A developer's unit-test suite creates real SNS topics in the production account during CI because mocks were skipped. What is the correct testing practice?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Unit tests should be a dress rehearsal with stand-ins, not a live show on the production stage. Mock SNS in unit tests; save real AWS calls for a controlled integration account. Admin rights in prod CI and "just click after deploy" make the blast radius bigger, not safer.
Full Explanation
Hermetic unit tests mock external AWS APIs so CI cannot mutate production resources. Real service calls belong in dedicated integration or staging environments with least privilege. Pointing unit tests at production, granting AdministratorAccess for convenience, or dropping automation all increase risk and weaken feedback quality.