Running XCTest on Android

Introduction

XCTest is Apple's standard testing framework for Swift and Objective-C projects.
It provides tools for writing and running unit tests, performance tests, and UI tests.

In Swift projects, XCTest is most commonly used together with Swift Package Manager (SPM).
Test cases are typically located in the Tests/ directory and use the XCTestCase class to define test methods and assertions.

While XCTest is traditionally used on Apple platforms such as macOS and iOS, it can also be executed on Android when using a compatible Swift toolchain.

This guide shows how to build and run XCTest-based Swift packages on Android using scd.

Prerequisites

A Swift Package Manager (SPM) project that contains XCTest tests
An Android emulator or a connected physical device

Install `scd`

Download and install the latest scd.

Verify installation:

scd --version

Run XCTest on Android

From the project root, run:

scd test --platform android-arm64-v8a --device <avd_or_running_device_name>

If only one device or emulator is available, the --device parameter can be omitted:

scd test --platform android-arm64-v8a

The test bundle will be built, deployed to the selected Android target, and executed. Test results are printed to the terminal.

Running Tests from Any SPM Project

You can run XCTest on Android for any open-source Swift package that:

Uses Swift Package Manager
Contains XCTest-based tests

The process is always the same:

git clone <repository-url>
cd <repository-folder>
scd test --platform android-arm64-v8a

Example: Running Tests from swift-algorithms

As an example, you can use Apple’s open-source swift-algorithms package.

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/apple/swift-algorithms.git
cd swift-algorithms

Run the tests on Android:

scd test --platform android-arm64-v8a

The XCTest suite will be compiled into an Android test APK, installed on the selected device or emulator, and executed.

Example terminal output:

...
02-26 16:17:09.168  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Suite 'UniqueTests' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.169
02-26 16:17:09.168  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'UniqueTests.testLazyUniqueOn' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.169
02-26 16:17:09.169  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'UniqueTests.testLazyUniqueOn' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.169  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'UniqueTests.testUnique' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.169
02-26 16:17:09.169  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'UniqueTests.testUnique' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.169  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'UniqueTests.testUniqueOn' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.170
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'UniqueTests.testUniqueOn' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Suite 'UniqueTests' passed at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.170
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: 	 Executed 3 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 0.001 (0.001) seconds
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Suite 'WindowsTests' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.170
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsCount' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.170
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsCount' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsIndexAfterAndBefore' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.170
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsIndexAfterAndBefore' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.170  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsIndexTraversals' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.170
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsIndexTraversals' passed (0.003 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsLazy' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.173
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsLazy' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsOfInt' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.173
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsOfInt' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsOfRange' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.173
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsOfRange' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsOfString' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.174
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsOfString' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.173  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsSecondAndLast' started at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.174
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Case 'WindowsTests.testWindowsSecondAndLast' passed (0.0 seconds)
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Suite 'WindowsTests' passed at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.174
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: 	 Executed 8 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 0.004 (0.004) seconds
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Suite 'swift.xctest' passed at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.174
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: 	 Executed 224 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 2.917 (2.917) seconds
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: Test Suite 'All tests' passed at 2026-02-26 16:17:09.174
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: 	 Executed 224 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 2.917 (2.917) seconds
02-26 16:17:09.174  4258  4299 D SwiftTestFoundation: XCTMain finished
02-26 16:17:10.180  4258  4258 I wift_algorithms: System.exit called, status: 0
02-26 16:17:10.180  4258  4258 I AndroidRuntime: VM exiting with result code 0, cleanup skipped.