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#4 in Ruby on RailsUdemyHighest Rated on UdemyRuby on RailsPaid courseBeginner levelCertificate

Testing Ruby with RSpec: The Complete Guide (Udemy.com)

Master the art of test driven development (TDD) in Ruby using the RSpec Gem. No previous testing experience needed!

Created by: Boris Paskhaver

Last updated January 2026

Our take

Based on the ratings of 2,132 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in January 2026. No course pays to be reviewed.

A focused RSpec course rather than a Rails bootcamp, and that's the point. Boris Paskhaver walks through installing the gem, writing a first spec, then let variables, hooks, subjects, shared examples, the full matcher set, and finally mocks and doubles. That's seven and a half hours across 61 lectures, with 10 assignments and 3 quizzes to practice on. Udemy labels it beginner, but the requirements ask for intermediate Ruby: classes, objects, blocks. Reviewers say it suits people new to RSpec and testing in general; the requirements rule out anyone still learning the language.

Students consistently praise the explanations. Reviewers say every video pairs code examples and use cases with a summary, and several mention taking what they learned straight into work. The 4.7 rating is backed by 2,132 reviews, and 1,300 of them are five stars. The complaints are consistent too. Two reviewers say the instructor talks fast and types faster, one of them adding that nobody could follow the typing. The bigger gap is scope: the course tests plain Ruby objects, not a Rails app with a database, and more than one reviewer finished wanting exactly that. The mocks section could use more assignments, and one 2023 reviewer noted questions had gone unanswered for over a year.

It sits beside full Rails bootcamps on our Ruby on Rails page and is the only one that is about testing rather than building apps. Content was refreshed in January 2026 and requires Ruby 3, so nothing here feels stale. If you're a Ruby developer who needs RSpec for a job, this is the course to take before touching Rails specs. Pair it with one of the Rails courses for the database side.

Best forRuby developers who've never written a test and want RSpec explained clearly with examples, summaries, and assignments.
Skip it ifYou need to test a Rails app with a database, or you're still learning basic Ruby classes and blocks.

Pros

  • Every video pairs code examples and use cases with a summary, so the structure is easy to follow
  • Covers let, hooks, subjects, shared examples, matchers, and doubles in a logical order
  • 10 assignments and 3 quizzes; reviewers report using the material at work right away
  • Refreshed January 2026 and built for Ruby 3, unusual for a testing course first published in 2019

Cons

  • No Rails coverage: it tests plain Ruby, not models, controllers, or a database
  • The instructor talks fast and types faster; two reviewers found the code sections hard to follow
  • Mocks section is short on practice, and Q&A responses have been slow per a 2023 review
This is an excellent and well explained course. I was immediately able to translate my learnings from this course into viable code at work!
Griffin Dooley, a student

Marked beginner, but that means beginner at testing; you need solid Ruby (classes, objects, blocks) first.

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What you will learn

  • Master the syntax and structure of RSpec, the most popular Ruby Gem for testing
  • Utilize test-driven development principles to design and implement clean test specs in Ruby
  • Explore the wide collection of RSpec matchers available to test your code
  • Reduce dependencies in your test suite by mocking objects with class and instance doubles

Course content

5 sections · 61 lectures · 7.6 hours of video 3 quizzes, 10 assignments, 5 articles

  1. 1Introduction 2 free previews26 lectures · 6 quizzes · 2.9 hours
  2. 2Subjects, Shared Examples, and Shared Context 1 free preview6 lectures · 3 quizzes · 42 min
  3. 3Built-In Matchers 1 free preview17 lectures · 3 quizzes · 2 hours
  4. 4Mocks10 lectures · 1 quiz · 1.9 hours
  5. 5Conclusion2 lectures · 1 min

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Intermediate Ruby developers interested in upgrading their skill set
  • Programmers who want to explore the fundamentals of testing and TDD

What you need before you start

  • Intermediate knowledge of the Ruby programming language (classes, objects, blocks, etc)
  • Modern version of Ruby (>3.0)
  • Text editor (VSCode is recommended)

How it compares

Against the other 81 rated Udemy courses in Ruby on Rails on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.7 out of 5higher than 95% of them
  • Reviews2,132#5 of 82 by number of reviews
  • Length7.5 hourslonger than 55% of them
  • Last updatedJanuary 2026more recently than 92% of them

