Should you build and test in parallel steps in the pipeline?

[Drew Gallagher]

If your build and testing steps do not depend on each other, is it best practice to use parallel steps in the bitbucket pipeline to increase efficiency? 

https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/parallel-step-options/

What are some common patterns for this?

[Theodora Boudale]

Hi Drew,

It's common to use parallel steps for deploying to multiple similar environments at the same time or for steps that perform tests. However, you could use them for build and testing steps if they don't depend on each other i.e. if your test steps do not need artifacts produced by the build steps. Parallel steps can only use artifacts produced by previous steps, not by steps in the same parallel set. So, if a testing step needs artifacts produced by a build step, then these two steps shouldn't be parallel.

Kind regards,
Theodora