Playwright Lets Teams Run API and UI Tests in One Unified Framework

A technical guide published on DEV Community argues that running API and UI tests in separate tools like Postman and Playwright creates duplicated setup, blind spots, and debugging friction. Playwright's built-in request fixture allows developers to send HTTP requests, mock responses, and validate server-side state within the same test suite used for UI testing. This unified approach eliminates the need to maintain separate authentication, base URLs, and test data across two toolchains. Teams can use a single configuration file to handle both pure API tests and UI tests that require backend validation or data seeding. The article contends that consolidating both test types into one framework reduces CI overhead and closes coverage gaps that typically appear at the UI-to-API boundary.