Response headers in Postman - Test Execution Trace

Test Overview

This test sends a GET request to a sample API endpoint and verifies that the response headers contain the expected Content-Type and Cache-Control values.

Test Code - Postman

Postman

pm.test("Response headers contain expected values", function () {
    pm.response.to.have.header("Content-Type");
    pm.expect(pm.response.headers.get("Content-Type")).to.include("application/json");
    pm.response.to.have.header("Cache-Control");
    pm.expect(pm.response.headers.get("Cache-Control")).to.eql("no-cache");
});

Execution Trace - 7 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts	Postman is ready to send the request	-	PASS
2	Send GET request to the API endpoint	Request sent, waiting for response	-	PASS
3	Receive response with headers	Response received with headers including Content-Type and Cache-Control	-	PASS
4	Check if response has header 'Content-Type'	Headers available in response	Verify 'Content-Type' header exists	PASS
5	Verify 'Content-Type' header value includes 'application/json'	Header value is 'application/json; charset=utf-8'	Check header value contains 'application/json'	PASS
6	Check if response has header 'Cache-Control'	Headers available in response	Verify 'Cache-Control' header exists	PASS
7	Verify 'Cache-Control' header value equals 'no-cache'	Header value is 'no-cache'	Check header value equals 'no-cache'	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: Response does not include the expected 'Content-Type' or 'Cache-Control' headers or their values do not match expected

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the test verify about the 'Content-Type' header?

A It checks that the header exists and includes 'application/json'

B It checks that the header is exactly 'text/html'

C It checks that the header is missing

D It checks that the header value is empty

Key Result

Always verify both the presence and the exact expected value of response headers to ensure the API behaves as intended.