diff --git a/images/keda/tests/main.tf b/images/keda/tests/main.tf
index 5f222d931d..5d55d3548e 100644
--- a/images/keda/tests/main.tf
+++ b/images/keda/tests/main.tf
@@ -92,7 +92,8 @@ resource "imagetest_feature" "basic" {
         kubectl get --raw "/apis/external.metrics.k8s.io/v1beta1"
         kubectl get scaledobject test-deployment -n default -o jsonpath={.status.externalMetricNames}
         kubectl get --raw "/apis/external.metrics.k8s.io/v1beta1/namespaces/default/s0-cron-UTC-0,1xxxx-0,5xxxx?labelSelector=scaledobject.keda.sh%2Fname%3Dtest-deployment"
-        kubectl get scaledobject test-deployment -o jsonpath='{.status.health.*.status}' | grep Happy
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready scaledobject test-deployment
+        kubectl wait --for=condition=Active scaledobject test-deployment
       EOF
     },
   ]
diff --git a/images/memcached/config/main.tf b/images/memcached/config/main.tf
index 8737119ea3..242dcd936f 100644
--- a/images/memcached/config/main.tf
+++ b/images/memcached/config/main.tf
@@ -1,9 +1,3 @@
-terraform {
-  required_providers {
-    apko = { source = "chainguard-dev/apko" }
-  }
-}
-
 module "accts" { source = "../../../tflib/accts" }
 
 variable "extra_packages" {
diff --git a/images/memcached/tests/main.tf b/images/memcached/tests/main.tf
index 5b40dcd956..09a918b7f1 100644
--- a/images/memcached/tests/main.tf
+++ b/images/memcached/tests/main.tf
@@ -47,7 +47,39 @@ resource "imagetest_feature" "basic" {
     {
       name = "Helm install"
       cmd  = module.helm.install_cmd
-    }
+    },
+    {
+      name = "Install netcat"
+      cmd  = "apk add --no-cache netcat-openbsd"
+    },
+    {
+      name = "Start port-forward to access Memcached service on localhost"
+      cmd  = "kubectl port-forward -n default svc/memcached 11211:11211 & "
+    },
+    {
+      name = "Wait for port-forwarding to establish"
+      cmd  = "sleep 5" # Give time for the connection to establish
+    },
+    {
+      name = "Test Memcached functionality using nc with localhost"
+      cmd  = <<-EOC
+        echo "Testing connection to Memcached at localhost:11211"
+        echo -e 'stats\nquit' | nc localhost 11211
+      EOC
+      assert = {
+        success = "STAT pid"
+        output_contains = [
+          "STAT pid",
+          "STAT uptime",
+          "STAT version",
+          "STAT curr_connections",
+          "STAT cmd_get",
+          "STAT bytes_read",
+          "STAT threads",
+          "STAT limit_maxbytes",
+        ]
+      }
+    },
   ]
 
   labels = {