

  • Unit tests - Checked
  • Integration tests - Checked
  • Edge cases covered - Checked
  • That weird bug from last sprint? Fixed and tested - Checked
  • My confidence? Through the roof - Checked

I pushed to production, closed my laptop with that satisfying thunk, and packed my bags. This weekend, I was conquering Kaiwara Betta, a modest 4,200-foot trek in Karnataka. Because I'm the kind of person who carries their laptop on mountain treks (don't judge me, we're all broken in our own ways), I figured if anything went wrong, I'd have cell service at the peak.

The Fall: When Reality Hits (Literally)

Saturday morning, 4 AM. I'm at the base of Kaiwara Betta, breathing in that crisp mountain air, feeling like a protagonist in a coming-of-age developer documentary. My phone buzzes.

Teams notification: "Production is down. URGENT."

But hey, I have my laptop! I'll just... checks phone signal... I'll just climb faster to get better reception!

By the time I reached a spot with decent 4G (around 3,000 feet, sweating like a deployment pipeline on Black Friday), I opened my laptop on a rock. Picture this: Developers trekking past me, living their best unplugged lives, while I'm crouched over my MacBook like Gollum with his precious.

The logs were... creative:

NoneType object has no attribute 'execute'
KeyError: 'user_preferences'
Connection timeout: Database not responding
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confused nick young meme

My 94.7% coverage didn't cover THIS. My beautiful unit tests didn't catch THAT. And my Friday night confidence? Currently rolling down the mountain like that boulder in Indiana Jones.

Boulder in Indiana Jones

The Uncomfortable Truth: Unit Tests Are Necessary BUT...

Here's the controversial take that'll get me ratio'd on Twitter: Unit tests are absolutely necessary, but they're not a silver bullet. They're more like a bulletproof vest that only covers your torso.

Let me explain before you close this tab in disgust.

What Went Wrong? (A Post-Mortem from 4,200 Feet)

My tests were perfect. My code was perfect. The problem?

  1. Environment Drift: My production environment had a different Python version (3.9 vs 3.11) that handled dictionary merging differently
  2. Race Conditions: My async database connections had a race condition that only appeared under load
  3. Configuration Hell: An environment variable was set differently in prod

None of these were caught by unit tests. Because unit tests test units. Isolated, mocked, perfect little universes where everything behaves exactly as you tell it to.

Real production? That's a lawless wasteland where Murphy's Law rides a motorcycle through your carefully constructed sand castles.

So... Are Unit Tests Useless?

NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. PUT DOWN THE PITCHFORKS.

Here's the thing: Unit tests are like going to the gym. Just because you can still trip and fall down the stairs doesn't mean leg day was pointless.

Unit tests catch:

  • Logic errors in your functions
  • Edge cases you forgot about at 2 AM
  • Regressions when you refactor
  • That time you accidentally deleted a critical if-statement
  • Your coworker's "quick fix" that broke three other things

What they DON'T catch:

  • The chaos of the real world
  • Systems integration issues
  • Infrastructure problems
  • That one server that's possessed by demons
  • The inevitable heat death of the universe

How to Actually Write Tests That Matter (Lessons from a Rock)

Sitting on that mountain, debugging production code with 12% battery left, I had an epiphany. Here's how to test properly:

1. The Testing Pyramid is Your Friend

Testing phases

Don't just live in the unit test basement. Venture upstairs occasionally.

