What is the primary goal of Stress Testing?

The primary goal of stress testing is to evaluate the application under extreme workloads. This type of testing helps identify the limits of a system's performance and stability by pushing it beyond its normal operational capacity. Stress testing is designed to uncover how the application behaves under extreme conditions, which might include high traffic volumes, large data processing demands, or any situation that could cause the system to become unstable or fail. By assessing performance under these challenging scenarios, developers can pinpoint vulnerabilities and ensure that the system can handle unexpected spikes in use without degrading service or encountering failures.

While ensuring continuous operation over time is important, it is not the primary focus of stress testing, which specifically looks at performance under overload situations. Testing routine functionalities does not capture the essence of stress testing, as it typically involves normal operating conditions. Monitoring user satisfaction, while valuable in a broader quality assurance context, does not directly relate to the technical performance analysis that stress testing aims to accomplish.