Test-driven development enables developers to craft well-designed code and prevent defects. It’s a simple yet powerful tool that helps you focus on your code design, while automatically checking that your code works correctly. Mastering TDD will enable you to effectively utilize design patterns and become a proficient software architect. The book begins by explaining the basics of good code and bad code, bursting common myths, and why Test-driven development is crucial. You’ll then gradually move toward building a sample application using TDD, where you’ll apply the two key rhythms -- red, green, refactor and arrange, act, assert. Next, you’ll learn how to bring external systems such as databases under control by using dependency inversion and test doubles. As you advance, you’ll delve into advanced design techniques such as SOLID patterns, refactoring, and hexagonal architecture. You’ll also balance your use of fast, repeatable unit tests against integration tests using the test pyramid as a guide. The concluding chapters will show you how to implement TDD in real-world use cases and scenarios and develop a modern REST microservice backed by a Postgres database in Java 17. By the end of this book, you’ll be thinking differently about how you design code for simplicity and how correctness can be baked in as you go.