Basic authentication in Postman - Test Execution Trace

Test Overview

This test sends a request with Basic Authentication headers to verify the server accepts valid credentials and returns a successful response.

Test Code - Postman

Postman

pm.test("Status code is 200", function () {
    pm.response.to.have.status(200);
});

pm.test("Response contains authenticated user info", function () {
    const jsonData = pm.response.json();
    pm.expect(jsonData).to.have.property('authenticated', true);
});

Execution Trace - 7 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts	Postman is ready to send the request	-	PASS
2	Postman sends HTTP GET request with Basic Auth header (username and password encoded in header)	Request is sent to the server endpoint requiring Basic Authentication	-	PASS
3	Server receives request and validates Basic Auth credentials	Server checks Authorization header for correct username and password	-	PASS
4	Server responds with HTTP 200 status and JSON body indicating authentication success	Response contains status 200 and JSON {"authenticated": true}	Check response status is 200	PASS
5	Postman test script runs assertion to verify status code is 200	Response status code is 200	pm.response.to.have.status(200)	PASS
6	Postman test script runs assertion to verify response JSON has property 'authenticated' set to true	Response JSON contains {"authenticated": true}	pm.expect(jsonData).to.have.property('authenticated', true)	PASS
7	Test ends with all assertions passing	Test report shows pass for all checks	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: Incorrect or missing Basic Auth credentials cause server to reject request

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the test verify after sending the request?

A The server returns status 200 and confirms authentication

B The server returns status 404 for missing page

C The server returns status 500 due to error

D The server ignores the Authorization header

Key Result

Always verify that authentication credentials are correctly set and encoded in your test requests to avoid false failures.