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Course overview

After this course you can

  • Run k6 run against QuickPizza and read latency, throughput, and errors in the terminal summary.
  • Execute k6 cloud run and open the stored run in Grafana Cloud k6.
  • Add checks, thresholds, and staged load so a re-run passes or fails from what you measured.

Who this course is for

  • Developers who want to catch performance regressions before they ship
  • QA engineers who need repeatable, automated performance validation for releases
  • Site reliability engineers (SREs) and platform engineers who need measured capacity data instead of guesses
  • Anyone who has wondered “how fast is fast enough?” for their system

What this course delivers

You are done when:

  • Local run: Your QuickPizza script finishes with k6 run and you can read latency and errors from the end-of-test summary.
  • Cloud run: At least one k6 cloud run completes and you can open that run in Grafana Cloud k6.
  • Baseline: The second path is complete—thresholds come from what you measured, and a re-run passes or fails on purpose (not by accident).

Hands-on — complete in order:

  1. Run your first k6 performance test: Install k6, write the QuickPizza script, run k6 run locally, connect the CLI to Grafana Cloud, then run k6 cloud run.
  2. Establish a performance baseline with k6: Shape load with stages, add checks, run without thresholds, set thresholds from measurements, re-run until stable, then review in Grafana Cloud k6.

You also leave with checks, a staged load profile, and a script you can reuse beside your application code. For documentation after the course, use Grafana Cloud k6 and the Where to go next slide.

Know the problems you are solving

This course uses HTTP metrics and thresholds so performance regressions surface before users do, with a clear pass-or-fail line you can use in reviews, QA sign-off, and pre-release checks. For symptoms teams recognize and how developers, QA, and SREs typically use k6, refer to Who uses performance testing?.

Course duration

~25-35 minutes (hands-on time varies with reading speed)

Script

Welcome to Getting started with k6 performance testing. It is written for developers, QA engineers, and SRE or platform engineers who want repeatable load tests instead of guessing how fast is fast enough.

You leave with three concrete outcomes. First, a local QuickPizza run with k6 run where you read latency, throughput, and errors from the end-of-test summary. Second, at least one k6 cloud run you can open in Grafana Cloud k6. Third, a baseline where checks, thresholds, and staged load come from measurements so the next run passes or fails on purpose, not by accident.

You complete two learning paths in order. The first path installs k6, walks the QuickPizza script, runs locally, connects the CLI to Grafana Cloud, then runs in the cloud. The second path shapes load with stages, adds checks, sets thresholds from what you measured, re-runs until stable, and reviews results in Cloud. You also keep checks and a staged profile beside your application code for the next sprint.

The course leans on HTTP metrics and thresholds so performance regressions surface in reviews and QA sign-off before users feel them. Plan about twenty-five to thirty-five minutes of hands-on time, depending on how quickly you read.

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