Endurance Testing
Endurance testing is a type of non-functional software testing that evaluates how a system performs under sustained load over an extended period, typically hours or days, to identify issues like memory leaks, resource exhaustion, or performance degradation. It simulates real-world usage patterns to ensure the application remains stable and reliable under continuous operation, often targeting server-side components, databases, or long-running processes. This testing helps uncover problems that might not appear during short-term tests, such as gradual slowdowns or failures after prolonged use.
Developers should learn and use endurance testing when building applications that require high availability and stability, such as web servers, financial systems, IoT devices, or any software expected to run continuously without downtime. It is crucial for identifying hidden defects like memory leaks in code, database connection pool exhaustion, or cache overflows that can lead to system crashes or degraded performance over time. By incorporating endurance testing into the development lifecycle, teams can prevent production outages, improve user experience, and meet service-level agreements (SLAs) for reliability.