Best approach for API testing in Playwright vs Postman?

Question

I'm currently learning Playwright and have been using Postman for API testing. I noticed Playwright also supports API testing. In real-world projects, do teams completely replace Postman with Playwright, or do they use both together? What are the pros and cons of each approach, and what would you recommend for someone aiming to become an SDET?

Madhav Reddy · Answer

In my experience as an SDET, teams rarely ditch Postman for Playwright we use both as per need.
Postman remains my go-to app for exploratory testing, rapid manual debugging, and sharing collections with developers and PMs.

For CI/CD regression, I rely entirely on Playwright’s code-first API testing. It lives in the repository, runs lightning-fast in parallel, and lets you create powerful hybrid workflows—like seeding test data or bypassing login screens via API before running browser checks. As most of scenarios are hybrid UI + Api.

For anyone pursuing an SDET path, use Postman for Day-0 discovery and debugging manually, but build your automation suites in Playwright. Above all, mastering deep API knowledge status codes, auth protocols, payloads, and contract validation are most important foundation for mastering APi testing.

Best approach for API testing in Playwright vs Postman?

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