Improve “IntelliJ – Using JUnit” tutorial for clarity, completeness, and student utility

[arshinsikka]

The “IntelliJ – Using JUnit” tutorial is functional, but there’s room to make it clearer and more complete for students who are new to IntelliJ, Gradle, and JUnit.

Some proposed improvements:

• Add an explicit build.gradle snippet with the correct testImplementation dependency and useJUnitPlatform() configuration so students can copy-paste and get started.
• Include a quick check for setting the Project SDK and language level in File → Project Structure to avoid compilation errors.
• Clarify test folder/package structure and show how to Mark Directory as → Test Sources Root if it’s not already set.
• Explain the “Run tests using” (Gradle vs IntelliJ) option in Preferences and when to use each.
• Add a short “Debugging Tests” section showing how to set breakpoints, debug from the gutter, and inspect variables.
• Add a “Run with Coverage” section with steps and screenshots of coverage results.
• Standardise shortcut formatting (Ctrl/⌘, Alt/Option) for cross-platform clarity.
• Annotate screenshots with arrows/callouts to make UI elements easier to spot.
• Include a minimal example Java class + test to demonstrate the full workflow.
• Expand the Run Configurations section to cover “All Tests in Module” vs “Single Class/Package” and basic filtering.
• Add a short troubleshooting FAQ for common beginner errors (e.g., “No tests found”, missing dependencies).
• Use boxed notes for important tips and warnings, and check all links for accuracy.

Opening a PR to incorporate these improvements now.

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[damithc]

@YosieSYX (and others), for your inputs ...

[YosieSYX]

Hi, thanks so much for your input!

I really appreciate the thought and detail you put into your suggestions. However, I noticed that some of the points you mentioned are actually already covered in other parts of the guide. So personally I feel that it would be redundant to include them again in the guide, so I included a reference link to them instead of putting them in again.

For example, the guide already has a Testing – JUnit section here: https://se-education.org/guides/tutorials/junit.html, which already includes the build.gradle snippet, test folder structure, and example tests. In this section, I linked to that resource instead of repeating the same content.

Similarly, the part about debugging tests is already in the dedicated Debugging section, so I didn’t explicitly add it here either.

Hope that makes sense! Let me know if you still feel it’s better to include them here, and we can discuss how to do it without too much overlap.