diff --git a/.eslintrc.json b/.eslintrc.json
index d0bd5161184..6104de87af7 100644
--- a/.eslintrc.json
+++ b/.eslintrc.json
@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@
           "./tools/ui-components/tsconfig.json",
           "./utils/tsconfig.json",
           "./web/tsconfig.json",
-          "./curriculum-server/tsconfig.json"
+          "./curriculum-server/tsconfig.json",
+          "./cypress/tsconfig.json"
         ]
       },
       "extends": [
diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e-web.yml b/.github/workflows/e2e-web.yml
index c014b5e96e2..2713112cd4a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e-web.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e-web.yml
@@ -72,9 +72,9 @@ jobs:
           - browsers: electron
             spec: cypress/e2e/default/learn/challenges/projects.js
           - browsers: chrome
-            spec: cypress/e2e/default/**/*.js
+            spec: cypress/e2e/default/**/*.{js,ts}
           - browsers: firefox
-            spec: cypress/e2e/default/**/*.js
+            spec: cypress/e2e/default/**/*.{js,ts}
     services:
       mongodb:
         image: mongo:4.4
diff --git a/cypress.config.js b/cypress.config.js
index c8c0856bd72..9a93b25c086 100644
--- a/cypress.config.js
+++ b/cypress.config.js
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ module.exports = defineConfig({
     projectId: 'ke77ns',
     retries: 4,
     chromeWebSecurity: false,
-    specPattern: 'cypress/e2e/**/*.js',
+    specPattern: ['cypress/e2e/**/*.js', 'cypress/e2e/**/*.ts'],
     setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
       config.env = config.env || {};
       on('before:run', () => {
diff --git a/cypress/e2e/default/learn/challenges/backend.js b/cypress/e2e/default/learn/challenges/backend.ts
similarity index 100%
rename from cypress/e2e/default/learn/challenges/backend.js
rename to cypress/e2e/default/learn/challenges/backend.ts
diff --git a/cypress/tsconfig.json b/cypress/tsconfig.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c24d3ad33a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cypress/tsconfig.json
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+{
+  "compilerOptions": {
+    "target": "es5",
+    "lib": ["es5", "dom"]
+  },
+  "include": ["e2e/**/*.ts"],
+  "extends": "../tsconfig-base.json"
+}
diff --git a/tsconfig-base.json b/tsconfig-base.json
index cea38b99a1f..05a91303e8c 100644
--- a/tsconfig-base.json
+++ b/tsconfig-base.json
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
     "noEmit": true,
     "resolveJsonModule": true,
     "skipLibCheck": true,
-    "types": ["node", "jest", "@testing-library/jest-dom"]
+    "types": ["node", "jest", "@testing-library/jest-dom", "cypress"]
   },
   // since ts-node compiles ts on the fly and then uses node, it needs to
   // compile the scripts to commonjs (or node will complain about the requires)