Postman Organizing Tests with Collections and Variables Estimated reading: 4 minutes 218 views Organizing your API tests with collections in Postman is a fundamental step toward building a scalable and maintainable testing workflow. As your project expands—whether it involves multiple endpoints, workflows, or teams—collections help you keep everything logically grouped, easy to manage, and ready for automation. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to create and structure collections effectively to streamline your API testing from the very start.What Are Collections?In Postman, Collections are like digital filing cabinets where you group related API requests. Imagine you’re building or testing a financial services platform. Just like a bank separates its operations into different departments—Billing, Customer Records, and Subscriptions—you can use collections to organize your API calls in a similar way.This structure keeps your workspace tidy and your testing process more efficient.Creating a Collection in Postman Navigate to the Collections tab on the left sidebar of Postman. Click New Blank Collection . Creating A Blank Collection In the dialog that appears, enter a descriptive name so it's easy to recognize. Add a description explaining the purpose of the collection this is useful for collaborators or when revisiting your work later. New Billing Collection Created Next start adding your API requests directly into the collection or its folders by clicking Add a Request or dragging in existing ones. Adding a New Billing Request in the Billing CollectionThis kind of structured setup keeps your workspace organized and makes it much easier to collaborate, automate, and scale your testing efforts as your API evolves.Create Variables in a Postman CollectionWhen working with multiple API requests in a project, managing repeated values—like API URLs, user IDs, or authentication tokens—manually becomes error-prone and inefficient. That’s where collection variables in Postman come in. By defining variables like base_url, auth_token, and id directly inside a collection, you can simplify your test setup and avoid repetitive edits.Follow these steps below to see how to create your collection variables 1 Open the Collections Tab 2 Go to the Variables Tab 3 Add Your Variables 4 Save the Changes On the left-hand side of Postman, click on the Collections tab and select the collection you want to work with.Opening The Billing Collections TabInside the collection editor, navigate to the Variables tab. This is where you can define key-value pairs specific to this collection.Navigating To Billing Collections Variables TabAdd this Key value pair to define your collection variables as shown below base_url - https://mqa-banking-api.onrender.comAdding base_url Variable to the Billing CollectionOnce all variables are added, click Update to apply them to the collection.Save the New Variable In Billing Collection How to Use These Variables in API RequestsAnywhere in your requests, you can reference collection variables using the double curly brace syntax {{variable_name}}.Here’s how you would use the variables in an actual request:Request URL:Using base_url Variable in Postman Request{{base_url}}/api/billingThis way, when the request runs, Postman will replace:{{base_url}} with https://mqa-banking-api.onrender.com Using the base_url Variable In RequestBenefits of Using Collections & Variables 1. Organized Testing Workflow Collections help you group related requests into logical sections—like billing, user profiles, or subscriptions—making your workspace structured and easy to navigate. 2. Reusable Variables and Centralized Configuration Define collection-level variables (e.g., {{base_url}} or {{auth_token}}) to avoid repeating values across requests. Updating one value updates it everywhere, saving time and reducing errors. 3. Streamlined Automated Testing With the Collection Runner, you can execute multiple requests in sequence—perfect for simulating complete workflows like signing up, making a transaction, and checking the balance. 4. Seamless Environment Switching Collections work hand-in-hand with environments, allowing you to test the same set of requests against different setups (e.g., dev, staging, production) without any manual edits. 5. Easy Team Collaboration and Sharing Collections can be exported, shared, or synced to Postman Cloud, ensuring your entire team works with the same up-to-date requests and documentation.ConclusionOrganizing tests with collections and environments in Postman makes large test suites easy to manage. This structure supports reusability, collaboration, and clarity. Now that you’re organized, let’s move on to Writing Basic Tests in Postman.Tagged:Postman Postman - Previous Creating Your First API Request in Postman Next - Postman Writing Basic Tests in Postman
