slf4j conflict during unit test run

I created a Maven Springboot application where I've written a dummy unit test for to see if the ReporterApplication boots up successfully without exceptions. However I get a depdendency clash of slf4j. I want to determine which 2 libraries are causing the clash and which one I should remove.

This is the Java class ReporterApplication

package com.dummy.reporter;

import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.scheduling.annotation.EnableAsync;
import org.springframework.scheduling.annotation.EnableScheduling;

/**
 * Application starting point.
 */
@Slf4j
@EnableAsync
@EnableScheduling
@SpringBootApplication
public class ReporterApplication {

  static {
    System.setProperty("aws.crt.log.level", "Warn");
    System.setProperty("aws.crt.log.destination", "Stdout");
    log.debug("Configured AWS SDK log");
  }
  
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    SpringApplication.run(ReporterApplication.class, args);
  }
}

I have writtin a simple unit test which just executes the main class

@Test
public void testMain() {
    // This test is just a placeholder to ensure that the main method can be invoked without exceptions.
    // In a real-world scenario, you might want to mock the Spring context or check for specific beans.
    ReporterApplication.main(new String[]{});

    // If the application starts without throwing an exception, we consider it successful.
    assertTrue(true);
}

When I execute the unit test I get following failure:

    Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 1, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.073 s <<< FAILURE! -- in com.dummy.reporter.ReporterApplicationTest
[ERROR] com.dummy.reporter.ReporterApplicationTest.testMain -- Time elapsed: 0.054 s <<< ERROR!
java.lang.IllegalStateException: LoggerFactory is not a Logback LoggerContext but Logback is on the classpath. Either remove Logback or the competing implementation (class org.slf4j.helpers.NOPLoggerFactory loaded from file:/Users/e1083827/.m2/repository/org/slf4j/slf4j-api/1.7.36/slf4j-api-1.7.36.jar). If you are using WebLogic you will need to add 'org.slf4j' to prefer-application-packages in WEB-INF/weblogic.xml
        at org.springframework.util.Assert.state(Assert.java:101)
        at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.getLoggerContext(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:410)
        at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.beforeInitialize(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:129)
        at org.springframework.boot.context.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.onApplicationStartingEvent(LoggingApplicationListener.java:238)
        at org.springframework.boot.context.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.onApplicationEvent(LoggingApplicationListener.java:220)
        at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.doInvokeListener(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:180)
        at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.invokeListener(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:173)
        at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.multicastEvent(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:151)
        at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.multicastEvent(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:133)
        at org.springframework.boot.context.event.EventPublishingRunListener.multicastInitialEvent(EventPublishingRunListener.java:136)
        at org.springframework.boot.context.event.EventPublishingRunListener.starting(EventPublishingRunListener.java:75)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.lambda$starting$0(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:54)
        at java.base/java.lang.Iterable.forEach(Iterable.java:75)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.doWithListeners(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:118)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.starting(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:54)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:310)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1361)
        at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1350)
        at com.dummy.reporter.ReporterApplication.main(ReporterApplication.java:25)
        at com.dummy.reporter.ReporterApplicationTest.testMain(ReporterApplicationTest.java:13)
        at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DirectMethodHandleAccessor.invoke(DirectMethodHandleAccessor.java:103)
        at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:580)
        at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:59)
        at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)
        at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:56)
        at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:306)
        at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner$1.evaluate(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:100)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:366)
        at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:103)
        at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:63)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$4.run(ParentRunner.java:331)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:79)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:329)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$100(ParentRunner.java:66)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:293)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:306)
        at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:413)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.execute(JUnit4Provider.java:316)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.executeWithRerun(JUnit4Provider.java:240)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.executeTestSet(JUnit4Provider.java:214)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.invoke(JUnit4Provider.java:155)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.runSuitesInProcess(ForkedBooter.java:385)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.execute(ForkedBooter.java:162)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.run(ForkedBooter.java:507)
        at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.main(ForkedBooter.java:495)

So the idea is that there is an Slf4j conflict in my dependencies.

This is the pom file:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <parent>
        <groupId>com.dummy</groupId>
        <artifactId>reporter</artifactId>
        <version>${revision}</version>
    </parent>

    <groupId>com.dummy.reporter</groupId>
    <artifactId>reporter-service</artifactId>
    <name>reporter-service</name>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
            <version>${springboot-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-configuration-processor</artifactId>
            <version>${springboot-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
            <version>${springboot-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
            <scope>provided</scope>
            <version>${lombok-version}</version>
        </dependency>

    <!-- Spring Kafka -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.springframework.kafka</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-kafka</artifactId>
        <version>${springkafka-version}</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
        <artifactId>annotations</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
        <artifactId>jsr305</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.13.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

The versions are coming from a root pom file and includes these values in its properties:

<properties>
        <!-- Project properties -->
        <revision>local-SNAPSHOT</revision>
        <maven.compiler.source>21</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>21</maven.compiler.target>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <!-- Dependency versions -->
        <springboot-version>3.5.3</springboot-version>
        <lombok-version>1.18.38</lombok-version>
        <springkafka-version>4.0.0-M1</springkafka-version>
    </properties>

To check what conflicts there are I tried to run the mvn dependency:tree but it's not clear to me what is causing this conflict.

[INFO] |  |  |  |  \- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:jar:2.0.17:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-to-slf4j:jar:2.24.3:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  \- org.slf4j:jul-to-slf4j:jar:2.0.17:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  +- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-to-slf4j:jar:2.24.3:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  \- org.slf4j:jul-to-slf4j:jar:2.0.17:compile
[INFO] |  |  \- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:jar:1.7.36:compile

To be honest, it doesn't make a lot wiser. So I was hoping if somebody could clarify this out to me and also guide me which slf4j I should exclude in which dependency here.

First of all, thanks for all suggestions in the comments. Despite some of them could have been written more respectfully, they were helpful and I could solve the dependency mismanagement. I integrated the spring-boot-starter-parent in my pom file and dropped all manual versioning. This fixed my issue.

The whole file as reference:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <parent>
        <groupId>com.dummy</groupId>
        <artifactId>reporter</artifactId>
        <version>${revision}</version>
    </parent>

    <groupId>com.dummy.reporter</groupId>
    <artifactId>reporter-service</artifactId>
    <name>reporter-service</name>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.kafka</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-kafka</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
            <artifactId>annotations</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsr305</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.13.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>