Higher Education · Software Engineering
API Testing
What is it
API testing verifies that an application programming interface behaves correctly at the request/response level — checking status codes, response bodies, headers, and error handling — without needing to interact with any user interface built on top of it.
Why it matters
Testing directly at the API level is faster and more stable than testing through a user interface, and it catches backend logic errors closer to their source, which is why API tests form the backbone of most modern automated testing strategies.
Exam tip
When testing an API endpoint, don't just check the happy path with valid input — deliberately send malformed, missing, and unexpected data to verify the API fails safely with sensible error responses rather than crashing or returning misleading data.
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