Load vs. Stress testing [closed]

Question

What is the difference between load and stress testing?

Answer 1

-> Testing the app with maximum number of user and input is defined as load testing. While testing the app with more than maximum number of user and input is defined as stress testing.

->In Load testing we measure the system performance based on a volume of users. While in Stress testing we measure the breakpoint of a system.

->Load Testing is testing the application for a given load requirements which may include any of the following criteria:

 .Total number of users.

 .Response Time

 .Through Put

Some parameters to check State of servers/application.

-> While stress testing is testing the application for unexpected load. It includes

 .Vusers

 .Think-Time

Example:

If an app is build for 500 users, then for load testing we check up to 500 users and for stress testing we check greater than 500.

Answer 2

Load testing = putting a specified amount of load on the server for certain amount of time. 100 simultaneous users for 10 minutes. Ensure stability of software. Stress testing = increasing the amount of load steadily until the software crashes. 10 simultaneous users increasing every 2 minutes until the server crashes.

To make a comparison to weight lifting: You "max" your weight to see what you can do for 1 rep (stress testing) and then on regular workouts you do 85% of your max value for 3 sets of 10 reps (load testing)

Answer 3

Load Testing: Load testing is meant to test the system by constantly and steadily increasing the load on the system till the time it reaches the threshold limit.

Example For example, to check the email functionality of an application, it could be flooded with 1000 users at a time. Now, 1000 users can fire the email transactions (read, send, delete, forward, reply) in many different ways. If we take one transaction per user per hour, then it would be 1000 transactions per hour. By simulating 10 transactions/user, we could load test the email server by occupying it with 10000 transactions/hour.

Stress Testing: Under stress testing, various activities to overload the existing resources with excess jobs are carried out in an attempt to break the system down.

Example: As an example, a word processor like Writer1.1.0 by OpenOffice.org is utilized in development of letters, presentations, spread sheets etc… Purpose of our stress testing is to load it with the excess of characters.

To do this, we will repeatedly paste a line of data, till it reaches its threshold limit of handling large volume of text. As soon as the character size reaches 65,535 characters, it would simply refuse to accept more data. The result of stress testing on Writer 1.1.0 produces the result that, it does not crash under the stress and that it handle the situation gracefully, which make sure that application is working correctly even under rigorous stress conditions.

Answer 4

Load - Test S/W at max Load. Stress - Beyond the Load of S/W.Or To determine the breaking point of s/w.

Answer 5

Wikipedia on load testing (bold is mine):

[...]A load test is usually conducted to understand the behaviour of the system under a specific expected load. This load can be the expected concurrent number of users on the application performing a specific number of transactions within the set duration. This test will give out the response times of all the important business critical transactions.[...]

and on stress testing:

understand the upper limits of capacity within the system. This kind of test is done to determine the system's robustness in terms of extreme load and helps application administrators to determine if the system will perform sufficiently if the current load goes well above the expected maximum.

So the bottom line is: if you are testing normal, expected load (you know the system will be used by up to 100 users at a time), this is load testing. But when you want to determine how the system behaves under extreme load (DoS, Slashdot effect) and when it breaks, this is stress testing.

Answer 6

Load testing :- Load testing is meant to test the system by constantly and steadily increasing the load on the system till the time it reaches the threshold limit.

Stress Testing :- Under stress testing, various activities to overload the existing resources with excess jobs are carried out in an attempt to break the system down.

The basic difference is as under

click here to see the exact difference