diff --git a/py-polars/pyproject.toml b/py-polars/pyproject.toml
index ca1a7cc7e0b6..e181bd959425 100644
--- a/py-polars/pyproject.toml
+++ b/py-polars/pyproject.toml
@@ -250,6 +250,9 @@ filterwarnings = [
   # TODO: Excel tests lead to unclosed file warnings
   # https://github.com/pola-rs/polars/issues/14466
   "ignore:unclosed file.*:ResourceWarning",
+  # Ignore invalid warnings when running earlier versions of SQLAlchemy (we
+  # know they are invalid because our standard tests run the latest version)
+  "ignore:Deprecated API features detected.*:DeprecationWarning",
 ]
 xfail_strict = true
 
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/interchange/test_roundtrip.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/interchange/test_roundtrip.py
index 13ee04d5c37d..9857dffe426c 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/interchange/test_roundtrip.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/interchange/test_roundtrip.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 from hypothesis import given
 
 import polars as pl
+from polars._utils.various import parse_version
 from polars.testing import assert_frame_equal
 from polars.testing.parametric import dataframes
 
@@ -277,8 +278,8 @@ def test_to_dataframe_pyarrow_boolean_midbyte_slice() -> None:
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(
-    sys.version_info < (3, 9),
-    reason="Older versions of pandas do not implement the required conversions",
+    parse_version(pd.__version__) < (2, 2),
+    reason="Pandas versions < 2.2 do not implement the required conversions",
 )
 def test_from_dataframe_pandas_timestamp_ns() -> None:
     df = pl.Series("a", [datetime(2000, 1, 1)], dtype=pl.Datetime("ns")).to_frame()
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_async.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_async.py
index b6c2f6e070e0..b51a01c8e37e 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_async.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_async.py
@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Iterable, overload
 
 import pytest
-from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import async_sessionmaker, create_async_engine
+import sqlalchemy
+from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import create_async_engine
 
 import polars as pl
+from polars._utils.various import parse_version
 from polars.testing import assert_frame_equal
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
@@ -66,9 +68,14 @@ async def query(
         return [{"result": self._mock_data, "status": "OK", "time": "32.083µs"}]
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    parse_version(sqlalchemy.__version__) < (2, 0),
+    reason="SQLAlchemy 2.0+ required for async tests",
+)
 def test_read_async(tmp_sqlite_db: Path) -> None:
     # confirm that we can load frame data from the core sqlalchemy async
     # primitives: AsyncConnection, AsyncEngine, and async_sessionmaker
+    from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import async_sessionmaker
 
     async_engine = create_async_engine(f"sqlite+aiosqlite:///{tmp_sqlite_db}")
     async_connection = async_engine.connect()
@@ -111,6 +118,10 @@ async def _nested_async_test(tmp_sqlite_db: Path) -> pl.DataFrame:
     )
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    parse_version(sqlalchemy.__version__) < (2, 0),
+    reason="SQLAlchemy 2.0+ required for async tests",
+)
 def test_read_async_nested(tmp_sqlite_db: Path) -> None:
     # this tests validates that we can handle nested async calls. without
     # the nested asyncio handling provided by `nest_asyncio` this test
diff --git a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_read.py b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_read.py
index ab42f7993fea..52c4d5345b6a 100644
--- a/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_read.py
+++ b/py-polars/tests/unit/io/database/test_read.py
@@ -11,11 +11,13 @@
 
 import pyarrow as pa
 import pytest
+import sqlalchemy
 from sqlalchemy import Integer, MetaData, Table, create_engine, func, select
 from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
 from sqlalchemy.sql.expression import cast as alchemy_cast
 
 import polars as pl
+from polars._utils.various import parse_version
 from polars.exceptions import UnsuitableSQLError
 from polars.io.database._arrow_registry import ARROW_DRIVER_REGISTRY
 from polars.testing import assert_frame_equal
@@ -387,6 +389,8 @@ def test_read_database_parameterised(tmp_sqlite_db: Path) -> None:
         for conn in (alchemy_session, alchemy_engine, alchemy_conn, raw_conn):
             if alchemy_session is conn and param == "?":
                 continue  # alchemy session.execute() doesn't support positional params
+            if parse_version(sqlalchemy.__version__) < (2, 0) and param == ":n":
+                continue  # skip for older sqlalchemy versions
 
             assert_frame_equal(
                 expected_frame,