I created a VSCode extension recently (awalsh128/vscode-keep-sorted) and learned a lot of lessons trying to set up the test environment. What I wanted was:
Tests that run against a real VSCode instance, not mocks. An immutable test workspace, so every test starts from the same files. A log file per test, so I can see what the extension did when a test fails. Principles # Some things I learned the hard way about testing extensions.
VSCode Keep Sorted Extension Note Updated October 2026 for version 1.0.2. This post originally announced the 0.0.1 release in December 2025. Commands, settings, and features below reflect the latest version.
If you have experience in the software engineering field, an interview process can test the experience you have; projects, production scenarios, designs. Unfortunately, for junior positions and those out of college, there isn’t much to test for. Since most are computer scientists, you could test knowledge of algorithms and data structures but does that really prove the ability of a candidate? Knowing the upper bound complexity of an algorithm’s runtime is important but what about when a constant multiplying factor means the difference between production being up and down. We don’t have a solution for the Traveling Salesman Problem but we have very good and practical approximations (e.g. flight scheduling).
