What type of sandbox is required for running performance and load tests?

The requirement for running performance and load tests in Salesforce emphasizes the necessity for a Full sandbox. This type of sandbox is a complete replica of the production environment, including metadata and all data. It mirrors the performance characteristics and capacity of the live system, making it ideal for evaluating how the application will behave under stress or heavy load.

Full sandboxes allow organizations to perform comprehensive testing, such as performance and load testing, in an environment that closely resembles their live setup. This is crucial for identifying potential bottlenecks or performance issues before they affect end users. The realistic data and settings in a Full sandbox help ensure that test results accurately reflect what will happen in the production environment.

In contrast, Developer sandboxes contain only a subset of the production data and are limited in size, making them unsuitable for performance testing. Partial sandboxes, while they include some production data, do not provide the full context needed for load testing. Scratch orgs are intended for development and testing of new features and typically do not include a complete dataset or production-like environment, which also limits their use for performance testing.