Podcast · Tech & Science
by Brian Okken · English · Tech & Science
The Python Test Podcast hosted by Brian Okken
15 Aug 2025 · 2 min
A farewell to a fun 10 years. Also, I should have tested it better. :) In the audio I got the numbers wrong. Doh! This is episode 238, not 237. Oh well. I'll still be around, of course, at: pythontest.com - where I write about developing software with tests pythonbytes.fm - Python news and headlines, delivered directly to your earbuds Thanks for all the fun over the last 10 years. I wish you the best.
E237 · 11 Aug 2025 · 36 min
In this episode, Brian interviews Sebastián Ramírez, creator of FastAPI, about its rapid rise in developer popularity and the launch of FastAPI Cloud. Sebastian explains how FastAPI Cloud addresses deployment challenges small teams face. He shares his transition from open-source to startup founder, focusing on simplifying deployment against the complexity of tools like Kubernetes. Links: FastAPI Cloud FastAPI SQLModel Typer OpenAPI Pydantic Sequoia Open Source Fellowship
E236 · 30 Jul 2025 · 20 min
In this episode, host Brian Okken and guest Adam Johnson explore essential Git features, highlighted by Adam's updated book, "Boost Your Git DX." Key topics include "cherry picking" for selective commits "git stash" for managing in-progress work "git diff", and specifically its `--name-only` flag, which provides a streamlined method for developers to identify which files have changed, which can be used to determine which tests need to be run "git bisect" for efficiently pinpointing bugs. This conversation offers valuable strategies for developers at any skill level to enhance their Git…
E235 · 22 Jul 2025 · 20 min
In this episode, special guest Adam Johnson joins the show and examines pytest-django, a popular plugin among Django developers. He highlights its advantages over the built-in unittest framework, including improved test management and debugging. Adam addresses transition challenges, evolving fixture practices, and offers tips for optimizing test performance. This episode is a concise guide for developers looking to enhance their testing strategies with pytest-django. Links: pytest-django - a plugin for pytest that provides a set of useful tools for testing Django applications and projects.
E234 · 8 May 2025 · 7 min
pytest-metadata is described as a plugin for pytest that provides access to test session metadata. That is such a humble description for such a massively useful plugin. If you're already using pytest-html, you have pytest-metadata already installed, as pytest-metadata is one of the dependencies for pytest-html. However, pytest-metadata is very useful even on its own. Links: pytest-metadata - The plugin we're talking about in this episode pytest-base-url - Adds the base URL to the metadata. pytest-html - Displays the metadata at the start of each report. See S2:E6: pytest-html - a plugin that…
E233 · 2 May 2025 · 9 min
pytest-check is a pytest plugin that allows multiple failures per test. Normally, a test function will fail and stop running with the first failed assert. That's totally fine for tons of kinds of software tests. However, there are times where you'd like to check more than one thing, and you'd really like to know the results of each check, even if one of them fails. pytest-check allows multiple failed "checks" per test function, so you can see the whole picture of what's going wrong. Links: pytest-check Top pytest plugins
E232 · 25 Apr 2025 · 57 min
AI is helping people write code. Tests are one of those things that some people don't like to write. Can AI play a role in creating automated software tests? Well, yes. But it's a nuanced yes. Anthony Shaw comes on the show to discuss the topic and try to get AI to write some test for my very own cards project. We discuss: The promise of AI writing your tests for you Downsides to not writing tests yourself Bad ways to generate tests Good ways to ask AI for help in writing tests Tricks to get better results while using copilot and other AI tools Links: The cards project A video version of…
E231 · 10 Apr 2025 · 8 min
pytest-repeat is a pytest plugin that makes it easy to repeat a single test, or multiple tests, a specific number of times. works fine on Python 3.14 is tested on Python 3.9-3.14 probably works fine still on 3.7 & 3.8 This episode also discusses the attempted April Fools episode. Links: pytest-repeat The April Fools episode: Python 3.14 won't repeat with pytest-repeat
E230 · 1 Apr 2025 · 4 min