2. Test the Contract, Not the Implementation

Bad:

def test_user_service_calls_database_exactly_once():
    # This test knows too much about HOW things work
    mock_db.assert_called_once()
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Good:

def test_user_service_returns_user_data():
    # This test cares about WHAT happens
    user = service.get_user(123)
    assert user.id == 123
    assert user.email is not None
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3. Integration Tests Are Not Optional 

def test_the_actual_freaking_database():
    """Yes, spin up a test database. Yes, it's slower. 
       Yes, it would've caught my production bug."""
    db = create_test_database()
    result = service.fetch_user_preferences(user_id=1)
    assert result is not None  # THIS WOULD'VE FAILED
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4. Test Your Assumptions

My code assumed the database connection would always exist. LOL.

def test_graceful_degradation_when_everything_is_on_fire():
    with mock.patch('db.connect', side_effect=TimeoutError):
        # Does your app explode or handle it gracefully?
        result = service.get_user(123)
        assert result == None or isinstance(result, DefaultUser)
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5. Use Contract Tests for External APIs 

def test_third_party_api_still_returns_what_we_expect():
    """Because apparently they can just CHANGE THINGS"""
    response = external_api.get_data()
    assert 'user_id' in response  # Would've caught the API change
    assert isinstance(response['user_id'], int)
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The Mountain's Wisdom: A Balanced Approach

As I finally fixed the bug (at 3,800 feet with 4% battery), I realized something:

Testing is like trekking. You need preparation, but you also need to expect the unexpected.

Your testing strategy should include:

  1. Unit Tests (60%): Fast, focused, fearless
  2. Integration Tests (30%): Slower, broader, realistic
  3. E2E Tests (10%): Slowest, widest, most painful but most valuable
  4. Manual Testing: Sometimes you just gotta click around and see what breaks
  5. Monitoring: Because tests can't catch everything, but dashboards can alert you when everything's on fire

The Real Controversial Take

Here it is, the spiciest take that'll get me cancelled in dev circles:

Stop chasing 100% code coverage. Start chasing confidence coverage.

Would you rather have:

  • 100% unit test coverage with no integration tests?
  • 70% coverage with a good mix of unit, integration, and E2E tests?

I'll take option B and sleep better at night (when I'm not debugging on mountains).

Practical Tips for Tests That Actually Help

1. Write Tests That Tell a Story 

def test_user_cannot_access_deleted_account():
    """Given: A user with a deleted account
       When: They try to log in
       Then: They should get a meaningful error"""
    # Your test here
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2. Test the Sad Paths

Everyone tests the happy path. Be different. Be sad.

def test_what_happens_when_literally_everything_fails():
    # Database down? Check.
    # Cache unavailable? Check.  
    # API returning 500s? Check.
    # Does your app at least log the error? Let's find out!
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3. Use Realistic Test Data 

# Bad
test_email = "test@test.com"

# Good  
test_email = "user+test@company.co.in"  # Tests plus signs, subdomains, etc.
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4. CI/CD is Not Optional

If your tests only run on your machine, they're basically vibes.

5. Fail Fast, Learn Faster

Don't spend 3 hours debugging a test. If it's that complex, maybe your code is too complex.

The Epilogue: Making Peace with Imperfection

I eventually fixed the bug from the mountain (thank you, sketchy 4G). The trek was beautiful, even if I spent half of it debugging. And I learned something important:
Top view

Perfect is the enemy of good, but good tests are better than perfect tests you never write.

Unit tests are necessary. They're not sufficient. They're one tool in your toolbox, not the entire toolbox. They'll catch your typos, your logic errors, your "oh god what was I thinking" moments. But they won't catch everything.

And that's okay.

Because at the end of the day, development is about:

  • Writing code that works (mostly)
  • Testing what you can test
  • Monitoring what you can't test
  • Being ready to hotfix from a mountain at 4,200 feet with 2% battery
  • Learning from every production fire

TL;DR (Because Nobody Reads Long Posts Anymore)

Write unit tests. Write integration tests. Write E2E tests. Don't obsess over coverage percentages. Test the sad paths. Monitor production. Maybe don't deploy on Friday nights before a trek. Definitely carry a power bank.

Unit tests are like airbags. Absolutely necessary, but you still need to drive carefully.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting with my DevOps team to discuss "why deploying on Friday nights is a crime against humanity."

Have your own testing horror stories? Drop them in the comments. I need to feel less alone in my suffering.

I made it to the peak. The view was worth it. The production crash? Not so much.

Me at Top

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