diff --git a/.github/workflows/basic-ci-amd64.yaml b/.github/workflows/basic-ci-amd64.yaml
index f0ea02ff34..fb07a12597 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/basic-ci-amd64.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/basic-ci-amd64.yaml
@@ -56,6 +56,51 @@ jobs:
         timeout-minutes: 10
         run: bash tests/integration/cri-containerd/gha-run.sh run
 
+  run-containerd-sandboxapi:
+    strategy:
+      # We can set this to true whenever we're 100% sure that
+      # the all the tests are not flaky, otherwise we'll fail
+      # all the tests due to a single flaky instance.
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        containerd_version: ['latest']
+        vmm: ['dragonball', 'cloud-hypervisor', 'qemu-runtime-rs']
+    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
+    env:
+      CONTAINERD_VERSION: ${{ matrix.containerd_version }}
+      GOPATH: ${{ github.workspace }}
+      KATA_HYPERVISOR: ${{ matrix.vmm }}
+      #the latest containerd from 2.0 need to set the CGROUP_DRIVER for e2e testing
+      CGROUP_DRIVER: ""
+      SANDBOXER: "shim"
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          ref: ${{ inputs.commit-hash }}
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Rebase atop of the latest target branch
+        run: |
+          ./tests/git-helper.sh "rebase-atop-of-the-latest-target-branch"
+        env:
+          TARGET_BRANCH: ${{ inputs.target-branch }}
+
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: bash tests/integration/cri-containerd/gha-run.sh install-dependencies
+
+      - name: get-kata-tarball
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: kata-static-tarball-amd64${{ inputs.tarball-suffix }}
+          path: kata-artifacts
+
+      - name: Install kata
+        run: bash tests/integration/cri-containerd/gha-run.sh install-kata kata-artifacts
+
+      - name: Run containerd-sandboxapi tests
+        timeout-minutes: 10
+        run: bash tests/integration/cri-containerd/gha-run.sh run
+
   run-containerd-stability:
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
@@ -67,6 +112,7 @@ jobs:
       CONTAINERD_VERSION: ${{ matrix.containerd_version }}
       GOPATH: ${{ github.workspace }}
       KATA_HYPERVISOR: ${{ matrix.vmm }}
+      SANDBOXER: "podsandbox"
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
diff --git a/tests/integration/cri-containerd/integration-tests.sh b/tests/integration/cri-containerd/integration-tests.sh
index fae8157841..a55706d5ad 100755
--- a/tests/integration/cri-containerd/integration-tests.sh
+++ b/tests/integration/cri-containerd/integration-tests.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ KATA_HYPERVISOR="${KATA_HYPERVISOR:-qemu}"
 RUNTIME=${RUNTIME:-containerd-shim-kata-${KATA_HYPERVISOR}-v2}
 FACTORY_TEST=${FACTORY_TEST:-""}
 ARCH=$(uname -m)
+SANDBOXER=${SANDBOXER:-"podsandbox"}
 
 containerd_runtime_type="io.containerd.kata-${KATA_HYPERVISOR}.v2"
 
@@ -108,6 +109,7 @@ cat << EOF | sudo tee "${CONTAINERD_CONFIG_FILE}"
         default_runtime_name = "$runtime"
       [plugins.cri.containerd.runtimes.${runtime}]
         runtime_type = "${runtime_type}"
+        sandboxer = "${SANDBOXER}"
         $( [ $kata_annotations -eq 1 ] && \
         echo 'pod_annotations = ["io.katacontainers.*"]' && \
         echo '        container_annotations = ["io.katacontainers.*"]'
diff --git a/versions.yaml b/versions.yaml
index 20c647fcad..28b6327580 100644
--- a/versions.yaml
+++ b/versions.yaml
@@ -259,6 +259,8 @@ externals:
     version: "v1.6.8"
     lts: "v1.6"
     active: "v1.7"
+    # add containerd 2.0.0 for sandbox api test
+    latest: "v2.0"
 
   critools:
     description: "CLI tool for Container Runtime Interface (CRI)"