How do you use Liquibase with Docker and Testcontainers in integration tests?

Testcontainers is a Java library that spins up real Docker containers during JUnit tests, providing actual database instances instead of in-memory databases. Combining Testcontainers with Liquibase gives you integration tests that run against a realistic database — same engine type, same version — with an auto-migrated schema, without any manual database setup.

Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
    <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
    <version>1.19.3</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

JUnit 5 test with Spring Boot and Testcontainers:

@SpringBootTest
@Testcontainers
class OrderRepositoryIntegrationTest {

    @Container
    static PostgreSQLContainer<?> postgres = new PostgreSQLContainer<>("postgres:16")
        .withDatabaseName("testdb")
        .withUsername("test")
        .withPassword("test");

    @DynamicPropertySource
    static void postgresProperties(DynamicPropertyRegistry registry) {
        registry.add("spring.datasource.url", postgres::getJdbcUrl);
        registry.add("spring.datasource.username", postgres::getUsername);
        registry.add("spring.datasource.password", postgres::getPassword);
    }

    // Spring Boot auto-runs Liquibase on startup using the dynamic datasource URL
    // By the time @Test methods run, all changeSets are applied

    @Autowired
    OrderRepository orderRepository;

    @Test
    void shouldSaveAndRetrieveOrder() {
        Order order = new Order("customer-1", BigDecimal.valueOf(99.99));
        orderRepository.save(order);
        assertThat(orderRepository.findById(order.getId())).isPresent();
    }
}

When Spring Boot starts with the dynamic Testcontainers URL, it auto-runs Liquibase migrations before the test context is ready. By the time @Test methods execute, the schema is fully migrated. The container is stopped and removed after the test class completes.

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