Spike Testing

Load Testing

Verifying system behaviour under expected production load. Confirms the application meets performance targets at typical concurrent-user counts before release.

Stress Testing

Pushing the system beyond its limits to find the breaking point and observe failure modes. Asks: where does this fall over, and how does it recover?

Soak Testing

Running the system at expected load for a prolonged period (hours to days) to surface memory leaks, connection exhaustion, and slow degradation that short tests miss.