Very Fast Integration Tests on EF Core + PostgreSQL (and Other SQL Databases)

A real story of how my team went from 30-40 minutes per integration test run down to 3-4 minutes. This is a story of our path through experiments with testing and gradually feeling our way toward an approach that finally worked. I'll walk through the solutions we tried in search of speed and why most of them fell short.

We'll also talk about the price you pay for speed and isolation in tests, and why there's no free lunch here. I'll show the technologies that eventually moved things off dead center, and break down the core principles behind why they're fast.

Finally, I'll share recommendations on what to use and when, depending on your project and what you're willing to trade off for speed.