Solving UPI Payment Testing: What Goes Wrong and How to Fix It

UPI or Unified Payments Interface has become one of the go-to methods for doing financial transactions in India. It was first launched in 2016. Since then, it has completely changed the way of payment systems.

The ease of paying through UPI is simply one of the best examples of digital India.

As per the NPCI or National Payments Corporation of India, UPI is being used by over 350 million people as of August 31st, 2023. In the same month, the number of UPI transactions touched the mark of 10.58 billion. The value of transactions was around INR 15.76 lakh crore.

According to a news published on Moneycontrol as per the reports from K Vijayakumar(RBI official), the number of UPI transactions is targeted to reach around 100 billion with the introduction of payment methods like UPI123 Pay. This was announced in the Global Fintech Festival on 5th September 2023.

Financial technology companies or Fintech are capitalizing on the immense potential of UPI. UPI-enabled apps are being rolled out very quickly. It’s true that we already have payment systems like Credit or Debit Cards and Net Banking, but UPI is proving to outrun all of them.

UPI-enabled apps now run a large part of the Indian Economy. This makes it very important for the UPI to function well in a reliable and secure manner.

Once they are integrated into an app or a system, they need to be tested well. Software testing companies make sure that your UPI functions correctly. There are numerous challenges associated with it.

Let’s go through some of the most important testing challenges related to UPI testing. This will certainly help you tackle the roadblocks of secured and reliable UPI transactions.

Table of Content

1. Importance of Testing UPI Payment
2. Challenges in UPI Payments Testing
3. Achieve Unmatched UPI Payment Experience with QAble
4. FAQs

Importance of Testing UPI Payment

Testing UPI payment is crucial to provide an end-to-end secure transaction for every customer. Below are the key reasons to understand why UPI payment testing is so important.

• Data Security and Privacy Protection- UPI payment apps exchange huge sensitive financial data including bank details and other personal information. An extensive testing approach keeps the app fortified against fraud and cyber threats.
• Handling Edge Cases- Testing UPI apps also helps us address edge cases and scenarios that can occur rarely but have a major impact if not handled at the right time.
• Brand Reputation- Testing UPI payment apps helps in building trust among users and enhancing brand reputation. It promotes loyalty by providing a positive experience and also attracts new customers.
• Accuracy in Transactions- UPI Payment testing determines that transactions happen accurately and minimizes the risk of errors.

Challenges in UPI Payments Testing

Maintaining stability and reliability is always the utmost priority while testing UPI payment apps. Thus, QA professionals come across various challenges of UPI payments during the testing process. Here are some key challenges that you may come across while testing UPI payments.

#1 Transaction Processing in Real-Time

UPI transactions happen in real time and demand immediate processing to provide a seamless experience. Any delay or inaccuracy can lead users to question the app's reliability.

• During testing, QA professionals check the app's ability to maintain transactions between the payer and the payee accurately.
• Unidentified bottlenecks can cause failures or slowdowns during high transaction activities which can lead to potential losses.
• A successful transaction process requires the app to maintain responsiveness and reliability under heavy loads. These can be addressed by load and performance testing methods.

#2 Biometric Authentication

The rising adoption of fingerprint authentication for enhanced security also plays a major role in ensuring prompt UPI transactions.

Here are the key challenges of UPI testing that testers face for biometric authentication.

• UPI apps should be compatible with diverse devices and operating systems to accurately interpret biometric authentication.
• Addressing compatibility issues with various biometric technologies and devices is also a major challenge.
• Testing significant scenarios to simulate unsuccessful and successful biometric matches for various user interactions.
• Identifying potential glitches in biometric systems to provide enhanced user experience instantly.

#3 Security

QA testers ensure that UPI Payment apps handle sensitive data to protect them from unauthorized access and cyber threats. It can be taken care of by proper security testing methods.

Let’s dig into the crucial challenges for UPI testing from this aspect.

• Testers need to simulate security attacks such as unauthorized login attempts, data breaches, etc. which can be exhausting.
• Identifying and correcting security weaknesses in UPI payment apps is also extremely challenging.
• Addressing potential security vulnerabilities in third-party integrations and APIs.

