Performance Testing Checklist

Everything you need to get started

A comprehensive checklist covering every aspect of performance testing — from choosing the right test type and defining SLAs to analyzing results and setting up continuous testing in CI/CD.

What you get

  • Choose the right test type for your scenario
  • Define meaningful SLAs and thresholds
  • Set up realistic test data and scenarios
  • Monitor the right metrics (latency, throughput, errors)
  • Analyze results with percentile-based metrics
  • Integrate load testing into CI/CD pipelines
ci-test.js
import http from 'k6/http';
import { check } from 'k6';

// CI/CD-friendly: short test with strict thresholds
export const options = {
  vus: 20,
  duration: '1m',
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<300', 'p(99)<500'],
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],
    checks: ['rate>0.99'],
  },
};

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://staging.myapp.com/api/health');
  check(res, {
    'status 200': (r) => r.status === 200,
    'has body': (r) => r.body.length > 0,
  });
}

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the minimum performance test I should run?

At minimum: a 1-minute smoke test with 5-10 VUs against your critical endpoints, with thresholds on p95 latency and error rate. This catches major regressions in seconds.

Should I load test in production?

Start with staging/pre-production environments. Once comfortable, canary load tests in production (low VUs, short duration) can catch issues that only appear with real infrastructure.

How do I integrate load tests into CI/CD?

Run short smoke tests (10-20 VUs, 1 minute) on every PR. Run full load tests nightly or before releases. Use k6 thresholds for automatic pass/fail decisions.

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