diff --git a/backend/core/tests/__init__.py b/backend/core/tests/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391
diff --git a/backend/core/tests/test_auth.py b/backend/core/tests/test_auth.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fd52b6e917992038cb5f543615db66532f61d176
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/core/tests/test_auth.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+from rest_framework.test import APIClient, APITestCase
+from core.models import UserAccount
+
+
+class AuthTests(APITestCase):
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpTestData(cls):
+        cls.user = UserAccount.objects.create(username='user')
+        cls.user.set_password('p')
+        cls.user.save()
+        cls.client = APIClient()
+
+    def test_get_token(self):
+        response = self.client.post('/api-token-auth/',
+                                    {'username': 'user',
+                                     'password': 'p'}, format='json')
+        self.assertContains(response, 'token')
diff --git a/backend/grady/settings/default.py b/backend/grady/settings/default.py
index 86e0c94956f52ceb7b459c8d8e015d73c4825a6c..696cd59890a491e6cc09089f17397ddded9e51b9 100644
--- a/backend/grady/settings/default.py
+++ b/backend/grady/settings/default.py
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ REST_FRAMEWORK = {
         'rest_framework.authentication.SessionAuthentication',
         'rest_framework.authentication.BasicAuthentication',
     ),
+    'TEST_REQUEST_DEFAULT_FORMAT': 'json',
 }
 
 JWT_AUTH = {