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Flaky test

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Also called Intermittent test, unstable test

A test that sometimes passes and sometimes fails without any code changes, making it hard to trust the result.

What it is

A flaky test is unreliable for reasons unrelated to the code under test, such as timing, environment differences, shared state, or test order. It creates noise and slows teams down.

When you would use it

You use flaky test to describe a test that cannot be trusted to give the same answer every time.

Common operations

  • Diagnosing unstable CI results
  • Improving test reliability
  • Removing false alarms from pipelines

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