Software Quality Assurance Practice Exam

What type of testing involves assessing application performance under varying conditions?

1. Functional testing

2. Load testing

3. User acceptance testing

4. Performance testing

The correct answer is: Performance testing

The correct choice, performance testing, focuses on evaluating the application's responsiveness, stability, reliability, and scalability under different conditions. This type of testing helps determine how the application behaves when subjected to various load levels, such as increasing numbers of users or data volume. Performance testing encompasses a range of activities, including load testing, stress testing, and endurance testing. By assessing the application during these varying conditions, it enables QA teams to identify bottlenecks and performance-related issues, thus ensuring that the application can handle anticipated workloads and provide a seamless user experience. Other testing types presented in the options serve different purposes. Functional testing primarily checks if the application performs its intended functions correctly according to specified requirements. User acceptance testing is performed to validate if the application meets the needs of the end-users and is ready for deployment, focusing on user satisfaction rather than performance metrics. Load testing, while it assesses performance under expected conditions, is a subset of performance testing rather than a direct synonym. Therefore, performance testing is the broad term that correctly encapsulates the assessment of application performance under varying conditions.