> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/grafana/k6-docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Examples

> Practical k6 examples for common testing scenarios including HTTP authentication, API testing, WebSockets, file uploads, and dynamic data handling

Explore practical k6 examples for common load testing scenarios. Each example includes complete, working test scripts you can run immediately.

## Getting Started

All examples use real endpoints from the k6 demo applications. You can copy and run them directly:

```sh theme={null}
k6 run script.js
```

## Available Examples

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="HTTP Authentication" icon="shield-check" href="/examples/http-authentication">
    Test APIs with Basic Auth, Bearer tokens, NTLM, and AWS Signature v4
  </Card>

  <Card title="API CRUD Operations" icon="database" href="/examples/api-crud-operations">
    Complete REST API testing with Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations
  </Card>

  <Card title="WebSockets" icon="bolt" href="/examples/websockets">
    Real-time WebSocket connection testing with bidirectional messaging
  </Card>

  <Card title="Data Uploads" icon="upload" href="/examples/data-uploads">
    File upload testing with multipart requests and binary data
  </Card>

  <Card title="Correlation & Dynamic Data" icon="link" href="/examples/correlation-and-dynamic-data">
    Extract and reuse dynamic tokens, CSRF tokens, and session data
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Common Patterns

### Basic Test Structure

Most k6 tests follow this pattern:

```javascript theme={null}
import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  vus: 10,
  duration: '30s',
};

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://test.k6.io');
  check(res, { 'status is 200': (r) => r.status === 200 });
  sleep(1);
}
```

### Using Environment Variables

Make tests configurable with environment variables:

```javascript theme={null}
const BASE_URL = __ENV.BASE_URL || 'https://test.k6.io';
const API_TOKEN = __ENV.API_TOKEN;
```

Run with:

```sh theme={null}
k6 run -e BASE_URL=https://api.example.com -e API_TOKEN=secret script.js
```

## Test Lifecycle

k6 tests have four distinct phases:

1. **Init context** - Load files, import modules, define global variables
2. **Setup stage** - Run once to prepare test data (optional)
3. **VU stage** - Main test logic, runs repeatedly for each VU
4. **Teardown stage** - Clean up after test completes (optional)

```javascript theme={null}
// 1. Init context
import http from 'k6/http';

const data = JSON.parse(open('./data.json'));

// 2. Setup stage
export function setup() {
  const res = http.post('https://api.example.com/auth', {
    username: 'user',
    password: 'pass',
  });
  return { token: res.json('token') };
}

// 3. VU stage
export default function (data) {
  const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/data', {
    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${data.token}` },
  });
}

// 4. Teardown stage
export function teardown(data) {
  console.log('Test complete');
}
```

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Test Types" icon="vial" href="/guides/test-types">
    Learn about smoke, load, stress, and spike testing
  </Card>

  <Card title="Metrics & Checks" icon="chart-line" href="/guides/metrics-and-checks">
    Validate responses and track performance metrics
  </Card>
</CardGroup>