SpringBoot @WebMvcTest are not starting with Version 3.4.3 of Spring Boot

To whom it may concern,

after the upgrade to Spring-Boot 3.4.3 the @WebMvcTest annotation does not seem to work anymore. My pom.xml looks as follow:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>3.4.3</version>
    <relativePath/>
</parent>

<groupId>hi.mynameisilnano<groupId>
<artifactId>webmvctest</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>webmvctest</name>
<description>webmvctest</description>
<properties>
    <java.version>21</java.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

the following test:

@WebMvcTest
class CanStartWebMvcTests {

    @Autowired
    MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Test
    void controllersCanStart() {
    }

}

throws the following exception:

14:35:13.118 [main] INFO org.springframework.test.context.support.AnnotationConfigContextLoaderUtils -- Could not detect default configuration classes for test class [hi.mynameisilnano.CanStartWebMvcTests]: CanStartWebMvcTests does not declare any static, non-private, non-final, nested classes annotated with @Configuration.

Test ignored.

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: jakarta/servlet/Filter

    at org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.web.servlet.WebMvcTypeExcludeFilter.<clinit>(WebMvcTypeExcludeFilter.java:66)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.misc.Unsafe.ensureClassInitialized0(Native Method)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.misc.Unsafe.ensureClassInitialized(Unsafe.java:1160)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.acquireConstructorAccessor(Constructor.java:549)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller(Constructor.java:499)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:486)
    at org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.filter.TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizer.instantiateTypeExcludeFilter(TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizer.java:63)
    at org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.filter.TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizer.instantiateTypeExcludeFilters(TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizer.java:53)
    at org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.filter.TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizer.<init>(TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizer.java:46)
    at org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.filter.TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizerFactory.createContextCustomizer(TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizerFactory.java:61)
    at org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.filter.TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizerFactory.createContextCustomizer(TypeExcludeFiltersContextCustomizerFactory.java:55)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.getContextCustomizers(AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.java:360)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.buildMergedContextConfiguration(AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.java:332)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.buildDefaultMergedContextConfiguration(AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.java:267)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.buildMergedContextConfiguration(AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.java:215)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.buildTestContext(AbstractTestContextBootstrapper.java:108)
    at org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTestContextBootstrapper.buildTestContext(SpringBootTestContextBootstrapper.java:111)
    at org.springframework.test.context.TestContextManager.<init>(TestContextManager.java:142)
    at org.springframework.test.context.TestContextManager.<init>(TestContextManager.java:126)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringExtension.getTestContextManager(SpringExtension.java:363)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringExtension.beforeAll(SpringExtension.java:128)
    at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: jakarta.servlet.Filter
    at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.BuiltinClassLoader.loadClass(BuiltinClassLoader.java:641)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.ClassLoaders$AppClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoaders.java:188)
    at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:526)
    ... 22 more

The very same test works fine on 3.4.2

Best regards, Daniele

Comment From: snicoll

@HiMyNameIsIlNano I cannot reproduce with the information that you've provided. Such error using the web starter doesn't look logical to me.

Please move this code in text in a sample that we can actually run. You can push the code to a separate GitHub repository or attach a zip with the code to this issue.

Comment From: HiMyNameIsIlNano

@snicoll this looks pretty weird to me. Of course everything works now. I think my Intellij wanted to make fun of me. I cannot replicate the issue, because once I closed the project and reopened it everything start just fine.

I am going to close the ticket and thanks for taking the time to check this one.

Best regards, Daniele