diff --git a/srcpkgs/zstd/template b/srcpkgs/zstd/template
index 5ba0902a2b8..cf4332d3230 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/zstd/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/zstd/template
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ revision=1
 short_desc="Fast real-time compression algorithm"
 maintainer="Michael Gehring <mg@ebfe.org>"
 makedepends="zlib-devel liblzma-devel"
+checkdepends="gtest-devel"
 license="BSD, GPL-2"
 homepage="http://www.zstd.net"
 distfiles="https://github.com/facebook/zstd/archive/v${version}.tar.gz"
@@ -15,6 +16,13 @@ do_build() {
 	make -C contrib/pzstd
 }
 
+do_check() {
+	# using the test target is too expensive
+	make shortest
+	make -C contrib/pzstd tests check
+
+}
+
 do_install() {
 	make PREFIX=/usr DESTDIR="${DESTDIR}" install
 	make -C contrib/pzstd PREFIX=/usr DESTDIR="${DESTDIR}" install