pytest-repeat is a pytest plugin that makes it easy to repeat a single test, or multiple tests, a specific number of times. Note: This was an April Fools attempt, so the statement ... "Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work with Python 3.14, even though there is no rational reason why it shouldn't work." ... is NOT true. Listen to the NEXT episode to get an explanation Links: pytest-repeat Next episode: pytest-repeat - works fine on Python 3.14
E229 · 27 Mar 2025 · 6 min
pytest-html has got to be one of my all time favorite plugins. pytest-html is a plugin for pytest that generates a HTML report for test results. This episode digs into some of the super coolness of pytest-html. pytest-html repo readme with screenshot enhancing reports pytest-metadata
E228 · 1 Mar 2025 · 10 min
Markdown reports as either text or markdown tables. Two fun plugins discussed. Links: pytest-md-report pytest-md Top pytest Plugins
E227 · 7 Feb 2025 · 48 min
This episode is a replay of a 2021 interview I did with Michael Foord. We lost Michael in January, and I'd like to revisit this interview as a tribute. Michael Foord was a pivotal figure in the Python community and the creator of the mock library that's now unittest.mock. But he did so much more as well. His contributions continue to resonate within the developer community. This interview is just a small peek at his influence. In this episode Introduction to Michael Foord The Mock Library Origins Mocking and Testing Philosophy Career Path and Consulting Understanding Mocking The Power of…
E226 · 31 Jan 2025 · 11 min
pytest-mock is currently the #3 pytest plugin. pytest-mock is a wrapper around unittest.mock. In this episode: Why the pytest-mock plugin is awesome What is mocking, patching, and monkey patching What, if any, is the difference between mock, fake, spy, stub. Why we might need these in testing Some history of mock in Python and how mock became unittest.mock From unittest.mock patch.object patch.object with autospec using these as context managers pytest-mock: The mocker fixture Cleanup in teardown Using mocker.patch, mocker.spy, and mocker.stub Why it's awesome and why you might want to use…
E225 · 23 Jan 2025 · 12 min
pytest-cov is a pytest plugin that helps produce coverage reports using Coverage.py. In this episode, we'll discuss: what Coverage.py is why you should measure code coverage on both your source and test code what pytest-cov is extra features pytest-cov gives you over and above coverage.py and generally why using both is awesome Links: coverage.py pytest-cov how to set up context reports Top pytest Plugins Errata: I mentioned that Coverage has the ability to show context (which line is covered by which test) for the past year or so. However, that feature was released in Oct 2018. coverage 5.0…
E224 · 10 Jan 2025 · 12 min
This episode kicks off a series on pytest plugins. In this episode: Introduction to pytest plugins The pytest.org pytest plugin list Finding pytest related packages on PyPI The Top pytest plugins list on pythontest.com Exploring popular plugins Learning from plugin examples Links: Top pytest plugins list pytest.org plugin list Top PyPI Packages And links to plugins mentioned in the show can be found at pythontest.com/top-pytest-plugins
E223 · 17 Nov 2024 · 22 min
Taking notes well can help to listen better, remember things, show respect, be more accountable, free up mind space to solve problems. This episode discusses the benefits of writing things down preparing for a meeting taking notes in meetings reviewing notes for action items, todo items, things to follow up on, etc. taking notes to allow for better focus writing well structured emails writing blog posts and books
E222 · 7 Sep 2024 · 12 min
In this episode we're talking about importing part of a package into another part of the same package. We'll look at: `from . import module` and `from .module import something` and also: `import package` to access the external API from with the package. Why would we use `import package` if `from . import api` would work fine?
E221 · 3 Jun 2024 · 8 min
We've got some code we want to test, and some tests. The tests need to be able to import the code under test, or at least the API to it, in order to run tests against it. How do we do that? How do we set things up so that our tests can import our code? In this episode, we discuss two options: Installing the code under test as a pip installable package with `pip install -e /path/to/local/package`. Using the pythonpath pytest setting .
