What is Spike Testing in Software Testing? Learn With Example
Thomas Hamilton
⚡ Smart Summary
Spike Testing subjects an application to a sudden, extreme surge in load and then withdraws it just as abruptly. The objective is to learn whether the system survives the shock and, just as importantly, whether it recovers afterwards.
What is Spike Testing?
Spike Testing is a type of software testing in which a software application is tested with extreme increments and decrements in traffic load. The main purpose of spike testing is to evaluate the behaviour of the software application under sudden increment or decrement in user load and determine recovery time after a spike of user load.
Spike Testing is performed to estimate the weaknesses of software applications.
Goals of Spike Testing
The goal of Spike testing is to see how the system responds to unexpected rise and fall of the user load. In Software Engineering Spike testing helps determine system performance will deterioration when there is a sudden high load.
Another goal of Spike Testing is to determine the recovery time. Between two successive spikes of user load, the system needs some time to stabilize. This recovery time should be as low as possible.
How to do Spike Testing
Here are the simple steps to perform Spike Testing:
Step 1) Determine the Load Capacity
Determine the Maximum User Load capacity of your software application.
Step 2) Prepare the Test Environment
Prepare the Testing Environment and configure it to record performance parameters.
Step 3) Define Expected Load
Apply expected maximum load to your Software Application using a Performance Testing Tool of your choice.
Step 4) Increase the Load
Rapidly increase the load to the system for a set period.
Step 5) Set the Load back to Normal
Gradually reduce the load back to its original level.
Step 6) Analyse the Results
Analyse the performance graphs and metrics like Failures, Time Taken, Virtual Users, etc.
Examples of Spike Testing Scenarios
- When an eCommerce store is launching special deals with great discounts such as on Black Friday.
- When a web application is live streaming a favourite TV program.
- When a flash sale is going on a daily deal site.
- When the certain content of a site goes viral over the Internet.
- A new system is released for production, and multiple users want to access the system.
- A power outage may cause all users to lose access to a system. After the outage issue resolved all users then log back onto the system simultaneously.
Recovery Scenarios on Spike Loads
Three main recovery scenarios that can be configured to guard against Spikes are:
- Use cloud platforms like AWS, Azure to dynamically increase server capacity in tandem with the user load
- Do not allow the application-access to some users, so that system does not face heavy load. This stops people above the maximum designed load from entering into the system. Thus protects the system from the threat of an excessive load.
- The site admin allows users to join the system. However with warning that they may face slow response because of heavy load. This may result in the adverse effect on the system performance. However, the user will be able to work with the system.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Spike Testing
Below are the advantages and disadvantages of Spike Testing:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| The performance of the software must be maintained at any costs. However, when there is an extreme increase in the load of any system, there are high chances of the issues. Spike Testing helps test such scenario. | The only disadvantage of Spike Testing is that it is an expensive testing process. So, it needed setting up special test conditions. However, over the longer duration, it will surely give a positive ROI. |
| In the standard testing method, the bad to worst-case scenarios may not be addressed. However, ignoring them does not mean that they will never occur. Therefore, every software should ready for such possibilities. One such worst case scenario is loading which can be judged and minimized with the help of spike testing. |
Spike Testing Tools
1) JMeter
The Apache JMeter is a java open source spike testing tool. It is specially designed to load functional test behaviour and measure performance. This performance testing tool can be used to analyse and measure the performance of web application or a variety of services. Today, it is widely used for the functional test, database server test.
2) LoadRunner
LoadRunner is a load testing tool for Windows and Linux, which allows spike testing of web and other apps. It helps to determine the performance and result of the application even under the heavy load.
How This Test Fits the Performance Testing Family
Performance testing is an umbrella term. The variants below differ only in the shape of the load applied and the duration it is held for, which is why they are so often confused with one another.
| Test type | Load pattern | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Load testing | Expected peak load, short duration | Does the system meet its targets under normal peak traffic? |
| Stress testing | Increased beyond capacity until failure | Where does it break, and does it fail gracefully? |
| Spike testing | Sudden extreme surge, then withdrawal | Does it survive and recover from a traffic shock? |
| Endurance testing | Normal load held for many hours | Does performance degrade over time? |
| Soak testing | Sustained load over an extended period | Are there memory leaks or resource exhaustion? |
| Stability testing | Varying load across conditions | Does the system stay reliable as conditions change? |
| Volume testing | Normal users, very large data volume | Does it cope as the database grows? |
Endurance and soak testing are frequently treated as synonyms. In common usage they are: both hold a sustained load for a long period. Where teams do distinguish them, endurance testing focuses on whether response times drift upward, while soak testing focuses on resource consumption such as memory, file handles, and connection pools. Running one usually gives you the evidence for both.
Key Metrics to Capture During the Test
A performance run is only as good as what you record while it executes. Capture these six on the server and the client side, then compare them against the baseline rather than against a gut feeling.
| Metric | What it tells you | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Average response time | Typical user experience | Any upward drift across the run |
| 95th percentile response time | The experience of the slowest users | Far above the average, meaning inconsistency |
| Throughput | Requests handled per second | Falling while load stays constant |
| Error rate | Share of failed or timed-out requests | Any rise above the agreed threshold |
| CPU and memory use | Server resource headroom | Memory that climbs and never returns |
| Database connections and threads | Pool exhaustion | Counts that grow steadily without release |
Read the average and the percentile together. An average of 800 ms with a 95th percentile of 900 ms describes a consistent system. The same average with a 95th percentile of 9 seconds means one user in twenty is having a bad time, and the average is hiding it.
Watch the shape, not just the value. In any long-running test, a flat resource line is a pass and a rising one is a leak, even when the absolute number is still comfortably inside the limit at the moment the run ends.
Spike Testing: Key Takeaways
- software testing is a type of software testing in which a software application is tested with extreme increments and decrements in traffic load.
- The right approach to do spike testing is to unexpectedly increase the number of users followed by an immediate decrease in the load.
- The unexpected load is the main attribute of the deal.
- Examples of real-life Spike testing scenarios are – when an eCommerce store is launching special deals with great discounts such as on Black Friday. Alternatively, when a web application is live streaming a favourite TV program.
- JMeter is one such useful tool to do spike testing.
