CISSP Practice Exam 2026 – Complete Prep Guide

Synthetic transactions refer to simulated activities in an application that are executed using predefined scripts. This approach allows organizations to monitor application performance and availability by mimicking the actions of real users without requiring actual user interaction. By executing these scripted transactions, IT teams can identify potential issues in the system's operations, measure response times, and ensure that critical application functions are performing as expected.

This method provides a proactive way to monitor an application since it does not rely on actual user traffic. Instead, it generates consistent traffic patterns that help in understanding the application's behavior under different conditions. As a result, synthetic transactions play a crucial role in performance testing and monitoring strategies to ensure applications remain responsive and meet service level agreements (SLAs).

The other options do not accurately encapsulate the concept of synthetic transactions. Analyzing data flow in transactional systems pertains more to data management and analysis rather than simulating user interactions. Measuring actual user experiences under load typically involves real-time user data, which differs from the predefined simulation aspect of synthetic transactions. Testing how applications communicate with APIs focuses on the interaction between services rather than the simulated transaction workflows users may engage in.