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Testing / 7 MIN READ

Write your first useful Django tests

Test a model and a page, then run a focused test command while you work.

Learn Django Notes · Published November 13, 2026 · Django 5.2 LTS

01 Choose behavior to verify

Use the Note model from the ORM tutorial and the home route from the first-view tutorial. Test the behavior your application promises: how a note is represented and whether the homepage responds successfully.

02 Test the model

Put this in core/tests.py. TestCase supplies database isolation so records created by this test do not become normal application data. Use an isolated test database, never a production database, when running tests.

Code example
from django.test import TestCase
from django.urls import reverse
from .models import Note


class NoteTests(TestCase):
    def test_note_has_readable_title(self):
        note = Note.objects.create(title="First note")
        self.assertEqual(str(note), "First note")
        self.assertEqual(Note.objects.count(), 1)

03 Test the page

Add this second class to the same file. reverse() finds the address using the route name. The built-in client makes a request without requiring a running development server.

Code example
class HomeTests(TestCase):
    def test_homepage_is_available(self):
        response = self.client.get(reverse("home"))
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)

04 Run only what you need

Start with the core tests. During an edit to model behavior, run only NoteTests. A failing assertion tells you which expected behavior changed; investigate the failure before changing the expectation.

Code example
python manage.py test core
python manage.py test core.tests.NoteTests
Keep exploring

Read the official Django documentation for details and more examples.