It is the dirty little secret of the software world. You won’t find it on a resume. You definitely won’t hear a CTO brag about it at a keynote. But behind the scenes, in the grit of 2 AM deadlines and "move fast and break things" startups, the confession is everywhere: i don't often test my code. Honestly, it’s a terrifying thing to admit out loud, especially when we’re taught from day one that Test-Driven Development (TDD) is the holy grail of engineering.
We live in a world where the speed of delivery usually trumps the quality of the delivery. The pressure is real. Shipping a feature that is 90% functional today is often seen as better than shipping a 100% verified feature next month. But this trade-off comes with a steep price tag that many developers don't realize they're paying until the technical debt collector comes knocking at the door with a subpoena.
Why "I Don't Often Test My Code" is a Recipe for Disaster
The psychology of skipping tests is pretty straightforward. It feels like a chore. Writing a unit test for a simple function feels like writing a biography for a person you just met at a bus stop—overkill and a bit tedious. You think, "I know how this works, I literally just wrote it." You hit save, refresh the browser, it looks fine, and you push to production.
Then the edge cases happen.
A real-world example of this "skip the test" mentality occurred with the Knight Capital Group in 2012. They didn't have a robust, automated testing and deployment pipeline for their high-frequency trading software. They repurposed a flag in their code that used to trigger a function called "Power Peg." Because the new code wasn't thoroughly tested in a production-like environment, the old code was accidentally triggered. In 45 minutes, they lost $440 million. They went bankrupt shortly after.
That’s the extreme version. For most of us, the cost is just a weekend spent debugging a "ghost in the machine" while your boss breathes down your neck. When you say i don't often test my code, you aren't just saving time; you are gambling with your future sanity.
The Myth of the "Small Change"
We’ve all been there. It’s just a one-line change. Maybe you’re just changing a >= to a >. What could possibly go wrong?
In complex systems, that one line is a thread in a massive tapestry. Pull it, and something three floors up might unravel. Without automated tests, you have no safety net. You're basically tightrope walking over a pit of angry stakeholders without a harness. Real experts in the field, like Martin Fowler or Kent Beck, argue that the time spent writing tests is actually an investment that pays back in "debug time" almost immediately.
If you aren't testing, you aren't actually finishing the work. You're just passing the buck to the QA team, or worse, your users.
The Productivity Paradox
The most common excuse for why i don't often test my code is speed. "I have to hit the sprint goal." "Management doesn't allocate time for testing."
Here is the irony: Not testing makes you slower.
Think about it. When you have a suite of tests, you can refactor with confidence. You can rip out an old library and swap in a new one, run your tests, and see 400 green checkmarks. You know it works. Without those tests, you spend hours manually clicking through every page of your app, hoping you didn't break the login flow while you were fixing the CSS on the footer.
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How to Start When You've Been Avoiding It
You don't need to reach 100% code coverage overnight. That's a trap. Most codebases are lucky to have 20%. The key is to start where it hurts the most.
- Test the "Happy Path": Don't worry about every weird edge case yet. Just write a test that ensures the main feature actually does what it's supposed to do. If it’s a checkout page, can a user actually buy something?
- The "Bug-Driven" Test: Every time you find a bug, write a test that reproduces it before you fix it. This ensures that the bug can never, ever come back. It's like putting a permanent lock on a door that keeps blowing open.
- Integration Over Unit: If you're short on time, integration tests often provide more "bang for your buck." They test how different parts of your system work together, which is where the most catastrophic failures usually happen anyway.
Moving Beyond the Guilt
If you're currently in a position where you're thinking, "Yeah, i don't often test my code, and I feel terrible about it," stop. Guilt doesn't write code.
The industry is shifting. With the rise of AI-assisted coding tools like GitHub Copilot, writing tests is actually becoming easier. You can literally highlight a function and ask the AI to "write three unit tests for this, including edge cases." The barrier to entry is lower than it has ever been.
But tools can't replace the mindset. You have to decide that you're a professional who cares about the longevity of the software you build. Building things that last requires a foundation. Tests are that foundation.
Actionable Next Steps for Better Code Reliability
Stop viewing testing as an "extra" step. It’s part of the feature. If the feature isn't tested, the feature isn't done.
- Audit your current project: Pick the one piece of code that scares you the most. You know the one. The "don't touch this or the whole site goes down" file. Write one test for it today. Just one.
- Set up a Pre-commit Hook: Use tools like Husky for JavaScript to prevent yourself from even committing code if the tests fail. It's a great way to force yourself into better habits.
- Advocate for "Maintenance Sprints": Talk to your product manager. Explain that the "speed" they are seeing is an illusion built on technical debt. Carve out 10-15% of every sprint specifically for testing and refactoring.
- Learn a Testing Framework Cold: Whether it's Jest, PyTest, or JUnit, spend a weekend actually learning the assertions and mocking capabilities. Most people hate testing because they're bad at using the tools. Once you're fast with the framework, the friction disappears.
Testing isn't about perfection. It’s about sleep. It’s about knowing that when you push that "deploy" button on a Friday afternoon, you can actually go enjoy your weekend without checking Slack every twenty minutes. Stop saying i don't often test my code and start saying "my code is verified." Your future self will thank you.