Quality Unit Testing for Rust

Write tests that catch real bugs and provide deployment confidence.

Core Principles

Quality over coverage: Tests should catch real bugs, not just boost percentages.

Quick Reference

Naming: test_<function>_<scenario>_<expected>

#[test]
fn test_process_payment_insufficient_funds_returns_error()

#[tokio::test]
async fn test_withdraw_valid_amount_decreases_balance()

AAA Pattern (Arrange-Act-Assert)

#[test]
fn test_account_withdraw_decreases_balance() {
    // Arrange
    let mut account = Account::new(100);

    // Act
    let result = account.withdraw(30);

    // Assert
    assert!(result.is_ok());
    assert_eq!(account.balance(), 70);
}

Isolation

✓ Mock: APIs, databases, file systems, external services ✗ Don’t mock: Value types, pure functions, code under test

Single Responsibility

Each test verifies ONE behavior with ONE reason to fail.

Rust-Specific Patterns

// Async tests
#[tokio::test]
async fn test_async_operation() { /* ... */ }

// Result-based tests
#[test]
fn test_operation() -> anyhow::Result<()> { /* ... */ }

// Test builders
let episode = TestEpisodeBuilder::new()
    .with_task("Test task")
    .completed(true)
    .build();

// RAII cleanup
struct TestDb(TempDir);
impl Drop for TestDb { fn drop(&mut self) { /* auto cleanup */ } }

Success Metrics

✓ Deploy without manual testing ✓ Test failures pinpoint exact problems ✓ Refactoring doesn’t break unrelated tests ✓ Tests run in milliseconds

Workflow

Creating Tests:

1. Understand the code behavior
2. Identify risks
3. Write failing test first (red-green-refactor)
4. Apply AAA pattern
5. Isolate dependencies
6. Verify speed (milliseconds)

Reviewing Tests:

1. Run analysis script
2. Check naming conventions
3. Ensure isolation
4. Confirm single responsibility