How do you write a unit test for a @Retryable method?

Testing a @Retryable method requires a Spring context because retry logic is applied by the AOP proxy. A plain unit test that calls the method on a new instance will not trigger retries. The recommended approach uses @SpringBootTest or a focused @SpringJUnitConfig with @EnableRetry.

Test setup:

@SpringBootTest
class OrderServiceRetryTest {

    @Autowired
    private OrderService orderService;

    @MockBean
    private ExternalApi externalApi;

    @Test
    void shouldRetryThreeTimesOnFailure() {
        when(externalApi.fetch()).thenThrow(new RuntimeException("down"));

        assertThrows(RuntimeException.class, () -> orderService.getOrder());

        verify(externalApi, times(3)).fetch(); // maxAttempts = 3
    }

    @Test
    void shouldSucceedOnSecondAttempt() {
        when(externalApi.fetch())
            .thenThrow(new RuntimeException())
            .thenReturn("OK");

        String result = orderService.getOrder();
        assertEquals("OK", result);
        verify(externalApi, times(2)).fetch();
    }
}

To avoid slow tests due to backoff delays during testing, override the backoff with a zero delay in a test profile:

@Retryable(backoff = @Backoff(delayExpression = "${retry.delay:0}"))

Setting retry.delay=0 in application-test.properties eliminates wait time during test runs.

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