Postman

Postman is the most widely used API development and testing tool. It provides a user-friendly interface for sending HTTP requests, organizing test collections, and automating API tests.

Key Postman features for QA:

• Request builder: Visually construct any HTTP request
• Collections: Organize requests into test suites
• Environments: Switch between dev, staging, production
• Variables: Reuse values across requests (tokens, IDs)
• Pre-request scripts: Set up data before requests
• Tests: Write JavaScript assertions on responses
• Collection runner: Execute entire collections automatically
• Newman CLI: Run Postman collections from command line/CI

Example Postman test script: ```javascript pm.test('Status code is 200', function () { pm.response.to.have.status(200); }); pm.test('Response has user name', function () { const json = pm.response.json(); pm.expect(json.name).to.be.a('string'); }); ```

Postman is often the first API testing tool QA engineers learn. It's free for individual use, making it an excellent starting point for API testing.