In JUnit 5, test classes can contain @Nested inner classes to group related scenarios. When using Spring's @ActiveProfiles on nested classes, Spring's TestContext framework evaluates profiles for each nested context: the nested class can inherit the outer class profiles (inheritProfiles = true, the default) or completely override them (inheritProfiles = false).

Use cases:

• Model multiple environment setups within a single test class (e.g., dev vs prod).
  
• Keep a common baseline (e.g., base) in the outer class and selectively add/replace profiles in nested classes.
  
• Reduce duplication by sharing configuration and context initialization across related scenarios.
  

Example

Configuration

package com.logicbig.example;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {
    // No beans needed for this demo; we only assert Environment active profiles.
}

JUnit 5 nested tests with profiles

package com.logicbig.example;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Nested;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.core.env.Environment;
import org.springframework.core.env.Profiles;
import org.springframework.test.context.ActiveProfiles;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringJUnitConfig;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertFalse;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

@SpringJUnitConfig(classes = AppConfig.class)
@ActiveProfiles("base")
public class NestedProfileTest {

    @Autowired
    private Environment environment;

    @Test
    public void testOuterProfiles() {
        String[] profiles = environment.getActiveProfiles();
        System.out.println("Outer profiles: " + java.util.Arrays.toString(profiles));
        // Output: Outer profiles: [base]
        assertTrue(environment.acceptsProfiles(Profiles.of("base")));
        assertFalse(environment.acceptsProfiles(Profiles.of("dev")));
        assertFalse(environment.acceptsProfiles(Profiles.of("prod")));
    }

    @Nested
    @ActiveProfiles(value = "dev", inheritProfiles = true)
    class DevEnvironmentTests {

        @Autowired
        private Environment environment;

        @Test
        public void testDevProfiles() {
            String[] profiles = environment.getActiveProfiles();
            System.out.println("Dev profiles: " + java.util.Arrays.toString(profiles));
            // Output: Dev profiles: [base, dev]
            assertTrue(environment.acceptsProfiles(Profiles.of("base & dev")));
        }
    }

    @Nested
    @ActiveProfiles(value = "prod", inheritProfiles = false)
    class ProdEnvironmentTests {

        @Autowired
        private Environment environment;

        @Test
        public void testProdProfiles() {
            String[] profiles = environment.getActiveProfiles();
            System.out.println("Prod profiles: " + java.util.Arrays.toString(profiles));
            // Output: Prod profiles: [prod]
            assertFalse(environment.acceptsProfiles(Profiles.of("base")));
            assertTrue(environment.acceptsProfiles(Profiles.of("prod")));
        }
    }
}

Output

D:\example-projects\spring-core-testing\spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example>mvn test -Dtest=NestedProfileTest
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] 
[INFO] --< com.logicbig.example:spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example >--
[INFO] Building spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO]   from pom.xml
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:resources (default-resources) @ spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-core-testing\spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example\src\main\resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- compiler:3.14.1:compile (default-compile) @ spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example ---
[INFO] No sources to compile
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:testResources (default-testResources) @ spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\spring-core-testing\spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example\src\test\resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- compiler:3.14.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date.
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- surefire:3.5.0:test (default-test) @ spring-active-profiles-nested-classes-example ---
[INFO] Using auto detected provider org.apache.maven.surefire.junitplatform.JUnitPlatformProvider
[WARNING] file.encoding cannot be set as system property, use <argLine>-Dfile.encoding=...</argLine> instead
[INFO] 
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]  T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
Outer profiles: [base]
Dev profiles: [base, dev]
Prod profiles: [prod]
[INFO] +--com.logicbig.example.NestedProfileTest - 0.286 ss
[INFO] |  '-- [OK] testOuterProfiles - 0.021 ss
[INFO] +--.--com.logicbig.example.NestedProfileTest$DevEnvironmentTests - 0.021 ss
[INFO] |  |  '-- [OK] testDevProfiles - 0.003 ss
[INFO] +-----com.logicbig.example.NestedProfileTest$ProdEnvironmentTests - 0.021 ss
[INFO] |     '-- [OK] testProdProfiles - 0.004 ss
[INFO] 
[INFO] Results:
[INFO] 
[INFO] Tests run: 3, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO] 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  2.042 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2026-01-31T00:17:51+08:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The outer class activates base. The DevEnvironmentTests nested class adds dev with inheritance enabled, resulting in [base, dev]. The ProdEnvironmentTests nested class disables inheritance and activates only prod. Assertions use Environment#acceptsProfiles(Profiles.of(...)) and getActiveProfiles(). No application code is required; everything resides under src/test/java.

In above example we used JUnit5StatelessTestsetInfoTreeReporter to get the formatted output as tree (see pom.xml in project browser).

Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

• spring-context 7.0.3 (Spring Context)
   Version Compatibility: 6.0.0 - 7.0.3Version List
  ×

  Version compatibilities of spring-context with this example:

  Compatible Java Version: 17+
  • 6.0.0
  • 6.0.1
  • 6.0.2
  • 6.0.3
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  • 6.0.5
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  • 6.1.0
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  • 7.0.0
  • 7.0.1
  • 7.0.2
  • 7.0.3

  Versions in green have been tested.

• spring-test 7.0.3 (Spring TestContext Framework)
  
• junit-jupiter-engine 6.0.2 (Module "junit-jupiter-engine" of JUnit)
  
• JDK 25
• Maven 3.9.11