The disclosure relates to a method for simulating sensor data of a continuous wave (CW) Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) sensor. The method includes generating a ray set comprising at least one ray, based on a CW signal, where each ray in the ray set has an emission starting time and an emission duration. The method further includes propagating, for each ray in the ray set, the ray through a simulated scene including at least one object; computing, for each ray in the ray set, a signal contribution of the propagated ray at a detection location in the simulated scene; generating an output signal, based on mixing the CW signal with the computed signal contributions of the rays in the ray set; and at least one of storing and outputting the output signal.