diff --git a/tests/unit/engines/test_base.py b/tests/unit/engines/test_base.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e008b034c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/engines/test_base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+from collections import defaultdict
+import mock
+from searx.engines import base
+from searx.testing import SearxTestCase
+
+
+class TestBaseEngine(SearxTestCase):
+
+    def test_request(self):
+        query = 'test_query'
+        dicto = defaultdict(dict)
+        dicto['pageno'] = 1
+        params = base.request(query, dicto)
+        self.assertIn('url', params)
+        self.assertIn('base-search.net', params['url'])
+
+    def test_response(self):
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, base.response, None)
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, base.response, [])
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, base.response, '')
+        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, base.response, '[]')
+
+        response = mock.Mock(text='<response></response>')
+        self.assertEqual(base.response(response), [])
+
+        xml_mock = """<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<response>
+  <lst name="responseHeader">
+    <int name="status">0</int>
+    <int name="QTime">1</int>
+  </lst>
+  <result name="response" numFound="1" start="0">
+    <doc>
+      <date name="dchdate">2000-01-01T01:01:01Z</date>
+      <str name="dcdocid">1</str>
+      <str name="dccontinent">cna</str>
+      <str name="dccountry">us</str>
+      <str name="dccollection">ftciteseerx</str>
+      <str name="dcprovider">CiteSeerX</str>
+      <str name="dctitle">Science and more</str>
+      <arr name="dccreator">
+        <str>Someone</str>
+      </arr>
+      <arr name="dcperson">
+        <str>Someone</str>
+      </arr>
+      <arr name="dcsubject">
+        <str>Science and more</str>
+      </arr>
+      <str name="dcdescription">Science, and even more.</str>
+      <arr name="dccontributor">
+        <str>The neighbour</str>
+      </arr>
+      <str name="dcdate">2001</str>
+      <int name="dcyear">2001</int>
+      <arr name="dctype">
+        <str>text</str>
+      </arr>
+      <arr name="dctypenorm">
+        <str>1</str>
+      </arr>
+      <arr name="dcformat">
+        <str>application/pdf</str>
+      </arr>
+      <arr name="dccontenttype">
+        <str>application/pdf</str>
+      </arr>
+      <arr name="dcidentifier">
+        <str>http://example.org/</str>
+      </arr>
+      <str name="dclink">http://example.org</str>
+      <str name="dcsource">http://example.org</str>
+      <arr name="dclanguage">
+        <str>en</str>
+      </arr>
+      <str name="dcrights">Under the example.org licence</str>
+      <int name="dcoa">1</int>
+      <arr name="dclang">
+        <str>eng</str>
+      </arr>
+    </doc>
+  </result>
+</response>"""
+
+        response = mock.Mock(text=xml_mock.encode('utf-8'))
+        results = base.response(response)
+        self.assertEqual(type(results), list)
+        self.assertEqual(len(results), 1)
+        self.assertEqual(results[0]['title'], 'Science and more')
+        self.assertEqual(results[0]['content'], 'Science, and even more.')