#4 Compliance

The main challenge of compliance testing for UPI payment is to ensure that the app adheres to the regulatory standards of the financial authorities. During this method, various components such as data handling practices, etc.

Let’s look at the different challenges for UPI compliance testing.

• Data needs to be protected while doing UPI transactions. Compliance testing has to be done properly.
• The potential gaps need to be detected and rectified for the UPI app to follow all the legal terms and conditions
• There are certain limitations on the number of transactions. These must be verified properly.
• Additional challenges related to compliance include being even with the data privacy laws and the defined protocols for authentication purposes.
• The regulations are also updated regularly. These updates must be followed and continuously monitored. Thus, the UPI apps need to have the latest updates following the laid guidelines.

Also Read: Quality Testing: The Secret Sauce to Ensure HIPAA-Compliance

#5 Transaction Failures

There are so many reasons for the failure of a transaction. Underlying problems like lack of funds in the account being debited, problems in network and connectivity, and technical issues.

Below are some of the points highlighting the challenges for the same.

• The UPI apps must be tested properly to handle these exceptions in case a transaction fails. Clear messages must be displayed if it happens. This helps the customer not to get confused about the situations or actions.
• There may be technical and system faults in the UPI apps. This could lead to transaction failures. UPI apps must be tested and validated in the technical areas.
• The UPI apps must be responsive even if the transaction fails. Testing these real-world scenarios can help the UPI app handle unforeseen behaviors.
• Network communication while UPI transactions should be properly tested. Many times it could be the main cause of failed transactions.

#6 API Integration

APIs serve the data or the backend logic to the UPI app. As a matter of fact, all the payment gateways or banking services that we use in a UPI app are powered by some kind of integrated API. All the services are interlinked with each other. These integrations need to be tested properly through API testing.

Below are some of the challenges related to testing for API integration.

• Enhancing the app’s reliability with effective API integration is one of the major challenges of UPI payment apps.
• Address different issues including response delays, and error conditions while interacting with external APIs.
• Performing detailed testing with different APIs to evaluate compatibility and app performance.

#7 Network Latency

Network latency signifies the delay in data transmission occurring between UPI payment apps and the server.

There are various challenges of UPI testing payment testing that QA professionals face. Some of them are as follows

• To prevent network latency QA experts focus on optimizing the app’s data transmission.
• Assessing the impact of network latency on transaction processing is extremely challenging.
• Simulating various scenarios of server response delays and data congestion to assess the app’s response.
• Verifying the UPI Payment App can effectively handle network fluctuations without transaction failures and disruptions.

#8 Device and OS Fragmentation

Testing the compatibility of UPI payment apps with a wide range of operating systems and devices ensures a wide customer base. However, there are major challenges of UPI Payment apps that must be addressed on time.

• Rectifying significant bottlenecks related to OS and device diversity.
• Verifying consistency in the app’s interface and performance to ensure user-friendliness across various devices.
• App optimization to provide a uniform payment experience for a wide range of devices and OS.

Achieve Unmatched UPI Payment Experience with QAble

Data integrity and accuracy are the core of the UPI testing process. That’s why QAble’s topmost priority is to create detailed test coverage to evaluate every critical functionality of UPI payment apps.

As a leading software testing company in India, QAble focuses on precise testing methods to mitigate challenges and ensure enhanced performance and scalability. Below are some expert tips that you must keep in mind to tackle the challenges of UPI payment testing.

• Optimizing Performance- Promote collaboration among testers and developers to address issues including response delays, slow loading, etc., and overcome them in significantly less time. Load and performance testing should be done in proper ways.
• Exploratory Testing- Exploratory testing helps uncover usability issues and hidden defects that are not easily identified through scripted testing.
• Negative Testing- Negative testing ensures that the UPI payment app correctly responds with error messages that guide users to follow the right steps.
• Offline-Mode Testing- Testing the app’s functionality in offline mode ensures that users can still access certain features. They must be able to perform particular actions even without connecting to the internet.

By using these tips for testing UPI, you can reduce risks and create a strong experience that stands out in the competitive digital payments market.