Guide to Performance Testing APIs with OAuth2 Authentication (2026 Edition)
Many teams assume that if an API passes functional tests, it’s ready for production. Functional testing, however, only verifies that endpoints return correct results for individual requests. It does not reveal how the API behaves when subjected to heavy traffic or sustained load. Under real-world conditions – such as a surge of users logging in simultaneously – APIs that pass functional checks may still experience latency, errors, or outages.