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API Testing: Key Advantages For Your Business

API Testing

Companies routinely monitor APIs during production to verify that the live API endpoints are up, running, and delivering the anticipated information to the user. As a result, testing teams will be notified if something goes wrong and will be able to resolve any issues before users realize anything is wrong.

But what if customers discover problems with the APIs before you do? What if the issue is more severe than simply being slow?

APIs testing is something that smart organizations do before deploying changes to production, and you should do the same. To ensure that the software application satisfies requirements, APIs must be evaluated in both staging and development environments.

What is API testing? What kinds of APIs testing should QA UI teams conduct? What are the distinctions between API testing and GUI testing? What benefits does APIs testing have over UI testing?

Let’s look at how your team may benefit from APIs testing by changing the way you handle your testing strategy.

What Is API Testing and How Does It Work?

APIs testing is a form of software testing that checks Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs as they are commonly known. API testing ensures that an application’s efficiency, usability, security, and dependability are all up to par. When using API testing tools to execute test cases, QA teams reap the benefits of API automation.

So, what’s the connection between APIs testing and UI testing? APIs testing advantages focus on the business logic layer of the software’s design, whereas UI testing benefits focus on the look and feel of the user interface. In other words, the advantage of API testing over UI testing is that it confirms the validity of an APIs from all angles, not only from the user’s perspective.

The Different Types of API Testing

The three main forms of APIs testing that our experts use with our clients and recommend to others are listed below.

Testing for Functionality

Functional tests ensure that the software system meets the functional requirements. A QA tester gives suitable input parameters in XML or JSON payload to test each function of the APIs, then checks the output against the functional requirements.

Testing for security

API security testing identifies any risk, weakness, or danger that may exist inside the API. Security testing uncovers any possible loopholes or API flaws that might lead to the loss of data, money, or reputation if exploited by an unauthorized user. After all, what good is API testing if it doesn’t protect you against malevolent internal users or invading criminals?

Testing Under Load

API load tests evaluate how well an API performs under a given load and how well it behaves when several users contact the system at the same time. API testing uses exact data and specific statistics to confirm an API’s projected load.

The Advantages of API Testing

These API testing advantages can improve your product’s performance, client satisfaction, and security, depending on your project timeframe, integration needs, and desired functionality:

  1. Basic Functionality will be checked

Before conducting GUI tests, testing an application’s code-level functionality offers an early assessment of its overall build robustness. During GUI testing, this helps uncover tiny mistakes that might grow into major issues. Core access allows testing to run concurrently with development, improving communication and collaboration between the two teams. If you’re using an offshore QA staff to test your APIs, this is a big plus.

  1. Access Without a User Interface

Access to the program without a user interface or people to engage with the system is a significant benefit of API testing. To put it another way, QA testers can conduct API tests without having to use the software application themselves. This is a huge benefit since it gives QA engineers early access to faults and mistakes, allowing developers to fix them before they affect the user interface.

  1. Integration is straightforward using the GUI

API testing allows for highly integrable tests. This is especially useful if you want to follow up your API testing with functional GUI testing. Easy integration, for example, would allow new users to be created within the program prior to the commencement of a GUI test.

  1. Effectiveness of time in terms of task completion

One of the most significant distinctions between APIs and GUI testing is that API testing takes significantly less time than functional GUI testing. GUI testing necessitates polling of web page components, which may significantly slow down the testing process. And what is API testing best known for? Its ability to give findings quickly!

  1. Language-Independent

An APIs test transfers data using XML or JSON, as previously stated. These transfer modalities are fully language-agnostic, which means you may use any core language while looking for automated testing services for your app.

  1. Test coverage improves

Automated APIs testing, unlike unit tests, has a larger reach. While unit tests are designed to focus on the restricted functionality of components inside a single application, issues frequently occur when one layer’s scope stops and the next begins.

Unit tests won’t catch these problems, but API-level tests are particularly designed to ensure that all system components work as they should. APIs testing uncovers possible flaws in user interfaces, servers, and databases, resulting in higher software quality and improved user experiences.

  1. Stability is tested more often

API interfaces are significantly more stable than graphical user interfaces, which can alter to meet new requirements from users and stakeholders. APIs often provide comprehensive documentation, and any changes are noted in this documentation so that QA engineers can keep their test suites up to date. Because of their intrinsic dependability, API tests are also easy to maintain.

  1. Cost savings

The cost-effectiveness benefit is linked to the preceding one. Automated API tests run faster, resulting in more efficient resource use and cheaper total testing expenses.

Prior to any GUI testing, API tests may be conducted as soon as the business logic is specified. API testing allows the QA team to identify and address issues before they become a production issue, lowering project expenses.

API Testing Is The Need Of Your Organization

Everyone believes that the best way to assure high software quality is through thorough testing. And, because it allows testing of the most essential business layer, automated API testing is critical in a well-designed QA approach. APIs testing also has a number of commercial advantages, including increased test coverage, faster results, lower costs, and simpler maintenance. You can gain all these advantages when you hire a professional company providing QA outsourcing services.