Factory Bot for flexible test data generation

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Factory Bot creates test data with minimal boilerplate. Factories define blueprints for model creation. I use traits for variations—published posts, admin users. Sequences generate unique values. Associations automatically create related records. Transient attributes pass data without persisting. Callbacks modify objects after build/create. build creates unsaved instances; create persists to database. build_stubbed creates objects bypassing database entirely—fastest for unit tests. Factories keep tests maintainable—updating schemas requires only factory changes. I prefer explicit associations over create_list for clarity. FactoryBot makes TDD enjoyable by eliminating test data drudgery.