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Garden State Java User Group

May 2021 Meeting Information

May 18, 2021
Using Mutation Testing to Expose and Fix Fake Unit Tests

We are happy to announce that Vladimir Zakharov will be our special guest for this month's meeting.

All unit tests passing with 100% coverage doesn't equal quality tests. In fact, the code under tests may not be tested at all! You may be dealing with fake unit tests, which give you a false sense of security. How is it possible and how to tell when it is happening (before the code blows up in production)?

Using the live coding format, this session will show how to apply mutation testing and recognize common test smells to identify specific problems and improve quality of unit tests. The test problems that will be addressed are all based on real examples found in actual production code bases.

Before diving into the code portion, we will spend some time on understanding unit tests best practices and anti-patterns, and how the mutation testing approach helps highlight problems or provide assurance that our tests do what we want them to do.