🚀 Advanced & Capstone · Days 25–30
Day 25: Performance in CI/CD
Objective
Wire a smoke load test into a pipeline with pass/fail thresholds.
Scenario
Add a lightweight load test (e.g., 10 users, 2 minutes) to your CI/CD pipeline. Set an assertion that p95 response time must stay under a threshold. Make it gate your deployment.
Metrics to Watch
When It Clicks
Small tests run often catch regressions cheaply.
Solution
In k6: add thresholds to the script - `thresholds: { 'http_req_duration{p95}': ['p(95)<500'], 'http_req_failed': ['rate<0.01'] }`. k6 exits with code 99 on threshold breach, which fails a CI step. In JMeter: run headless with `-n -t test.jmx -l results.jtl` and use the JMeter CI plugin or a post-step script that parses the JTL and exits non-zero if p95 exceeds your SLO. Set your threshold at 120% of your Day 2 baseline p95 - tight enough to catch regressions, loose enough to avoid false positives from environment noise.
Reflection
What threshold would you set so the gate is meaningful but not noisy?
Deliverable
A CI/CD pipeline config or script with a performance gate.
⚠️ Never run load tests against infrastructure you do not own or have explicit written permission to test. Always use a dedicated test environment. Unauthorized load injection can cause outages, trigger legal liability, and violate terms of service.