How should I configure my Gradle and test runner so that I can run these tests reliably?

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1

I’m trying to write Android instrumented tests using androidx.test.ext:junit, but I’m running into issues with setting up my test environment.

I added the dependency to my build.gradle:

androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.5'

and tried creating a simple test:

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4.class)
public class ExampleInstrumentedTest {

    @Test
    public void useAppContext() {
        Context appContext = InstrumentationRegistry.getInstrumentation().getTargetContext();
        assertEquals("com.example.myapp", appContext.getPackageName());
    }
}

However, when I run the tests, they fail to execute properly or sometimes fail with classpath-related errors. I’ve checked the dependency version and my Gradle setup, but I still can’t get the tests to run consistently.

Has anyone successfully set up androidx.test.ext:junit for instrumented tests?

2

I struggled with this too. One thing that helped me was cleaning the project and invalidating caches in Android Studio after adding androidx.test.ext:junit.

Sometimes Gradle doesn’t pick up new instrumentation dependencies correctly.

Also, make sure your test class is under src/androidTest/java and not src/test/java.

Unit tests in test don’t have access to the instrumentation context, which can cause weird errors.

3

I agree with @Ambikayache

I had the same problem and it turned out to be the combination of dependency versions. I ended up adding these to androidTestImplementation:

androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.5'
androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test:runner:1.5.2'
androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test:rules:1.5.0'

And like the others mentioned, setting the testInstrumentationRunner to "androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner" was key. After that, all my instrumented tests started running without classpath issues.

4

I ran into a similar issue when using androidx.test.ext:junit. Make sure your testInstrumentationRunner is set correctly in your

build.gradle

inside

defaultConfig:

android {
    defaultConfig {
        testInstrumentationRunner "androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }
}

Also, double-check that you’re using compatible versions for androidx.test:core and androidx.test:runner, sometimes mismatched versions can cause classpath errors.

Once I updated the runner and synced Gradle, my instrumented tests ran consistently.