diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index f66b3a27..7e1631d6 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -39,7 +39,10 @@ virtualenv>=20.15.0; python_version <= '3.11'
 virtualenv>=20.23.0; python_version >= '3.12'
 
 # Coverage reporting (no imports, invoked via coveralls script):
-coverage>=5.0
+# coveralls pins coverage to <7.0, causing pip backtracking to happen. Pinning
+# it to <7.0 in this file saves the time for backtracking, but requires to
+# occasionally check for new versions of coveralls without pinning.
+coverage>=5.0,<7.0
 pytest-cov>=2.7.0
 coveralls>=3.3.0