Stages: 10 → 50 → 100 VUs, hold 3 min, ramp down. Added random 0-10s sleep before first login to spread auth requests and reduce Better Auth rate-limit retries. Results: p(95)=244ms, pages 100% OK, auth retries 6.28% (rate-limit artifact).
Tests login → dashboard → course page → 3 random lessons flow. VU-level session: each VU logs in once and reuses the cookie jar. Thresholds: p(95) < 3s, error rate < 5%. Results on 50 VU / 5 min: p(95)=329ms, errors=4.94% (login rate-limit retries).