What is load testing?

Load testing is about creating production simulations within an application or system that is as near as possible to being a finished product ready to deploy and subject to the masses. By utilizing specialized testing software, load testing allows dev teams to answer questions like “Is my system doing what I expect under these conditions?” and “Is its performance good enough?”

Why is load testing important?

Load Testing ensures that your application can perform as expected in production. Just because your application will pass a functional test, this does not mean that it can perform the same under a load. Load testing identifies where and when your application breaks, so you can fix the issue before shipping to production.

Load testing best practices

1. Create realistic scenarios
2. Test early, test often
3. Set realistic benchmarks
4. Leverage real life data
5. Analyze test data to unearth underlying problems