diff --git a/tests/unit/_autoscaling/test_autoscaled_pool.py b/tests/unit/_autoscaling/test_autoscaled_pool.py
index c7d31a6bea..c77a1d8926 100644
--- a/tests/unit/_autoscaling/test_autoscaled_pool.py
+++ b/tests/unit/_autoscaling/test_autoscaled_pool.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 from crawlee._autoscaling._types import LoadRatioInfo, SystemInfo
 from crawlee._types import ConcurrencySettings
 from crawlee._utils.time import measure_time
-from tests.unit.utils import wait_for_condition
+from tests.unit.utils import poll_until_condition
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Awaitable
@@ -192,20 +192,20 @@ def get_historical_system_info() -> SystemInfo:
 
     try:
         # Wait until concurrency scales up above 1.
-        await wait_for_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency > 1, timeout=5.0)
+        assert await poll_until_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency > 1, timeout=5.0)
 
         # Wait until concurrency reaches maximum.
-        await wait_for_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency == 4, timeout=5.0)
+        assert await poll_until_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency == 4, timeout=5.0)
 
         # Multiple concurrent workers should have completed more tasks than a single worker could.
-        await wait_for_condition(lambda: done_count > 10, timeout=5.0)
+        assert await poll_until_condition(lambda: done_count > 10, timeout=5.0)
 
         # Simulate CPU overload and wait for the pool to scale down.
         overload_active = True
-        await wait_for_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency < 4, timeout=5.0)
+        assert await poll_until_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency < 4, timeout=5.0)
 
         # Wait until the pool scales all the way down to minimum.
-        await wait_for_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency == 1, timeout=5.0)
+        assert await poll_until_condition(lambda: pool.desired_concurrency == 1, timeout=5.0)
     finally:
         pool_run_task.cancel()
         with suppress(asyncio.CancelledError):
diff --git a/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py b/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py
index 94a8b2dbe7..a3008777c3 100644
--- a/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py
+++ b/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 from crawlee.statistics import FinalStatistics, StatisticsState
 from crawlee.storage_clients import FileSystemStorageClient, MemoryStorageClient
 from crawlee.storages import Dataset, KeyValueStore, RequestQueue
+from tests.unit.utils import poll_until_condition
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Callable, Sequence
@@ -1988,17 +1989,13 @@ async def test_crawler_intermediate_statistics() -> None:
     crawler = BasicCrawler()
     check_time = timedelta(seconds=0.1)
 
-    async def wait_for_statistics_initialization() -> None:
-        while not crawler.statistics.active:  # noqa: ASYNC110 # It is ok for tests.
-            await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
-
     @crawler.router.default_handler
     async def handler(_: BasicCrawlingContext) -> None:
         await asyncio.sleep(check_time.total_seconds() * 5)
 
     # Start crawler and wait until statistics are initialized.
     crawler_task = asyncio.create_task(crawler.run(['https://a.placeholder.com']))
-    await wait_for_statistics_initialization()
+    assert await poll_until_condition(lambda: crawler.statistics.active)
 
     # Wait some time and check that runtime is updated.
     await asyncio.sleep(check_time.total_seconds())
diff --git a/tests/unit/request_loaders/test_sitemap_request_loader.py b/tests/unit/request_loaders/test_sitemap_request_loader.py
index 98741578f1..0fd77cae59 100644
--- a/tests/unit/request_loaders/test_sitemap_request_loader.py
+++ b/tests/unit/request_loaders/test_sitemap_request_loader.py
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-import asyncio
 import base64
 import gzip
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
@@ -10,6 +9,7 @@
 from crawlee.http_clients._base import HttpClient
 from crawlee.request_loaders._sitemap_request_loader import SitemapRequestLoader
 from crawlee.storages import KeyValueStore
+from tests.unit.utils import poll_until_condition
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from crawlee._types import JsonSerializable
@@ -91,9 +91,7 @@ async def test_is_empty_does_not_depend_on_fetch_next_request(server_url: URL, h
 
     assert await sitemap_loader.is_empty()
 
-    await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
-
-    assert await sitemap_loader.is_finished()
+    assert await poll_until_condition(sitemap_loader.is_finished)
 
 
 async def test_abort_sitemap_loading(server_url: URL, http_client: HttpClient) -> None:
@@ -139,18 +137,14 @@ async def test_create_persist_state_for_sitemap_loading(
 async def test_data_persistence_for_sitemap_loading(
     server_url: URL, http_client: HttpClient, key_value_store: KeyValueStore
 ) -> None:
-    async def wait_for_sitemap_loader_not_empty(sitemap_loader: SitemapRequestLoader) -> None:
-        while await sitemap_loader.is_empty() and not await sitemap_loader.is_finished():  # noqa: ASYNC110
-            await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
-
     sitemap_url = (server_url / 'sitemap.xml').with_query(base64=encode_base64(BASIC_SITEMAP.encode()))
     persist_key = 'data_persist_state'
     sitemap_loader = SitemapRequestLoader(
         [str(sitemap_url)], http_client=http_client, persist_state_key=persist_key, enqueue_strategy='all'
     )
 