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Course Description

Welcome to Testing Ruby with RSpec: The Complete Guide!
This course offers a comprehensive overview of the RSpec testing library for the Ruby programming library. RSpec is the most popular Ruby Gem of all time, with over 300 million downloads to date.
If you're new to the topic, testing is the practice of "writing code that confirms that other code works as expected". Tests control for regressions, which are changes to the code that break the program.
The benefits of testing extend outside of the codebase. Adopting a test-driven approach will also make you a better developer. Tests force you to think critically about the program and its features: the classes, the objects, the methods and more.
Testing Ruby with RSpec begins with the essentials and proceeds to more complex topics including:
  • Installation
  • Project Initialization
  • Test-Driven Development (TDD)
  • let variables
  • before and after Hooks
  • Subjects
  • Shared Examples
  • Shared Context
  • Built-in Matchers
  • Mocks and Doubles
  • Instance Doubles
  • Class Doubles
As a software engineer and consultant who's worked with Ruby for several years, I'm excited to introduce you to the awesome RSpec library, its elegant syntax, and all of its fun quirks.
Thanks for checking out the course!Who this course is for:
  • Intermediate Ruby developers interested in upgrading their skill set
  • Programmers who want to explore the fundamentals of testing and TDD

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Instructor Details

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Hi there! I'm a New York City-based software engineer and consultant who's been teaching on Udemy since 2016.
Like many of my peers, I did not follow a conventional approach to my current role as a web developer. After graduating from New York University in 2013 with a degree in Business Economics and Marketing, I worked as a business analyst, systems administrator, and data analyst for a variety of companies including a digital marketing agency, a financial services firm, and an international tech powerhouse. At one of those roles, I was fortunate enough to be challenged to build several projects with Python and JavaScript.
There was no formal computer science education for me; I discovered coding entirely by accident. A small work interest quickly blossomed into a passionate weekend hobby. In early 2017, I left my former role to attend App Academy, a rigorous full-stack web development bootcamp in NYC. The rest is history.
I've always been fascinated by the intersection of technology and education, especially since I've struggled with many of the traditional resources people use to learn how to program. My goal as an instructor is to create comprehensive step-by-step courses that break down the complex details into small, digestible pieces. I like to build the kind of material that I myself would have loved to have when I was starting out.
I'm passionate about teaching and woul

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Reviews

4.7

2,132 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

Great course! Thank you

The structure of the course lends itself well to being a resource that you can keep coming back to for a refresher on a specific topic.

Each example is very well contained which makes it really welcoming to beginners.

It would have been great if the course ended with a fleshed out example. Something that employed TTD to create a simple app. 1-2 hours instead of 5-10 minutes.

Really enjoyed it though, and I've already purchased another course created by Boris. No greater compliment than that!

Yes these are the skills I need for my job. I can't think of any constructive criticism. The course description prior to buying was accurate. It was good for entry level people with only minimal Ruby experience. It started easy and consistently grew in difficulty.

If possible I would recommend trying to mimic real work examples. Perhaps have some slightly more complicated class structures to deal with.

I think it should be more practical exercises particular in chapter 4 .

Thanks

I got a good learning experience with this course. The instructor knows his stuff. And the way he explain the subject for me is easy to understand. After completing this course, I think I became a bit better programmer. I will definitely re watch the whole course again, just in case I miss anything or forgot something.

I am looking forward to enroll to more course from this instructor.

Great match! It has been very clear and useful :)

it's not helping with ruby on rails,

why on earth he put the class and test in one place?????????

Great class. You will build a nice set of test examples that you can use for reference. There are some exercises and projects. For better or for worse, it never gets too complicated or too in-depth.

The course contains good examples which are easy for understanding plus practical assignments.

Really good course. I like how most of the lessons can be viewed individually. Could be improved by adding some instructions on how to set up the VS Code + Ruby + RSpec in other environments such as Windows and Linux.

All in all a really good course.

While a bit verbose, if you want to learn Rspec, this course will deliver.

Good as expected.

Showing 12 of 97 reviews

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Quality Score

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Overall Score : 94 / 100