API Automation Best Practises

Introduction

4 min readApr 30, 2024

Welcome to the world of automation. If you are reading this, you’re probably looking to learn about API automation best practices. This article will help you understand automation, API automation, the best practices of API automation, and why we need to follow best practices.

What is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface, which will communicate and transfer data between different components. APIs can be explained in terms of client and server. The application sending the request is called the client, and the application sending the response is called the server.

What is API Automation Testing?

The main objective of API Test Automation is to check the API functions, validate their features, and improve the efficiency of the testing process. By implementing automation testing and following best practices in automated testing, you can produce high-quality software products that meet the expectations of end users. There are various benefits of API Test Automation:

Automated tests reduce manual effort.
Automated tests will reduce the cost in the long run.
Automated tests can be integrated into your CI/CD pipeline.
Automated tests can be run more frequently and with more accuracy than manual testing.
Automated tests can provide results more quickly than manual testing.
Automated tests are less prone to human errors than manual testing.

Role of API Test Automation:

API automation testing plays a major role in ensuring the robustness and reliability of the application.

API automation testing plays a crucial role in API-first approach, where applications are built by linking different APIs.
API automation allows efficient validation of APIs, ensuring all the functions are working as expected and maintaining required standards.
It directly impacts the overall application’s performance.

API Testing Types:

Different types of testing validates the functioning, performance, security, and reliability of API.

Here are some of the common types of API testing that we need to include in test cases:

Functional Testing:

Functional testing will check whether the API functions are working as expected.

Load Testing:

Load testing will check response times, monitor its performance, and see how the API handles various requests.

Security Testing:

Security testing will check the APIs for authentication and authorization.

Integration Testing:

Integration testing will check that the APIs work correctly when integrated with other services.

Reliability Testing:

Reliability testing will ensure the API’s consistency under the proposed conditions.

Performance Testing:

Performance testing is similar to load testing, but it will mainly check how quickly APIs can process requests and return responses.

Why do we need to follow best practices?

API automation offers major advantages, and it is mandatory to follow best practices.

Tests with appropriate results won’t break easily with minor changes.
By understanding the APIs, you can write efficient automated test cases.
By following best practices, you can write test scripts that are easy to understand and modify.

Best Practices for API Test Automation:

Before diving into automation, you need to check that you have a proper understanding of the APIs you are testing. Automated tests should be planned and designed carefully so that they won’t cause any unexpected problems.
You need to ensure we are using a reliable framework for your testing. You can check Automated API testing with Testsigma it is reliable, and you can elevate your API tests with Testsigma.
Automated tests should be as simple as possible because they will increase the chance of success.
Begin with manually testing the API because this helps you understand its behavior, and you will have a clear understanding of automation.
Make sure you store your API tests in the version control system. This helps in team collaboration, and maintenance will be easy.
Documentation of testing is very important because it will help for tracking purposes and other team members can understand the progress of your testing. Everyone will have a clear idea of what needs to be done next.
Make sure you write clear test names because this will help in understanding issues easily.
Implementing Data Driven approach covers various scenarios. DDT is a testing method where you use different types of test data to run the same test case. This will help you validate the behavior of the application under various inputs.
Automate authentication and validate authorized users so they can access protected endpoints.
Make sure to add comments in the test code to explain complex logic which will help in team collaboration.
Make sure you review and refactor your test cases.

Challenges associated with API Automation Testing:

APIs require a variety of data for testing and managing this data including generation, storage.
To understand better business logic, testers need to collaborate with Developers or business analysts to ensure the testing reflects real world use cases.
You need to track latest versions of APIs, documentation and you need to update the outdated test scripts time to time to ensure smooth progress of testing.

Conclusion:

We are about to conclude. Yes, it is useful and informative, right? Let’s have a recap.

Pick a reliable test automation framework for your testing.
Try to add End-to-End tests and cover the entire API flow.
Continuously track API performance.
Try to include different testing types in your test cases.
Make sure you follow all the best practices in your testing, which gradually improves your testing.
Make sure to document your testing and store your test code in version control systems. In case any error occurs in future changes then you can have an option to roll back and edit the code.

We hope you found this article informative. API Automation might be challenging in the initial days but it can be very helpful in testing. So, if you follow all the best practices mentioned in the article, your testing will be very efficient.