JUnit 5 - JUnit Reuse Tests via Superclass

In JUnit, a test class can extend a superclass containing reusable test methods. This allows you to share common test logic across multiple test classes without duplication.

Lifecycle, methods @BeforeAll, @AfterAll, @BeforeEach, and @AfterEach can be defined in superclass, allowing shared setup and teardown logic.

Example

package com.logicbig.example;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeAll;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

class BaseTest {

    @BeforeAll
    static void beforeAll() {
        System.out.println("before all");
    }

    @BeforeEach
    void beforeEach() {
        System.out.println("before each");
    }

    @Test
    void baseTestMethod() {
        assertTrue(1 + 1 == 2);
    }
}

package com.logicbig.example;

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

class SubclassTest extends BaseTest {

    @Test
    void subTestMethod(){
        assertTrue(true);
    }
}

Output

$ mvn test -Dtest=SubclassTest
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] 
[INFO] -----------< com.logicbig.example:junit-5-superclass-reuse >------------
[INFO] Building junit-5-superclass-reuse 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO]   from pom.xml
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:resources (default-resources) @ junit-5-superclass-reuse ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (Cp1252 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\junit-5\junit-5-reuse-tests\junit-5-superclass-reuse\src\main\resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- compiler:3.11.0:compile (default-compile) @ junit-5-superclass-reuse ---
[INFO] No sources to compile
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- resources:3.3.1:testResources (default-testResources) @ junit-5-superclass-reuse ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (Cp1252 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory D:\example-projects\junit-5\junit-5-reuse-tests\junit-5-superclass-reuse\src\test\resources
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- compiler:3.11.0:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ junit-5-superclass-reuse ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- surefire:3.5.0:test (default-test) @ junit-5-superclass-reuse ---
[INFO] Using auto detected provider org.apache.maven.surefire.junitplatform.JUnitPlatformProvider
[INFO] 
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]  T E S T S
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
before all
before each
before each
[INFO] +--com.logicbig.example.SubclassTest - 0.224 ss
[INFO] |  +-- [OK] baseTestMethod - 0.058 ss
[INFO] |  '-- [OK] subTestMethod - 0.002 ss
[INFO] 
[INFO] Results:
[INFO] 
[INFO] Tests run: 2, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
[INFO] 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time:  3.497 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2025-12-21T08:57:32+08:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The SubclassTest inherits tests from BaseTest. When executed, all @Test methods defined in the superclass and subclass are executed as part of the subclass, demonstrating test reuse.

Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

• junit-jupiter-engine 6.0.1 (Module "junit-jupiter-engine" of JUnit)
   Version Compatibility: 5.0.0 - 6.0.1Version List
  ×

  Version compatibilities of junit-jupiter-engine with this example:

  • 5.0.0
  • 5.0.1
  • 5.0.2
  • 5.0.3
  • 5.1.0
  • 5.1.1
  • 5.2.0
  • 5.3.0
  • 5.3.1
  • 5.3.2
  • 5.4.0
  • 5.4.1
  • 5.4.2
  • 5.5.0
  • 5.5.1
  • 5.5.2
  • 5.6.0
  • 5.6.1
  • 5.6.2
  • 5.6.3
  • 5.7.0
  • 5.7.1
  • 5.7.2
  • 5.8.0
  • 5.8.1
  • 5.8.2
  • 5.9.0
  • 5.9.1
  • 5.9.2
  • 5.9.3
  • 5.10.0
  • 5.10.1
  • 5.10.2
  • 5.10.3
  • 5.10.4
  • 5.10.5
  • 5.11.0
  • 5.11.1
  • 5.11.2
  • 5.11.3
  • 5.11.4
  • 5.12.0
  • 5.12.1
  • 5.12.2
  • 5.13.0
  • 5.13.1
  • 5.13.2
  • 5.13.3
  • 5.13.4
  • 5.14.0
  • 5.14.1
  • 6.0.0
  • 6.0.1

  Versions in green have been tested.

• JDK 25
• Maven 3.9.11