Ask HN: How much emphasis to put on unit testing and when?

If a function does actual computation or has branching logic that could go wrong in subtle ways, unit test it. If it's mostly wiring things together (fetch data, transform, save), an integration test catches more real bugs.

The "unit test everything" era came from a time when spinning up test databases was painful. Now with Docker and in-memory DBs, integration tests are often faster to write AND more useful.

Where unit tests still win: algorithmic code, parsing, anything with lots of edge cases. Writing unit tests forces you to think about boundaries. Integration tests just tell you "it worked this time."

The worst outcome is having tests that make refactoring painful but don't catch real bugs. I've seen codebases where every internal method signature change breaks 50 unit tests that were essentially testing implementation details.

Instead of testing everything to being perfect, 100% test coverage and never releasing and the company questioning why the deadlines were missed for the project because of testing dogma.

> I've personally found that when the architecture of the system is not mature yet, unit tests can get in the way. Terribly so. Integration tests or system tests to assert behavior seem the starting point in this and other scenario's, including when there are no tests at all yet.

Totally agree.

The software under test is always modeling something -- business logic, a communications protocol, a control algorithm, a standard, etc. Behind each of those things is a specification. If a specification doesn't exist then the software is called a prototype. For sustained long term incremental development a specification must exist.

The purpose of unit tests is to assert specification-defined invariants at the module interface level.

Unit tests are durable iff the specification they uphold is explicit and accessible to developers and the scope of the test is small. It's futile to write good tests for a module which has ambiguous utility.

priors: I worked in embedded SW and am now a PhD student.

Then throw away the unit tests and write integration or E2E tests instead. Then you can refactor under the hood while ensuring overall system behavior is as expected.

There are some exceptions where you might want to hang on to a small subset of unit tests. They can be useful for demonstrating how to use an interface or class. They can help support particularly complex bits of logic. If a certain part of your codebase is fragile and regression prone, unit test coverage can help.

Otherwise, they just calcify the code.

Test what the user will use. That could mean an end-user interface, or it could mean a public API. Again, the goal is for the user to understand what you are trying to accomplish for them and to have guarantees about what you won't change in the future.

Costs may be:

* Developer time to make and maintain.

* CI time means slower CI and higher costs there.

* Ossification of source code (especially unit tests, less so integration). Meaning harder to refactor as you also need to rewrite tests.

Benefits:

* Finds bugs

* Can be a handy local dev loop and local debugging loop

* Documents code and proves that documentation is correct

* Helps with AI assistance

* Integration tests should make refactoring easier or more confident.

I would err on the side of good coverage (80% excl stupid stuff) unless I have in hand a specific reasin not to.

Maybe AI analysis/synthesis will change the math on this, but beyond early prototypes and PoC's, tests pay for themselves.

If that becomes hard or you find yourself mocking a lot, then stop, and instead write integration and e2e tests.

Remember unit tests get tightly coupled to your code base, so use them wisely.

At the end of the day, I need to know that the system works and does what it is suppose to do. Unit tests adds too much complexity in my opinion and isn't worth it.