---
title: "Course overview | Grafana Labs"
description: "Overview of the Getting Started with k6 Performance Testing course"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## After this course you can

- **Run** **`k6 run`** against **QuickPizza** and read **latency**, **throughput**, and **errors** in the terminal summary.
- **Execute** **`k6 cloud run`** and **open** the stored run in **Grafana Cloud k6**.
- **Add** **checks**, **thresholds**, and **staged load** so a re-run **passes or fails** from what you measured.

## Who this course is for

- **Developers** who want to catch performance regressions before they ship
- **QA engineers** who need repeatable, automated performance validation for releases
- **Site reliability engineers (SREs) and platform engineers** who need measured capacity data instead of guesses
- Anyone who has wondered “how fast is fast enough?” for their system

## What this course delivers

**You are done when:**

- **Local run:** Your QuickPizza script finishes with **`k6 run`** and you can read **latency** and **errors** from the end-of-test summary.
- **Cloud run:** At least one **`k6 cloud run`** completes and you can open that run in **Grafana Cloud k6**.
- **Baseline:** The second path is complete—**thresholds** come from what you measured, and a re-run **passes or fails on purpose** (not by accident).

**Hands-on — complete in order:**

1. **Run your first k6 performance test:** Install k6, write the QuickPizza script, run **`k6 run`** locally, connect the CLI to Grafana Cloud, then run **`k6 cloud run`** .
2. **Establish a performance baseline with k6:** Shape load with stages, add checks, run without thresholds, set thresholds from measurements, re-run until stable, then review in Grafana Cloud k6.

You also leave with **checks**, a **staged load profile**, and a script you can reuse beside your application code. For documentation after the course, use [Grafana Cloud k6](/docs/grafana-cloud/testing/k6/) and the **Where to go next** slide.

## Know the problems you are solving

This course uses **HTTP metrics** and **thresholds** so performance regressions surface **before** users do, with a clear pass-or-fail line you can use in **reviews**, **QA sign-off**, and **pre-release** checks. For symptoms teams recognize and how **developers**, **QA**, and **SREs** typically use k6, refer to [Who uses performance testing?](../03b-who-uses-perf-testing/).

## Course duration

~25-35 minutes (hands-on time varies with reading speed)