Automation Testing Performance and Load Testing 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary purpose of load testing in software quality assurance?
- To verify the system performs acceptably under expected peak user load (Correct answer)
- To find security vulnerabilities
- To test individual functions in isolation
- To validate UI rendering
Correct answer: To verify the system performs acceptably under expected peak user load
Load testing simulates the expected maximum concurrent users to verify the system meets performance requirements under realistic conditions.
Question 2: Which open-source tool is widely used in the US for load and performance testing of web applications?
- Apache JMeter (Correct answer)
- Gatling
- Locust
- k6
Correct answer: Apache JMeter
Apache JMeter is the most widely adopted open-source load testing tool in US enterprises, supporting HTTP, JDBC, and other protocols.
Question 3: What is the difference between load testing and stress testing?
- Load testing uses expected peak load; stress testing pushes beyond limits to find the breaking point (Correct answer)
- Stress testing uses fewer users
- Load testing is only for databases
- They are identical
Correct answer: Load testing uses expected peak load; stress testing pushes beyond limits to find the breaking point
Load testing validates performance at expected traffic levels while stress testing deliberately overloads the system to find its maximum capacity and failure mode.
Question 4: What does 'throughput' measure in performance testing?
- The number of requests processed per unit of time (e.g., requests per second) (Correct answer)
- The time to complete a single request
- The number of active users
- The error rate percentage
Correct answer: The number of requests processed per unit of time (e.g., requests per second)
Throughput measures how many transactions or requests the system can process per second, indicating processing capacity.
Question 5: What is response time percentile (e.g., P95) in performance testing metrics?
- 95% of requests completed within this time; only 5% took longer (Correct answer)
- The average response time multiplied by 0.95
- The fastest 95% of requests
- A threshold for failure rate
Correct answer: 95% of requests completed within this time; only 5% took longer
P95 (95th percentile) means 95% of all requests completed within that time value, providing a realistic view of user experience excluding extreme outliers.
Question 6: What is a 'think time' in a JMeter load test script?
- A simulated pause between user actions to mimic realistic human behavior (Correct answer)
- Server processing time
- Network latency measurement
- Test setup time
Correct answer: A simulated pause between user actions to mimic realistic human behavior
Think time introduces delays between requests in a test script to simulate realistic user pauses while reading or interacting with pages.
Automation Testing Performance and Load Testing 1
What is the primary purpose of load testing in software quality assurance?