E220 · 4 May 2024 · 41 min
PyCon US is just around the corner. I've asked Rob Ludwick to come on the show to discuss how to get the most out of your PyCon experience. There's a lot to do. A lot of activities to juggle, including actual juggling, which is where we start the conversation. Even if you never get a chance to go to PyCon, I hope this interview helps you get a feel for the welcoming aspect of the Python community. I recorded this interview as an episode for one of my other podcasts, Python People. But I think it's got some great pre-conference advice, so I'm sharing it here on Python Test as well. We talk…
E219 · 24 Apr 2024 · 48 min
I'm starting a SaaS project using Django, and there are tons of decisions right out of the gate. To help me navigate these decisions, I've brought on Cory Zue. Cory is the creator of SaaS Pegasus , and has tons of experience with Django. Some of the topics discussed: Building Django applications SaaS Pegasus placecard.me What boilerplate projects are Django cookiecutter Cookiecutter Which database to use, probably PostgreSQL Authentication choises, probably Allauth Docker, Docker for development, Docker for deployment Deployment targets / hosting services. Render, Heroku, Fly.io, for PaaS…
E218 · 18 Apr 2024 · 28 min
Nicole is a software engineer and writer, and recently wrote about the trade-offs we make when deciding which tests to write and how much testing is enough. We talk about: Balancing schedule vs testing How much testing is the right about of testing Should code coverage be measured and tracked Good refactoring can reduce code coverage Is it worth testing error conditions? Are rare error codes ok to just monitor? API drift and autospec Mitigating risk Deciding what to test and what not to test Focus testing on key money-making features If there's a bug in this part of the code, how much…
E217 · 11 Apr 2024 · 57 min
If you've ever thought about starting a podcast or a SaaS project, you'll want to listen to this episode. Justin is one of the people who motivated me to get started podcasting. He's also running a successful SaaS company, transistor.fm , which hosts this podcast. Topics: Podcasting Building new SaaS (software as a service) products Balancing work, side hustle, and family Great places to snowboard in British Columbia BTW. Links from the show: Transistor.fm - excellent podcast hosting, Justin is a co-founder How to start a podcast in 2024 Podcasts from Justin Build your SaaS - current Build &…
E216 · 11 Mar 2024 · 48 min
Charlie Marsh and team are using Rust to make Python tooling faster. Ruff can take the place of Flake8, isort, and Black, and so much more. uv can take the place of pip, pip-tools, and virtualenv Astral is Charlie's venture backed company, and what they have with `ruff` and `uv` is just the start. Since uv is the newest tool, there's quite a bit of the discussion diving into uv. Links: ruff Astral uv
E215 · 25 Feb 2024 · 39 min
Software engineers that move into leadership roles have a struggle between learning leadership skills, maintaining technical skills, and learning new leadership and technical skills. Matt Makai went from individual contributor to developer relations to leadership in devrel. We discuss how to stay technical, as well as dive into some results of his studies in how companies use developer relationship channels.
E214 · 7 Feb 2024 · 39 min
If you haven't tried running automated tests, especially with pytest, in VS Code recently, you should take another look. The Python for VS Code interface for testing, especially for pytest, has changed recently. On this episode we discuss the change with the software engineer working on the pytest changes, Eleanor Boyd, and the product manager, Courtney Webster. Links from the episode: Blog post announcing the rewrite Code repo for questions, comments, issues etc
E213 · 19 Jan 2024 · 14 min
If a test fails in a test suite, I'm going to want to re-run the test. I may even want to re-run a test, or a subset of the suite, a bunch of times. There are a few pytest plugins that help with this: pytest-repeat pytest-rerunfailures pytest-flakefinder pytest-instafail We talk about each of these in this episode.
E212 · 13 Jan 2024 · 8 min
In 2002, Kent Beck released a book called "Test Driven Development by Example". In December of 2023, Kent wrote an article called "Canon TDD". With Kent's permission, this episode contains the full content of the article. Brian's commentary is saved for a followup episode. Links: Canon TDD Test Driven Development by Example
E211 · 15 Dec 2023 · 18 min
We want to be able to run tests in a suite, and debug them in isolation, and have the behavior be the same. If the behavior is different in isolation vs in a suite, it's a nightmare to debug. In this episode, we'll talk about: Causes of dependence Testing for dependencies using plugins Debugging test dependencies Plugins discussed: pytest-randomly pytest-reverse pytest-random-order
E210 · 30 Nov 2023 · 16 min
Test Driven Development. Red, Green, Refactor. Do we have to do the refactor part? Does the refactor at the end include tests? Or can I refactor the tests at any time? Why is refactor at the end? This episode is to talk about this with a an example.
E209 · 16 Nov 2023 · 16 min
How do you test the argument parsing bit of an application that uses argparse? This episode covers: Design for Test: Structuring your app or script so it's easier to test. pytest & capsys for testing stdout Adding debug and preview flags for debugging and testing And reverting to subprocess.run if you can't modify the code under test Also, there's a full writeup and code samples available: Blog post: Testing argparse Applications Code Repo
The Python Test Podcast hosted by Brian Okken
Test & Code is a English tech & science podcast from Brian Okken. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
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