Discussions

In many teams, frontend and backend developers work in parallel. While that speeds up delivery, it often leads to a familiar bottleneck — the backend APIs aren’t fully ready or stable, but the testers and frontend engineers need something to work with. This is especially tricky when you want to start API testing early, but don’t have a live service to test against.

One common approach is to use mock servers or manually stub out endpoints, but maintaining those mocks and keeping them in sync with the evolving backend can be time-consuming. Some teams rely on OpenAPI/Swagger specs to auto-generate mocks, while others create lightweight simulators to unblock testing and development.

There are also tools like Keploy that can automatically generate mocks and tests by capturing real API traffic, making it easier to test against realistic data and behavior even when the backend isn't fully available. This can help teams stay unblocked and reduce redundant manual effort.