Soak Testing
Soak testing is a type of performance testing that evaluates a system's stability and reliability under a sustained load over an extended period, typically hours or days. It aims to uncover issues like memory leaks, resource exhaustion, or degradation in performance that may not appear during shorter tests. This methodology helps ensure that applications can handle continuous usage without failures in production environments.
Developers should use soak testing when building long-running applications, such as web servers, databases, or IoT systems, to identify and fix stability issues before deployment. It is crucial for mission-critical systems where downtime or performance degradation over time can lead to significant business impacts, ensuring reliability under real-world usage patterns.