A real database should not be slow. Even with our tests running against a hosted SQL Server on a separate server, the database is never the slow part. For other tests, we run with the same database in a local Docker container with Docker Compose and it is fast and isolated/resettable.
Most tests should be unit tests, which are super fast. Integration and UI tests that might use the database should be fewer and if the database is slow, it might be related to your specific application or unoptimized database queries, our database calls are usually < 10ms
Most tests should be unit tests, which are super fast. Integration and UI tests that might use the database should be fewer and if the database is slow, it might be related to your specific application or unoptimized database queries, our database calls are usually < 10ms