Example of replacing explicit time.sleep in integration tests

integration_test.py

# original
make_request_that_triggers_async_processing()
time.sleep(30)
result = make_request_to_validate_changes()
self.assertEqual(‘new expected value’, result[‘data’])

# better
def check_for_expected_change(retries=5):
    result = make_request_to_validate_changes()
    if 'new_expected_value' == result[‘data’]:
        return True
    if retries <= 0:
        return False
    time.sleep(1)
    return check_for_expected_changes(retries - 1)

make_request_that_triggers_async_processing()
if not check_for_expected_change(30):
    self.fail('expected change was not reflected in api response')