Playwright Mistake 13/14: You have no test cleanup strategy

Your tests create users, orders, and comments. But they never delete them.

A few runs later, your staging database is full of ghost users, orphan orders, and search results polluted with test data.

Or worse, your tests begin failing because they rely on a “clean” state that is no longer clean. Yesterday’s leftovers become today’s flaky test.

Test automation shouldn’t leave a trace. The fix is simple: create data before the test, then clean it up after. Even if the test fails.

import { test as base, expect } from '@playwright/test';

type Product = { id: string; name: string; price: number };

export const test = base.extend<{ testProduct: Product }>({
  testProduct: async ({ request }, use) => {
    const response = await request.post('/api/products', {
      data: { name: 'Test Product', price: 29.99 },
    });

    const product = await response.json();
    await use(product);

    await request.delete(`/api/products/${product.id}`);
  },
});

test('edit product', async ({ page, testProduct }) => {
  await page.goto(`/admin/products/${testProduct.id}`);
  await expect(page.getByText('Test Product')).toBeVisible();
});