.NET
Integration tests that mock the database lie. The query that passes with an in-memory mock fails against real PostgreSQL. The transaction that works in isolation deadlocks under the ORM's actual behavior. Testcontainers for .NET solves this by spinning up real Docker containers — real databases, real Redis, real
Testing
.NET Minimal APIs strip away the controller ceremony and put your endpoint logic directly in delegates. That's a win for readability, but it shifts how you think about testing. Controllers gave you a natural seam — test the controller class, mock its dependencies. Minimal APIs push you toward two
Testing
Architecture violations are silent killers. A domain entity that imports an EF Core context, a service class that directly instantiates a repository, a controller that contains business logic — none of these blow up at compile time. They accumulate quietly until the codebase becomes a tangle that no amount of refactoring
.NET
Hand-crafting test data is tedious and leads to brittle tests. When you hard-code new User { Name = "Alice", Email = "alice@test.com" } in 40 tests, changing the User constructor breaks all 40. When tests share the same magic string "alice@test.com", a
Testing
SignalR is Microsoft's real-time web framework that abstracts over WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, and long polling.
Testing
The .NET ecosystem has two mature approval/snapshot testing libraries: ApprovalTests.Net (the original) and Verify (the modern alternative with better async support and scrubbing). Both capture output to files and compare on subsequent runs. This guide covers both libraries with practical C# examples for NUnit and xUnit. Key Takeaways
Testing
SpecFlow is the .NET implementation of the Cucumber/Gherkin BDD framework.