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Discussion on: Are you for or against testing for beginners?

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Shi Ling

I think entry software engineers (not complete untrained beginners) joining as a professional should learn to test as early as possible. Knowing how to write tests demonstrate your ability to fully understand requirements. I often use test writing as an exercise for junior devs to ask the right questions.

But that said, I don't force them to write tests from day 1. I'm in the habit of letting juniors make mistakes first, and finding all the edge cases they didn't think of during code reviews, and showing them why they should start writing tests. They will also quickly find out that their peers who submit pull requests with tests gets their PR approved and shipped faster because reviewers can check quickly to see if all requirements are met and edge cases are covered.