API Testing is a method of software testing that evaluates the functionality, reliability, performance, and security of application programming interfaces (APIs) directly and as part of integration testing. Since APIs lack a GUI, API testing is performed at the message layer. API testing is now considered critical for automating testing because APIs now serve as the primary interface to application logic and because GUI tests are difficult to maintain with the short release cycles and frequent changes commonly used with agile software development and DevOps.