Performance Testing Lab

A hands-on laboratory for learning the fundamentals of Performance Testing using k6.

Objectives

• Learn the fundamentals of Performance Testing.
• Understand the differences between Smoke, Load, and Stress Testing.
• Interpret performance metrics and statistical results.
• Work with Virtual Users, stages, checks, and thresholds.
• Document the learning process through practical examples.

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Tech Stack

• k6
• JavaScript (ES6+)
• Node.js
• Biome
• Git
• GitHub

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js
• k6

Installation

git clone https://github.com/aldimhernandez/performance-testing-lab.git
cd performance-testing-lab
npm install

Run the examples

Smoke Test

k6 run scripts/smoke.js

Load Test

k6 run scripts/load.js

Stress Test

k6 run scripts/stress.js

Note

The scripts target the public k6 demo application (https://test.k6.io), which is intended for learning and experimentation.

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Project Structure

scripts/
├── smoke.js
├── load.js
└── stress.js

docs/
├── concepts.md
├── glossary.md
├── learning-journal.md
├── statistics.md
└── next-steps.md

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Topics Covered

• ✅ Smoke Testing
• ✅ Load Testing
• ✅ Stress Testing
• ✅ Virtual Users (VUs)
• ✅ Stages
• ✅ Checks
• ✅ Thresholds
• ✅ Performance Metrics
• ✅ Percentiles
• ✅ Results Analysis

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Documentation

Additional notes are available in the docs/ directory.

• Concepts — Performance Testing fundamentals.
• Statistics — Interpreting performance metrics.
• Glossary — Common terminology.
• Learning Journal — Personal notes and discoveries throughout the project.
• Next Steps — Ideas for future improvements and experiments.

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Future Improvements

• Soak (Endurance) Testing
• Spike Testing
• Volume Testing
• Measure HTTP redirects separately
• Custom Metrics
• Tags and Groups
• CI/CD integration
• Docker execution
• HTML reports
• Grafana dashboards
• BDD integration

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References

This project was built following the official Grafana k6 documentation and complemented with hands-on experiments.

• Grafana k6 Documentation: https://grafana.com/docs/k6/latest/
• Getting Started with k6: https://grafana.com/docs/k6/latest/get-started/
• k6 Examples: https://grafana.com/docs/k6/latest/examples/