-    # Give time to load
-    await asyncio.wait_for(wait_for_sitemap_loader_not_empty(sitemap_loader), timeout=10)
+    # Give time to load.
+    await poll_until_condition(sitemap_loader.is_empty, lambda is_empty: not is_empty, timeout=10)
 
     await sitemap_loader.close()
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/storages/test_request_queue.py b/tests/unit/storages/test_request_queue.py
index d77d524150..56704ebbed 100644
--- a/tests/unit/storages/test_request_queue.py
+++ b/tests/unit/storages/test_request_queue.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 from crawlee.storage_clients.models import AddRequestsResponse, ProcessedRequest, UnprocessedRequest
 from crawlee.storages import RequestQueue
 from crawlee.storages._storage_instance_manager import StorageInstanceManager
+from tests.unit.utils import poll_until_condition
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import AsyncGenerator, Sequence
@@ -516,9 +517,8 @@ async def test_add_requests_wait_for_all(
         # Immediately after adding, the total count may be less than 15 due to background processing
         assert await rq.get_total_count() <= 15
 
-        # Wait for background tasks to complete
-        while await rq.get_total_count() < 15:  # noqa: ASYNC110
-            await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
+        # Wait for background tasks to complete.
+        await poll_until_condition(rq.get_total_count, lambda count: count >= 15)
 
     # Verify all requests were added
     assert await rq.get_total_count() == 15
@@ -542,8 +542,8 @@ async def test_is_finished(rq: RequestQueue) -> None:
     # Queue shouldn't be finished while background tasks are running
     assert await rq.is_finished() is False
 
-    # Wait for background tasks to finish
-    await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
+    # Wait for the background add task to finish.
+    await poll_until_condition(lambda: not rq._add_requests_tasks)
 
     # Process all requests
     while True:
diff --git a/tests/unit/utils.py b/tests/unit/utils.py
index cda78e9c14..a965d3cc7b 100644
--- a/tests/unit/utils.py
+++ b/tests/unit/utils.py
@@ -1,34 +1,75 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import asyncio
+import inspect
 import sys
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+import time
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, TypeVar, cast, overload
 
 import pytest
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from collections.abc import Callable
+    from collections.abc import Awaitable, Callable
+
+T = TypeVar('T')
 
 run_alone_on_mac = pytest.mark.run_alone if sys.platform == 'darwin' else lambda x: x
 
 
-async def wait_for_condition(
-    condition: Callable[[], bool],
+async def maybe_await(value: Awaitable[T] | T) -> T:
+    """Await `value` if it is awaitable, otherwise return it unchanged.
+
+    Lets `poll_until_condition` accept both sync and async callables.
+    """
+    if inspect.isawaitable(value):
+        return await cast('Awaitable[T]', value)
+    return cast('T', value)
+
+
+@overload
+async def poll_until_condition(
+    fn: Callable[[], Awaitable[T]],
+    condition: Callable[[T], bool] = ...,
+    *,
+    timeout: float = ...,
+    poll_interval: float = ...,
+    backoff_factor: float = ...,
+) -> T: ...
+@overload
+async def poll_until_condition(
+    fn: Callable[[], T],
+    condition: Callable[[T], bool] = ...,
     *,
-    timeout: float = 5.0,
+    timeout: float = ...,
+    poll_interval: float = ...,
+    backoff_factor: float = ...,
+) -> T: ...
+async def poll_until_condition(
+    fn: Callable[[], Awaitable[T] | T],
+    condition: Callable[[T], bool] = bool,
+    *,
+    timeout: float = 5,
     poll_interval: float = 0.05,
-) -> None:
-    """Poll `condition` until it returns True, or raise `AssertionError` on timeout.
+    backoff_factor: float = 1,
+) -> T:
+    """Poll `fn` until `condition(result)` is True or the timeout expires.
+
+    Polls `fn` at `poll_interval`-second intervals until `condition` is satisfied or `timeout` seconds have elapsed.
+    Returns the last polled result regardless of whether the condition was met, so the caller can run its own
+    assertion. The default condition checks for a truthy result.
 
-    Args:
-        condition: A callable that returns True when the desired state is reached.
-        timeout: Maximum time in seconds to wait before raising.
-        poll_interval: Time in seconds between condition checks.
+    Use this instead of a fixed `asyncio.sleep` when waiting for some state to settle (e.g. autoscaling
+    concurrency) that may take a variable amount of time. For highly variable waits, pass `backoff_factor` > 1
+    to multiply the interval after each poll, covering a long timeout with few calls.
     """
-    loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
-    deadline = loop.time() + timeout
-    while loop.time() < deadline:
-        if condition():
-            return
-        await asyncio.sleep(poll_interval)
-    raise AssertionError(f'Condition not met within {timeout}s')
+    deadline = time.monotonic() + timeout
+    delay = poll_interval
+    result = await maybe_await(fn())
+    while not condition(result):
+        remaining = deadline - time.monotonic()
+        if remaining <= 0:
+            break
+        await asyncio.sleep(min(delay, remaining))
+        delay *= backoff_factor
+        result = await maybe_await(fn())
+    return result