[arthurdenture]

Similarly, overly elaborate test code can itself be buggy. A specific instance of this anti-pattern is when the test code duplicates the same logic as the code under test, logic which turns out to be incorrect.

In test code, I am a lot more tolerant of straight-line repetition in the name of simplicity, in a manner that would be worth abstracting were it in non-test-code.

[rdiddly]

That's a sign that you need to write tests to test your tests. It's part of treating your test code as a first-class citizen. I always write a test suite for my test suite.

Just kidding.

[squeaky-clean]

I know this is a joke, but I do have a few "don't panic" tests that do extremely simple stuff, like just run a test and return True immediately, connect to db, connect to mock db, etc.

Sometimes I do something stupid like put an extra comma somewhere without noticing, or update my db driver library without also updating my mock library. I think we've all had that moment where tests fail or it doesn't compile because you thought you copy-pasted some text into an email, but it got pasted into your editor window.

So when I see that literally every test has failed, I know it was some really dumb but likely simple mistake on my part. If 180/195 tests pass.... Shit.