Randomized Coverage Selections

Coverage selections during quoting are typically driven by risk, budget, and industry standards—not by randomness. But as testers, we still aim to simulate varied and realistic combinations across many API calls.

To reflect this, I built a pre-request script in Postman that:

• Always includes required coverages

• Randomly selects optional coverages (1–2 per submission)

• Dynamically adds conditional coverages based on answers to application questions

More information on the coverage rules and logic are found in my Freelance API project.

Coverage Categories

Type	Examples	Behavior in Script
Required	professionalLiability, generalLiability	Always included
Optional	cyberLiability, waiverOfSubrogation, primaryNonContributory	Randomly included (1–2)
Conditional	rentedEquipment	Included only if application answers require it

Step 1: Define Coverages

const requiredCoverages = [
  { name: "professionalLiability", amount: pickRandom(['1000000', '2000000', '3000000']) },
  { name: "generalLiability", amount: pickRandom(['1000000', '2000000', '3000000']) }
];

const optionalCoverages = [
  { name: "cyberLiability", amount: pickRandom(['2000000', '3000000', '4000000']) },
  { name: "primaryNonContributory", value: pickRandom(["included", "excluded"]) },
  { name: "waiverOfSubrogation", value: pickRandom(["included", "excluded"]) }
];

Step 2: Simulate Conditional Logic

The rentedEquipment coverage is only required when the application answer to "equipmentRental" is "Yes".

const conditionalCoverages = [
  { name: "rentedEquipment", amount: pickRandom(['10000', '15000', '25000']) }
];

const rentalAnswer = applicationQuestions.find(q => q.description === "equipmentRental")?.value;
if (rentalAnswer === 'Yes') {
  coverages.push(conditionalCoverages[0]);
}

This logic mirrors how underwriting decisions work: coverage isn’t just based on product type—it’s conditional on risk factors.

Step 3: Randomize Optional Coverage Selection

const selectedOptional = optionalCoverages.sort(() => 0.5 - Math.random()).slice(0, 2);
const finalCoverages = requiredCoverages.concat(selectedOptional, coverages);
pm.collectionVariables.set("coverages", JSON.stringify(finalCoverages));

This ensures:

• You never include all optional coverages (over-insured)

• You always simulate a decision being made by the user

• The test suite runs with variety—but predictably valid logic

Validation Example (Optional Post-Request Script)

If you want to enforce certain rules in the post-request test, try something like:

const hasRentedEquipment = finalCoverages.some(c => c.name === 'rentedEquipment');
if (rentalAnswer === 'Yes') {
  pm.test("Rented Equipment coverage should be present", function () {
    pm.expect(hasRentedEquipment).to.be.true;
  });
}

Why This Matters

• Simulates human decision-making

• Ensures compliance with conditional underwriting logic

• Increases test variability without breaking business rules

This ensures we are mimicking real user behavior with just enough variability to validate the system handles it all.