Start With One E2E Test Before Building Out Your Suite
Guillermo Rauch argues that teams should prioritize end-to-end testing for the most critical parts of their application, claiming it reduces risk and offers the strongest return on investment. His proposed starting point is refreshingly minimal: spin up Puppeteer with Headless Chrome, pair it with Chai, load the homepage, and check that the page actually contains his name.
That single, basic integration test carries surprising weight. If the site boots, serves a page, and renders expected content, a great deal is already functioning correctly. From there, developers can layer in a handful of additional tests that navigate around and click through key interactions—and if those still pass, the app is in solid shape.
The article notes some past friction with Cypress, but acknowledges it as likely the smoothest option currently available in the integration testing space, and suggests others may have better luck with it.
