573: Mocking the Future: Tom Akehurst on WireMock and API Testing

Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Sami talks with Tom Akehurst, Co-Founder of WireMock, about the delay and disconnect between front and back end development and how WireMock set out to bridge the two together.

Tom explains how his time working for Disney paved the way for WireMock, the different processes of mocking and testing APIs, and provides some useful advice on how to improve your testing process as a whole.

Sami also puts Tom’s knowledge to the test as he seeks some feedback on a real world example he’s been working on recently.

—

Interested in improving your testing and mocking process? Try out WireMock for free, and get to grips with what it has to offer through WireMock Cloud Academy. If you get stuck at any point you can join their Slack channel and ask the community for advice!

Want to get in touch with Tom directly? You can contact him through LinkedIn or via email - [email protected]

Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected]

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - Bluesky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots