API Testing Patterns <default to action When testing APIs or designing API test strategy: 1. IDENTIFY testing level: contract, integration, or component 2. TEST the contract, not implementation (consumer perspective) 3. VALIDATE auth, input, errors, idempotency, concurrency 4. AUTOMATE in CI/CD with schema validation 5. MONITOR production APIs for contract drift Quick Pattern Selection: - Microservices → Consumer-driven contracts (Pact) - REST APIs → CRUD + pagination + filtering tests - GraphQL → Query validation + complexity limits - External deps → Mock with component testing - Performance…