Using Mockito With JUnit 5

Last updated on March 3, 2026 Testing

In this article, we will learn how to use the Mockito mocking framework with JUnit 5. We will learn a test framework independent way, and how to use the Mockito JUnit 5 extension.

Manual Initialization

Before doing anything else, we have to add the Mockito dependency.

dependencies {
    testImplementation('org.mockito:mockito-core:3.12.4')
}

If we just want to create a mock to be injected into another object, the simplest way is to call the Mockito.mock() method. The method takes the class of the object to be instantiated as a parameter.

class MockitoManualTest {

    private OrderRepository orderRepository;
    private OrderService orderService;

    @BeforeEach
    void initService() {
        orderRepository = mock(OrderRepository.class);
        orderService = new OrderService(orderRepository);
    }

    @Test
    void createOrderSetsTheCreationDate() {
        Order order = new Order();
        when(orderRepository.save(any(Order.class))).then(returnsFirstArg());

        Order savedOrder = orderService.create(order);

        assertNotNull(savedOrder.getCreationDate());
    }
}

Manual initialization can be a legit solution if we don’t have many mocks.

Pros:

Most control on the mocks we need to create

Cons:

Can become quite verbose
Does not validate framework usage or detect incorrect stubbing

Annotation Based Initialization

A declarative alternative to calling the Mockito.mock() method is to annotate a field as a mock with the @Mock annotation. We have to call a particular method to initialize the annotated objects.

In Mockito 2 there is a MockitoAnnotations.initMocks() method, which is deprecated and replaced with MockitoAnnotations.openMocks() in Mockito 3. The MockitoAnnotations.openMocks() method returns an instance of AutoClosable which can be used to close the resource after the test.

public class MockitoAnnotationTest {

    @Mock
    private OrderRepository orderRepository;
    private AutoCloseable closeable;
    private OrderService orderService;

    @BeforeEach
    void initService() {
        closeable = MockitoAnnotations.openMocks(this);
        orderService = new OrderService(orderRepository);
    }

    @AfterEach
    void closeService() throws Exception {
        closeable.close();
    }

    @Test
    void createOrderSetsTheCreationDate() {
        Order order = new Order();
        when(orderRepository.save(any(Order.class))).then(returnsFirstArg());

        Order savedOrder = orderService.create(order);

        assertNotNull(savedOrder.getCreationDate());
    }
}

The MockitoAnnotations.openMocks(this) call tells Mockito to scan this test class instance for any fields annotated with the @Mock annotation and initialize those fields as mocks.

Pros:

Easy to create mocks
Very readable

Cons:

Does not validate framework usage or detect incorrect stubbing

Automatic Mock Injection

We can also tell Mockito to inject mocks automatically to a field annotated with @InjectMocks.

When MockitoAnnotations.openMocks() is called, Mockito will:

Create mocks for fields annotated with the @Mock annotation
Create an instance of the field annotated with @InjectMocks and try to inject the mocks into it

Using @InjectMocks is the same as we did when instantiating an instance manually, but now automatic.

public class MockitoInjectMocksTests {

    @Mock
    private OrderRepository orderRepository;
    private AutoCloseable closeable;
    @InjectMocks
    private OrderService orderService;

    @BeforeEach
    void initService() {
        closeable = MockitoAnnotations.openMocks(this);
    }

    @AfterEach
    void closeService() throws Exception {
        closeable.close();
    }

    @Test
    void createOrderSetsTheCreationDate() {
        Order order = new Order();
        when(orderRepository.save(any(Order.class))).then(returnsFirstArg());

        Order savedOrder = orderService.create(order);

        assertNotNull(savedOrder.getCreationDate());
    }
}

Mockito will first try to inject mocks by constructor injection, followed by setter injection, or field injection.

Pros:

Easy to inject mocks

Cons:

Doesn’t enforce usage of constructor injection

Warning

It is not recommended to use field or setter injection. Using constructor injection, we can be 100% sure no one instantiates the class without injecting its dependencies.

Mockito JUnit 5 Extension

There is also a Mockito extension for JUnit 5 that will make the initialization even simpler.

To be able to use the extension we have to first add the dependency to it.

dependencies {
    testImplementation('org.mockito:mockito-junit-jupiter:3.12.4')
}

Now we can apply the extension and get rid of the MockitoAnnotations.openMocks() method call.

@ExtendWith(MockitoExtension.class)
public class MockitoExtensionTest {

    @Mock
    private OrderRepository orderRepository;
    private OrderService orderService;

    @BeforeEach
    void initService() {
        orderService = new OrderService(orderRepository);
    }

    @Test
    void createOrderSetsTheCreationDate() {
        Order order = new Order();
        when(orderRepository.save(any(Order.class))).then(returnsFirstArg());

        Order savedOrder = orderService.create(order);

        assertNotNull(savedOrder.getCreationDate());
    }
}

Note that we can use the @InjectMocks annotation with the MockitoExtension as well to simplify the setup further.

@ExtendWith(MockitoExtension.class)
public class MockitoExtensionInjectMocksTest {

    @Mock
    private OrderRepository orderRepository;
    @InjectMocks
    private OrderService orderService;

    @Test
    void createOrderSetsTheCreationDate() {
        when(orderRepository.save(any(Order.class))).then(returnsFirstArg());

        Order order = new Order();

        Order savedOrder = orderService.create(order);

        assertNotNull(savedOrder.getCreationDate());
    }
}

If we do not want to share mock variables across all test cases, we can also inject mock objects to method parameters.

    @Test
    void createOrderSetsTheCreationDate(@Mock OrderRepository orderRepository) {
        OrderService orderService = new OrderService(orderRepository);
        when(orderRepository.save(any(Order.class))).then(returnsFirstArg());

        Order order = new Order();

        Order savedOrder = orderService.create(order);

        assertNotNull(savedOrder.getCreationDate());
    }

Injecting mocks to method parameters works both on the lifecycle methods and on the test methods themselves.

Pros:

No need to call MockitoAnnotations.openMocks()
Validates framework usage and detects incorrect stubbing
Easy to create mocks
Very readable

Cons:

Need an extra dependency on org.mockito:mockito-junit-jupiter

Summary

There are three different ways of using Mockito with JUnit 5. First two approaches work independently of the used framework, while the third one utilizes the Mockito JUnit 5 extension.

Mocks can be created and initialized by:

Manually creating them by calling the Mockito.mock() method
Annotating them with the @Mock annotation, and initializing by calling the MockitoAnnotations.openMocks() method
Annotating them with the @Mock annotation, and applying the MockitoExtension extension to the test class

The example code for this guide can be found on GitHub.

This article is part of the JUnit 5 Tutorial series

← Previous A More Practical Guide to JUnit 5 Parameterized Tests

Next → Migrating From JUnit 4 to JUnit 5: A Definitive Guide

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