Why isn't my @BeforeClass method running?

do NOT extend TestCase AND use annotations at the same time!
If you need to create a test suite with annotations, use the RunWith annotation like:

@RunWith(Suite.class)
@Suite.SuiteClasses({ MyTests.class, OtherTest.class })
public class AllTests {
    // empty
}


public class MyTests {  // no extends here
    @BeforeClass
    public static void setUpOnce() throws InterruptedException {
        ...
    @Test
    ...

(by convention: class names with uppercase letter)


the method must be static and not directly call fail (otherwise the other methods won't be executed).

The following class shows all the standard JUnit 4 method types:

public class Sample {

    @BeforeClass
    public static void beforeClass() {
        System.out.println("@BeforeClass");
    }

    @Before
    public void before() {
        System.out.println("@Before");
    }

    @Test
    public void test() {
        System.out.println("@Test");
    }

    @After
    public void after() {
        System.out.println("@After");
    }

    @AfterClass
    public static void afterClass() {
        System.out.println("@AfterClass");
    }

}

and the ouput is (not surprisingly):

@BeforeClass
@Before
@Test
@After
@AfterClass

Make sure you imported @Test from the correct package.

  • Correct package: org.junit.Test
  • Incorrect pacakge: org.junit.jupiter.api.Test

Please note that this is a solution for: If your @Before, @Atter, etc did not get called at all.