Adam Furmanek: You Must Test Your Databases And Here Is How
summary
Unit tests miss how queries run so slow queries slip into production: one ORM join returns 300,000 rows and takes 25 seconds in production, a CTE refactor goes from 8s to 13s, and migrations can take minutes or hours or even days. Capture execution plans and metrics with OpenTelemetry, project local queries onto production schemas and test with HypoPG/hypothetical indexes or read replicas, extend CI/CD to store plans and fail on bad plans, and run end‑to‑end ETL on small production‑like datasets.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Database testing challenges
- 2:37Testing approaches fall short
- 8:57Common database problem areas
- 12:53Query changes break performance
- 21:44Isolated vs production testing
- 29:59ORM limitations and complexities
- 32:06Database guardrails with observability
- 36:39OpenTelemetry for query analysis
- 41:14Guardrails prevent production issues
- 42:59Summary and Q&A
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