How can I configure Result.RequeueAfter for efficient testing in a Kubernetes controller?

One common solution is to make your requeue delay configurable so you can use a production value (e.g. 10 seconds) while overriding it to a much shorter duration in tests. That way, you can maintain realistic behavior in production while keeping your test suite fast.

For example, you could refactor your controller to use a delay variable that you inject or override as needed:

GOCopied
// MyController holds configurable parameters for reconciliation.
type MyController struct {
    // RequeueDelay is used to set the duration for RequeueAfter.
    RequeueDelay time.Duration
    // other fields...
}

func (r *MyController) Reconcile(ctx context.Context, req ctrl.Request) (ctrl.Result, error) {
    // Your reconciliation logic...
    return ctrl.Result{RequeueAfter: r.RequeueDelay}, nil
}

In production you would initialize your controller with a 10-second delay:

GOCopied
controller := &MyController{
    RequeueDelay: 10 * time.Second,
    // other fields...
}

And in your tests you can override that with a shorter delay to avoid waiting too long:

GOCopied
func TestReconcile(t *testing.T) {
    // Setup the controller with a very short delay for testing.
    controller := &MyController{
        RequeueDelay: 1 * time.Millisecond,
        // ...
    }

    // Run your test logic (using Eventually() or similar assertions)
    Eventually(func() bool {
        result, err := controller.Reconcile(context.Background(), someRequest)
        if err != nil {
            return false
        }
        // Use a short requeue delay for the test.
        return result.RequeueAfter < 10*time.Second
    }, 2*time.Second, 10*time.Millisecond).Should(BeTrue())
}

This approach lets you respect the semantics of Result.RequeueAfter in production (supporting exponential backoff or any other delay logic) while keeping your environment tests fast by injecting a minimal delay.