API Test Automation Standards · API

Automated API testing is a critical part of ensuring the reliability, security, and maintainability software systems.

Each API test must focus on a single endpoint. This ensures that tests are isolated, failures are easier to diagnose, and the intent of each test is clear.

API tests must cover both:

• Happy paths: Valid requests that should succeed and return expected results.
• Unhappy paths: Invalid or unexpected requests that should fail gracefully (e.g., missing required fields, unauthorized access, invalid data).

API tests should be prioritized over UI tests, and in most cases, there should be more API tests than UI tests. API tests are generally faster, less brittle, and make it easier to narrow down the point of failure when issues arise, as they test the system at a lower level with fewer dependencies.