diff --git a/test/test_worker_utils.py b/test/test_worker_utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..db4e353d56803c5e3a9eb46024b0934f93f6de33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_worker_utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+"""
+tests of a few worker utilities
+"""
+import contextlib
+import os
+
+import jsonschema
+
+from inventory_provider.tasks import worker
+from inventory_provider.tasks import common
+
+
+def backend_db():
+    return common._get_redis({
+        'redis': {
+            'hostname': None,
+            'port': None
+        },
+        'redis-databases': [0, 7]
+    }).db
+
+
+
+def test_build_interface_services(mocked_worker_module):
+    """
+    not a very meaningful test ... basically only for sanity & coverage
+    :param data_config:
+    :param mocked_redis:
+    :return:
+    """
+    db = backend_db()  # also forces initialization
+    worker._build_interface_services()
+
+    l = [v for (k, v) in db.items()
+         if k.startswith('interface-services:')]
+    print(len(l))
+