Performance Testing

Comprehensive performance testing for speed, scalability, and resource efficiency.

Quick Start

# Run benchmarks
npm run test:performance

# Profile with Node.js
node --prof app.js
node --prof-process isolate-*.log > profile.txt

# Load testing with k6
k6 run load-test.js

Types of Performance Tests

1. Benchmark Tests

Measure execution time of specific operations.

import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';

describe('Performance Benchmarks', () => {
  function timeExecution(fn, iterations = 1000) {
    const start = performance.now();
    for (let i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
      fn();
    }
    const end = performance.now();
    return (end - start) / iterations;
  }

  it('sorts 1000 items under 1ms', () => {
    const data = Array(1000).fill().map(() => Math.random());
    const time = timeExecution(() => [...data].sort((a, b) => a - b), 100);
    expect(time).toBeLessThan(1);
  });

  it('hashes string under 0.1ms', () => {
    const time = timeExecution(() => hashString('test-string'), 10000);
    expect(time).toBeLessThan(0.1);
  });

  it('parses JSON under 0.5ms', () => {
    const json = JSON.stringify({ users: Array(100).fill({ name: 'test' }) });
    const time = timeExecution(() => JSON.parse(json), 1000);
    expect(time).toBeLessThan(0.5);
  });
});

2. Load Tests

Simulate concurrent users to test scalability.

// k6 load test script
import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  stages: [
    { duration: '1m', target: 50 },   // Ramp up to 50 users
    { duration: '3m', target: 50 },   // Stay at 50 users
    { duration: '1m', target: 100 },  // Ramp up to 100
    { duration: '3m', target: 100 },  // Stay at 100
    { duration: '1m', target: 0 },    // Ramp down
  ],
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<200'], // 95% under 200ms
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],   // Error rate < 1%
  },
};

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/users');

  check(res, {
    'status is 200': (r) => r.status === 200,
    'response time < 200ms': (r) => r.timings.duration < 200,
  });

  sleep(1);
}

3. Stress Tests

Push system beyond normal limits.

describe('Stress Tests', () => {
  it('handles 10000 concurrent connections', async () => {
    const connections = Array(10000).fill().map(async () => {
      const ws = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:3000');
      return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        ws.onopen = () => resolve(ws);
        ws.onerror = reject;
        setTimeout(() => reject(new Error('timeout')), 5000);
      });
    });

    const results = await Promise.allSettled(connections);
    const successful = results.filter(r => r.status === 'fulfilled');
    expect(successful.length).toBeGreaterThan(9000);
  });

  it('recovers after memory pressure', async () => {
    const allocations = [];

    // Allocate memory
    for (let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
      allocations.push(new Array(1000000).fill('x'));
    }

    // Force GC and clear
    allocations.length = 0;
    if (global.gc) global.gc();

    // System should still function
    const result = await api.get('/health');
    expect(result.status).toBe(200);
  });
});

4. Memory Tests

Detect memory leaks and inefficiencies.

describe('Memory Tests', () => {
  it('does not leak memory on repeated operations', async () => {
    const before = process.memoryUsage().heapUsed;

    for (let i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {
      await processRequest({ data: 'test' });
    }

    if (global.gc) global.gc();
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 100));

    const after = process.memoryUsage().heapUsed;
    const leaked = after - before;

    expect(leaked).toBeLessThan(10 * 1024 * 1024); // 10MB
  });

  it('releases event listeners', () => {
    const emitter = new EventEmitter();
    const before = emitter.listenerCount('event');

    for (let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
      const handler = () => {};
      emitter.on('event', handler);
      emitter.off('event', handler);
    }

    const after = emitter.listenerCount('event');
    expect(after).toBe(before);
  });
});

API Response Time Tests

describe('API Performance', () => {
  const SLA = {
    p50: 50,   // 50th percentile under 50ms
    p95: 200,  // 95th percentile under 200ms
    p99: 500,  // 99th percentile under 500ms
  };

  it('meets response time SLA', async () => {
    const times = [];

    for (let i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
      const start = performance.now();
      await api.get('/users');
      times.push(performance.now() - start);
    }

    times.sort((a, b) => a - b);

    const p50 = times[Math.floor(times.length * 0.50)];
    const p95 = times[Math.floor(times.length * 0.95)];
    const p99 = times[Math.floor(times.length * 0.99)];

    expect(p50).toBeLessThan(SLA.p50);
    expect(p95).toBeLessThan(SLA.p95);
    expect(p99).toBeLessThan(SLA.p99);
  });
});

Database Performance Tests

describe('Database Performance', () => {
  it('query executes under 10ms', async () => {
    const start = performance.now();
    await db.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?', [1]);
    const duration = performance.now() - start;
    expect(duration).toBeLessThan(10);
  });

  it('handles 100 concurrent queries', async () => {
    const queries = Array(100).fill().map(() =>
      db.query('SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10')
    );

    const start = performance.now();
    await Promise.all(queries);
    const duration = performance.now() - start;

    expect(duration).toBeLessThan(1000);
  });

  it('insert batch is efficient', async () => {
    const records = Array(1000).fill().map((_, i) => ({
      name: `User ${i}`,
      email: `user${i}@test.com`,
    }));

    const start = performance.now();
    await db.batchInsert('users', records);
    const duration = performance.now() - start;

    expect(duration).toBeLessThan(500);
  });
});

Profiling Patterns

CPU Profiling

const v8Profiler = require('v8-profiler-next');

async function profileCPU(fn, name) {
  v8Profiler.startProfiling(name);

  await fn();

  const profile = v8Profiler.stopProfiling(name);
  profile.export((error, result) => {
    fs.writeFileSync(`${name}.cpuprofile`, result);
  });
}

Memory Profiling

function takeHeapSnapshot(name) {
  const snapshot = v8.writeHeapSnapshot();
  console.log(`Heap snapshot written to ${snapshot}`);
}

// In test
it('memory usage is stable', async () => {
  takeHeapSnapshot('before');

  for (let i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {
    await processData();
  }

  if (global.gc) global.gc();
  takeHeapSnapshot('after');
});

Performance Budgets

const budgets = {
  'First Contentful Paint': 1500,
  'Time to Interactive': 3500,
  'Total Bundle Size': 250 * 1024,
  'API Response Time': 200,
};

describe('Performance Budgets', () => {
  it('bundle size within budget', async () => {
    const stats = require('./dist/stats.json');
    const totalSize = stats.assets
      .filter(a => a.name.endsWith('.js'))
      .reduce((sum, a) => sum + a.size, 0);

    expect(totalSize).toBeLessThan(budgets['Total Bundle Size']);
  });
});

Continuous Performance Testing

GitHub Actions

name: Performance Tests

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:

jobs:
  performance:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'

      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run test:performance

      - name: Compare with baseline
        run: |
          npm run benchmark:compare -- --baseline main

When to Use

• Before major releases
• After performance-critical changes
• During capacity planning
• When SLA monitoring shows degradation
• As part of CI/CD pipeline

Anti-Patterns

1. Testing on Development Hardware: Use production-like environment
2. Ignoring Warmup: JIT compilation affects first runs
3. Single Metric Focus: Monitor multiple dimensions
4. No Baseline: Always compare against baseline
5. Flaky Thresholds: Use percentiles, not averages