diff --git a/test/tsconfig.json b/test/tsconfig.json
index 3b0ad18e33519..1e198fbb8d53a 100644
--- a/test/tsconfig.json
+++ b/test/tsconfig.json
@@ -1,23 +1,6 @@
-// Make development mode typescript module resolving and jsx parsing correct for all tests
+// Make development mode typescript module resolving and jsx parsing correct for all tests.
+// We want to apply the compiler options to the testing app, but we don't want to do strict type checking for them.
+// e.g. testing app could have import a from '3rd-lib-nextjs-ws-doesnt-have'
 {
-  "compilerOptions": {
-    "strict": false,
-    "noEmit": true,
-    "allowJs": true,
-    "resolveJsonModule": true,
-    "jsx": "react-jsx",
-    "module": "esnext",
-    "target": "ESNext",
-    "esModuleInterop": true,
-    "moduleResolution": "node",
-    "baseUrl": ".",
-    "types": ["react", "jest", "node", "trusted-types", "jest-extended"],
-    "paths": {
-      "development-sandbox": ["./lib/development-sandbox"],
-      "next-test-utils": ["./lib/next-test-utils"],
-      "amp-test-utils": ["./lib/amp-test-utils"],
-      "next-webdriver": ["./lib/next-webdriver"],
-      "e2e-utils": ["./lib/e2e-utils"]
-    }
-  }
+  "extends": "../tsconfig.base.json"
 }
diff --git a/tsconfig.base.json b/tsconfig.base.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..e47763a169c70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tsconfig.base.json
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+{
+  "compilerOptions": {
+    "strict": false,
+    "noEmit": true,
+    "allowJs": true,
+    "resolveJsonModule": true,
+    "jsx": "react-jsx",
+    "module": "esnext",
+    "target": "ESNext",
+    "esModuleInterop": true,
+    "moduleResolution": "node",
+    "baseUrl": ".",
+    "types": ["react", "jest", "node", "trusted-types", "jest-extended"],
+    "paths": {
+      "development-sandbox": ["test/lib/development-sandbox"],
+      "next-test-utils": ["test/lib/next-test-utils"],
+      "amp-test-utils": ["test/lib/amp-test-utils"],
+      "next-webdriver": ["test/lib/next-webdriver"],
+      "e2e-utils": ["test/lib/e2e-utils"]
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index 81b35adbf0bf4..f35f67680c5c2 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -1,24 +1,5 @@
 {
-  "compilerOptions": {
-    "strict": false,
-    "noEmit": true,
-    "allowJs": true,
-    "resolveJsonModule": true,
-    "jsx": "react-jsx",
-    "module": "esnext",
-    "target": "ESNext",
-    "esModuleInterop": true,
-    "moduleResolution": "node",
-    "baseUrl": ".",
-    "types": ["react", "jest", "node", "trusted-types", "jest-extended"],
-    "paths": {
-      "development-sandbox": ["test/lib/development-sandbox"],
-      "next-test-utils": ["test/lib/next-test-utils"],
-      "amp-test-utils": ["test/lib/amp-test-utils"],
-      "next-webdriver": ["test/lib/next-webdriver"],
-      "e2e-utils": ["test/lib/e2e-utils"]
-    }
-  },
+  "extends": "./tsconfig.base.json",
   "include": ["test/**/*.test.ts", "test/**/*.test.tsx"],
   "exclude": ["node_modules"]
 }