diff --git a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/tests/behavior/build-assets_spec.ts b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/tests/behavior/build-assets_spec.ts
index cdb2fd4509e1..01b06d52d2af 100644
--- a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/tests/behavior/build-assets_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/tests/behavior/build-assets_spec.ts
@@ -41,6 +41,21 @@ describeServeBuilder(executeDevServer, DEV_SERVER_BUILDER_INFO, (harness, setupT
 
       setupTarget(harness, {
         assets: ['src/extra.ts'],
+      });
+
+      harness.useTarget('serve', {
+        ...BASE_OPTIONS,
+      });
+
+      const { result, response } = await executeOnceAndFetch(harness, 'extra.ts');
+
+      expect(result?.success).toBeTrue();
+      expect(await response?.text()).toContain(javascriptFileContent);
+    });
+
+    it('should return 404 for non existing assets', async () => {
+      setupTarget(harness, {
+        assets: ['src/extra.js'],
         optimization: {
           scripts: true,
         },
@@ -50,10 +65,10 @@ describeServeBuilder(executeDevServer, DEV_SERVER_BUILDER_INFO, (harness, setupT
         ...BASE_OPTIONS,
       });
 
-      const { result, response } = await executeOnceAndFetch(harness, 'extra.ts');
+      const { result, response } = await executeOnceAndFetch(harness, 'extra.js');
 
       expect(result?.success).toBeTrue();
-      expect(await response?.text()).toContain(javascriptFileContent);
+      expect(await response?.status).toBe(404);
     });
   });
 });
diff --git a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts
index a32b15efb6d1..a042a6e4e8f9 100644
--- a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts
+++ b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/builders/dev-server/vite-server.ts
@@ -462,7 +462,7 @@ export async function setupServer(
     publicDir: false,
     esbuild: false,
     mode: 'development',
-    appType: 'spa',
+    appType: 'mpa',
     css: {
       devSourcemap: true,
     },
diff --git a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/vite/angular-memory-plugin.ts b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/vite/angular-memory-plugin.ts
index b9039c2027dd..bb40260e827b 100644
--- a/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/vite/angular-memory-plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/angular_devkit/build_angular/src/tools/vite/angular-memory-plugin.ts
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ export function createAngularMemoryPlugin(options: AngularMemoryPluginOptions):
         map: mapContents && Buffer.from(mapContents).toString('utf-8'),
       };
     },
+    // eslint-disable-next-line max-lines-per-function
     configureServer(server) {
       const originalssrTransform = server.ssrTransform;
       server.ssrTransform = async (code, map, url, originalCode) => {
@@ -169,6 +170,8 @@ export function createAngularMemoryPlugin(options: AngularMemoryPluginOptions):
       // Returning a function, installs middleware after the main transform middleware but
       // before the built-in HTML middleware
       return () => {
+        server.middlewares.use(angularHtmlFallbackMiddleware);
+
         function angularSSRMiddleware(
           req: Connect.IncomingMessage,
           res: ServerResponse,
@@ -180,8 +183,8 @@ export function createAngularMemoryPlugin(options: AngularMemoryPluginOptions):
             // Skip if path is not defined.
             !url ||
             // Skip if path is like a file.
-            // NOTE: We use a regexp to mitigate against matching requests like: /browse/pl.0ef59752c0cd457dbf1391f08cbd936f
-            /^\.[a-z]{2,4}$/i.test(extname(url.split('?')[0]))
+            // NOTE: We use a mime type lookup to mitigate against matching requests like: /browse/pl.0ef59752c0cd457dbf1391f08cbd936f
+            lookupMimeTypeFromRequest(url)
           ) {
             next();
 
@@ -306,3 +309,34 @@ function pathnameWithoutBasePath(url: string, basePath: string): string {
     ? pathname.slice(basePath.length - 1)
     : pathname;
 }
+
+function angularHtmlFallbackMiddleware(
+  req: Connect.IncomingMessage,
+  res: ServerResponse,
+  next: Connect.NextFunction,
+): void {
+  // Similar to how it is handled in vite
+  // https://github.com/vitejs/vite/blob/main/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/htmlFallback.ts#L15C19-L15C45
+  if (
+    (req.method === 'GET' || req.method === 'HEAD') &&
+    (!req.url || !lookupMimeTypeFromRequest(req.url)) &&
+    (!req.headers.accept ||
+      req.headers.accept.includes('text/html') ||
+      req.headers.accept.includes('text/*') ||
+      req.headers.accept.includes('*/*'))
+  ) {
+    req.url = '/index.html';
+  }
+
+  next();
+}
+
+function lookupMimeTypeFromRequest(url: string): string | undefined {
+  const extension = extname(url.split('?')[0]);
+
+  if (extension === '.ico') {
+    return 'image/x-icon';
+  }
+
+  return extension && lookupMimeType(extension);
+}