Load testing for salary day: a k6 playbook
Traffic on the 1st of the month can be ten times normal. A step-by-step plan to test for it.
Salary day, Eid shopping and exam results all create short, sharp traffic peaks. A system that is fine on an average Tuesday can fall over in the first ten minutes.
Model the real peak
Pull last month’s traffic by minute and find the busiest five minutes. Your test should reach at least twice that rate.
Set pass/fail thresholds
In k6, define thresholds such as p(95)<800ms and error rate under 1%. The test then fails automatically in CI when performance regresses.
Go deeper
API & Performance Testing
Test the services behind the screens and prove they hold up under real traffic.
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