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Testing REST APIs with the requests Library

Basic API check

api_test_requests.py
import requests
 
 
def test_status_and_json_shape():
    r = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/json", timeout=10)
    assert r.status_code == 200
 
    data = r.json()
    assert "slideshow" in data
    assert "title" in data["slideshow"]
api_test_requests.py
import requests
 
 
def test_status_and_json_shape():
    r = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/json", timeout=10)
    assert r.status_code == 200
 
    data = r.json()
    assert "slideshow" in data
    assert "title" in data["slideshow"]

Use sessions for many calls

api_session.py
import requests
 
 
def test_many_calls():
    with requests.Session() as s:
        s.headers.update({"User-Agent": "qa-suite/1.0"})
        r = s.get("https://httpbin.org/get", timeout=10)
        assert r.status_code == 200
api_session.py
import requests
 
 
def test_many_calls():
    with requests.Session() as s:
        s.headers.update({"User-Agent": "qa-suite/1.0"})
        r = s.get("https://httpbin.org/get", timeout=10)
        assert r.status_code == 200

Tips

  • Always set timeouts
  • Prefer stable environments (staging)
  • Validate both happy path and error responses

🧪 Try It Yourself

Exercise 1 – Write a unittest TestCase

Exercise 2 – assertRaises

Exercise 3 – setUp and tearDown

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