What Is a Load Test?
A load test drives a system with simulated traffic at expected and elevated volumes to measure how throughput, latency, and error rates respond as concurrency rises. It reveals capacity limits and the point at which performance degrades. Stress testing pushes further, past the breaking point, to study failure behavior.
Why it matters
Knowing a system works for one user says nothing about a thousand. Load tests quantify capacity and latency under realistic concurrency so you can provision correctly and set scaling thresholds before real users hit the limit.
Related concepts
- Stress testing pushes past the breaking point
- Soak testing extends load over long durations
- Results inform autoscaling and capacity planning
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