Whether you’re writing tests manually, mocking dependencies, or debugging flaky failures in CI/CD, testing APIs is rarely straightforward. Let’s dive into the common frustrations developers face when testing APIs—and how tools like Keploy can help make this essential process easier, faster, and less painful.
- Manual Test Creation Is a Productivity Killer
One of the most well-known frustrations of API testing is how time-consuming and repetitive it is to write and maintain test cases. For every endpoint, developers need to define payloads, expected outputs, edge case variations, and assertions.
When the API changes (and it always does), those test cases become obsolete. What’s worse—teams often don’t have the time to keep them updated, leading to outdated or skipped tests.
Frustration: You spend more time writing tests than actually building the application.
- Flaky Tests Break CI/CD Trust
Another major frustration of API testing is test flakiness. A test might pass locally but fail on CI. Common causes include:
- External service timeouts
- Database state inconsistencies
- Network instability or race conditions
These intermittent failures hurt productivity and confidence. Engineers begin to ignore red test results—defeating the whole point of automation.
Frustration: Tests become unreliable, and developers lose trust in the pipeline.
- Mocking Dependencies Is Complex and Error-Prone
APIs often rely on external systems: databases, auth services, payment gateways, or third-party APIs. Testing these endpoints reliably means mocking those dependencies.
But mocking is hard:
- It requires deep knowledge of external system behavior.
- Mocks need to be updated frequently.
- Complex flows are often missed entirely.
Frustration: Setting up and maintaining mocks eats up development time and is prone to error.
- Low Test Coverage Despite Effort
Even after writing dozens of test cases, many teams still struggle with low test coverage. Important edge cases are missed, and regressions sneak into production.
Why? Because predicting every possible user interaction or input combination is nearly impossible. Manual tests don’t scale well.
Frustration: You invest time into testing, yet bugs still slip through.
- Testing Starts Too Late in the Cycle
One of the recurring frustrations of API testing is that it often starts after development. This creates long feedback loops and leads to bug reports after features have already been deployed.
Late testing means:
- Bugs are discovered after merge
- Developers lose context
- Fixes are expensive and time-consuming
Frustration: Testing is disconnected from coding, creating bottlenecks in the workflow.
- It’s Hard to Simulate Real-World Behavior
Manual tests often focus on the "happy path." But in production, users don’t behave predictably. They send malformed inputs, cause unusual states, or use APIs in ways developers didn’t anticipate.
Simulating all this manually is nearly impossible.
Frustration: Your test suite doesn’t reflect real-world usage, and you can’t catch bugs early.
Keploy: A New Way to Tackle the Frustrations of API Testing
Enter Keploy—a powerful open-source API testing tool designed to tackle the core frustrations of API testing by automating the hardest parts.
Here’s how Keploy helps:
Auto-Generates Test Cases from API Traffic
Keploy listens to real API calls in your dev or staging environment and turns them into test cases and mocks automatically. No manual scripting needed. You get meaningful, high-coverage tests based on real usage patterns.
Generates Dependency Mocks on the Fly
Keploy records external dependencies—like database queries, third-party APIs, or service calls—and replays them as mocks. This makes your tests stable and repeatable, eliminating test flakiness.
Works Seamlessly with CI/CD
With Keploy, test cases and mocks can be committed to your repo and run automatically in your CI/CD pipelines. Say goodbye to broken builds and inconsistent environments.
Test Locally, Shift Left
Keploy empowers developers to generate and run tests locally—catching regressions earlier and eliminating the slow feedback loops of late-stage QA.
Final Thoughts: Don't Let Testing Hold You Back
API testing is essential—but it shouldn’t be a blocker to fast, confident shipping. The common frustrations of API testing—from brittle tests to endless mocks—are symptoms of an outdated testing approach.
With tools like Keploy, developers can focus on what they do best: building great software. By automating the generation of tests and mocks from real traffic, Keploy helps you test smarter, reduce manual overhead, and ship with confidence.
???? Ready to overcome the frustrations of API testing?
Try Keploy today at https://keploy.io