An End-to-End Guide to API Testing

API Testing

The API is a vital part of your software. It is the channel that keeps clients connected to a server. In some cases, it is one microservice that is linked to another. As a result, API is essential to your business processes, making services that deliver excellent value to users. That’s why API testing matters. It helps ensure the API is working the way it should.

What is API Testing?

API testing is a process that involves sending a request and checking to see if you get the desired response. The process involves both positive and negative testing. During the testing, keep the following things in mind.

Functionality

  • Check for bugs in the unit level or backend. Those bugs don’t show up if you’ve been doing UI testing, so it’s best that you carry out API testing.
  • Don’t forget to factor in error handling. That must be considered, especially in cases wherein the data is beyond the accepted parameters.
  • Once the testing is complete, you can rest easy. That’s because you know you have covered all the possible data combinations. That means you’ve covered all your bases, so you’re certain that the APIs you have on your site all work without a hitch.

Security

  • API testing keeps your processes and operations secure. It tests whether your API has problems or not. The test should confirm that your data is encrypted in compliance with rules and regulations.
  • Do your APIs stop unwanted entry or unauthorized entry into your systems? That has to do with the authorization it sets up.
  • The testing should also validate your workflows.

Performance

API testing checks if your APIs are designed well enough to handle user load. If your APIs aren’t up to the task, and load limits have been reached, the testing also determines if it’s time to increase your APIs or improve your API system.

Reliability

Testing also checks the reliability of your APIs and systems. Are there interruptions in your processes? If the connectivity drops in the middle of the test, what happens? The testing confirms that and tells you the outcome of that scenario.

Documentation

Every business knows the importance of documentation. API testing checks if your APIs can execute a command or action when they receive information. Think about users consuming the information. Will they know how to interact with the API? The testing can show weaknesses or areas for improvement, allowing you and your team to fix those areas and build a better system.

Integration Testing

Through API testing, you can verify if all your APIs are working together successfully. If that’s the case, good for you. If the testing reveals problems or that you have APIs that aren’t working out, you can decide what to do to ensure your team performs better in the long run.

Preparing to Test

Before you test the API, ask a few of the following questions:

  • Are your APIs interacting with other APIs?
  • What are your API response requirements?
  • Do you have a test environment where you can carry out the API testing?
  • What is the typical workload of your APIs?

API is a computer program that, at some point, might have bugs that might impact many users if it crashes. It is, therefore, important for IT engineers to leverage API testing and monitoring as it helps verify the codes’ accuracy. The testing and monitoring of the APIs will also help in catching bugs early before they cause harm to the customers. The major challenges that software engineers face when it comes to testing the APIs are the speed and the cost of conducting the integrations and the test.

The Integration process is Time Consuming 

Based on the advancement in the field of technology and how software developers come up with new ideas daily, the testing team must keep up with time and advancements. The challenge is that software developers do not rest as they develop new and better apps and software daily, limiting the time the testing team must integrate and test the new programs.

There is always a timeframe that you as a developer must conduct your test, verify, and integrate the new features with the old ones for proper functionality. Since most of these programs are in the technological market and have never been tested or verified by any software developer, there is a high chance that it will prevent the team from completing the integration tests on time. The reason why it takes too much time is that it involves a lot of trials and errors in the process. Therefore, the process will push the testing time to later in the software lifecycle.

High Cost of Hiring Skilled Programmers and Integration Tools

Apart from the fact that the process is slow and time-consuming, it is also expensive to conduct API testing. The main reason the testing process is believed to be expensive is the specialized set of skills needed to do the testing. On top of the skills needed to conduct the test, there is also the use of various devices along with additional tools and hardware that might be expensive to acquire.

API tests involve IoT or a device pen test involving high cost and skill requirements. Since finding the needed individuals with such skills might be hard to come by, it will therefore force your organization to hire an external team for the process.

The Hiring Process Is Time Consuming

The major factors that make the process expensive and slow are the hiring time, especially when there is a need for external skills and the devices and tools used. Like any other technological testing, finding a fully versed developer in the process, especially the integration and testing, would be a big challenge. Therefore, it will force you to use both your internal developers and testing team plus external developers to ensure that the integration and testing processes become a success.

Based on technological advancement, most companies and organizations are rapidly transforming the digital platform powered by cloud services, third-party integration, and APIs. There is a need to develop and embrace new software that helps in efficiently delivering services to customers.

Upon integration, it is up to the organization to conduct a test to determine the effectiveness of the new integrated software and its significance in the services offered. The main challenge faced by the testing team, apart from being expensive, is that the process always takes a lot of time. As mentioned, the speed and the cost of completing the testing process are associated with hiring a skilful team and the devices and tools needed to compete successfully for the process.

 

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