Just as a stress test is a type of performance testing, there are types of load testing as well. If your stress test includes a sudden, high ramp-up in the number of virtual users, it is called a spike test. The goal of spike testing is to see how your system performs in an unexpected rise and fall in the number of users. In performance engineering, spike testing helps determine how much system performance deterioration occurs during a sudden high load. Another goal of Spike Testing is to determine the recovery time. Between two successive spikes of user load, the system needs some time to stabilize. This recovery time should be as low as possible.