Performance Testing Is More Than Load Testing

Many systems crash exactly when users need them most. These outages rarely happen because a system wasn't tested, they happen because it was only load-tested. Real users generate traffic spikes, sustained bursts, long sessions, high concurrency, and unpredictable patterns, things a simple load test was never designed to catch.

This talk explores why performance testing extends far beyond load testing, and how incomplete strategies lead to production failures. Through real-world examples, we'll walk through different types of performance tests and see what bottlenecks each one uncovers, the ones that would otherwise stay hidden until it's too late.

Key Takeaways:

• Why systems that pass load tests still fail in production.
• The differences between load, stress, spike, endurance, and scalability tests.
• How to choose the right test type for each scenario
• Practical approaches to integrate performance testing into CI/CD pipelines