diff --git a/serve-python/Dockerfile b/serve-python/Dockerfile
index 13a1ec8..48992a5 100644
--- a/serve-python/Dockerfile
+++ b/serve-python/Dockerfile
@@ -12,15 +12,17 @@ RUN useradd -m -u 1000 $USER
 # Set working directory (this is where the code should go)
 WORKDIR $HOME
 
-RUN /bin/bash -c "apt update"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "apt install python3.7-dev -y"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "apt install curl -y"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "apt-get install python3-distutils -y"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "python3.7 get-pip.py"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "apt install gcc -y"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.7 1"
-RUN /bin/bash -c "pip3 install --upgrade pip"
+RUN apt update \
+    && apt install python3.7-dev -y \
+    && apt install curl -y \
+    && apt-get install python3-distutils -y \
+    && curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py \
+    && python3.7 get-pip.py \
+    && apt install gcc -y \
+    && update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.7 1 \
+    && pip3 install --upgrade pip \
+    && apt-get clean \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 # RUN /bin/bash -c "apt update"
 # RUN /bin/bash -c "curl https://dl.min.io/client/mc/release/linux-amd64/mc --output mc && chmod +x mc"
 COPY requirements.txt $HOME/requirements.txt
@@ -36,4 +38,4 @@ RUN chmod +x start-script.sh \
 ENV STACKN_MODEL_PATH=$HOME/models
 ENV PYTHONPATH=$HOME/models
 
-CMD ./deploy.sh
\ No newline at end of file
+CMD ["./deploy.sh"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/serve-python/tests/test_api.py b/serve-python/tests/test_api.py
index ad71990..7b9289c 100644
--- a/serve-python/tests/test_api.py
+++ b/serve-python/tests/test_api.py
@@ -41,29 +41,54 @@ def test_container_ports():
 
 def test_container_access():
     """Test of basic communication with the container returns status 200 (OK)."""
-    try:
-        url = _get_api_url(container) + "/health"
-        response = requests.get(url, timeout=TIMEOUT_CALL)
-        if response.status_code == 200:
-            assert True
-    except ConnectionError:
-        assert False
+    max_attempts = 100
+    for attempt in range(1, max_attempts + 1):
+        try:
+            url = _get_api_url(container) + "/health"
+            response = requests.get(url, timeout=TIMEOUT_CALL)
+            if response.status_code == 200:
+                assert True
+        except:
+            pass
+        if attempt == max_attempts:
+            RuntimeError(
+                f"Python Deployment did not become ready after {max_attempts} attempts"
+            )
+            assert False
+
+        print(
+            f"Attempt {attempt} failed, waiting for 10 seconds before trying again..."
+        )
+        time.sleep(10)
 
 
 def test_prediction():
     """Verify that the model can be used for predictions."""
-    # Set input string
-    example = "Jag är ett barn, och det här är mitt hem. Alltså är det ett barnhem!"
-    # msk_ind takes an index in order to mask (or hide) one of the word in the example sentence, which should then be predicted by the BERT trained model
-    msk_ind = 4
-    url = _get_api_url(container) + "/predict/"
-    res = requests.post(url, json={"pred": example, "msk_ind": msk_ind})
-    text_encoded = res.json().encode("latin1")
-    text_decoded = text_encoded.decode("unicode-escape")
-    print(json.loads(text_decoded))
-    assert json.loads(text_decoded) == {
-        "result": ["barn", "hem", "hus", "spädbarn", "##hem"]
-    }
+    max_attempts = 100
+    for attempt in range(1, max_attempts + 1):
+        # Set input string
+        example = "Jag är ett barn, och det här är mitt hem. Alltså är det ett barnhem!"
+        # msk_ind takes an index in order to mask (or hide) one of the word in the example sentence, which should then be predicted by the BERT trained model
+        msk_ind = 4
+        url = _get_api_url(container) + "/predict/"
+        res = requests.post(url, json={"pred": example, "msk_ind": msk_ind})
+        text_encoded = res.json().encode("latin1")
+        text_decoded = text_encoded.decode("unicode-escape")
+        print(json.loads(text_decoded))
+        if res.status_code == 200:
+            assert json.loads(text_decoded) == {
+                "result": ["barn", "hem", "hus", "spädbarn", "##hem"]
+            }
+        if attempt == max_attempts:
+            RuntimeError(
+                f"Python Deployment did not become ready after {max_attempts} attempts"
+            )
+            assert False
+
+        print(
+            f"Attempt {attempt} failed, waiting for 10 seconds before trying again..."
+        )
+        time.sleep(10)
 
 
 def test_shutdown():