Performance Benchmarker

Define stages in the k6 options object to ramp virtual users up and down, then write a default function that sends HTTP requests and records checks and custom metrics. Run the script with the k6 CLI and review the summary output against your thresholds.

Target Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, First Input Delay under 100 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. These values correspond to the Good rating used in Real User Monitoring and synthetic performance testing.

Add a thresholds object in the k6 options, for example http_req_duration with p(95)<500 and http_req_failed with rate<0.01. The test fails automatically if any threshold is breached, which enables quality gates in CI/CD pipelines.

Yes, k6 supports authenticated requests by posting credentials to a login endpoint, extracting the token from the JSON response, and passing it in an Authorization header for subsequent requests within the same virtual user session.

Differences arise when test environments do not mirror production characteristics, test data is unrealistic, or network conditions are not simulated. Use realistic user behavior simulation, production-like environments, and statistical analysis with confidence intervals.