iOS Application Testing Strategies at Shopify
Article Summary
Shopify's iOS team ships hundreds of commits weekly to a monorepo. Their testing strategy keeps quality high without slowing down velocity.
Uzziah Eyee from Shopify's engineering team breaks down their comprehensive iOS testing approach. The article uses a car-building analogy to explain how different test types work together across the application stack.
Key Takeaways
- Unit tests verify Models and ViewModels handle business logic correctly
- Snapshot tests catch visual regressions in Views and ViewControllers
- XCUITest automation validates complete user workflows like login and checkout
- Test pyramid principle: many fast unit tests, fewer slower UI tests
- UI automation tests improve accessibility by requiring proper labels
Testing at every layer (Models, Views, ViewModels, ViewControllers, Flows) enables frequent releases while maintaining quality in a fast-paced monorepo environment.
About This Article
Shopify's monorepo had hundreds of commits per week across multiple app projects, but there were no systematic quality checks at the component level. This meant regression bugs could slip through and spread widely.
Uzziah Eyee's team built a testing strategy with three layers. Unit tests covered Models. FBSnapshotTestCase handled View snapshots. XCUITest automated Workflow testing. They structured this around the Test Pyramid principle.
Teams could release frequently without fear. The layered approach caught visual regressions, business logic errors, and workflow failures at the right level of abstraction before code reached production.