You are on a tight deadline with many API test cases. What strategies would you use to meet the deadline without compromising quality?

// Tag tests by priority in TestNG
@Test(groups = {"P1", "critical"})
public void testPaymentAPI() { ... }

@Test(groups = {"P2", "regression"})
public void testGetAllUsers() { ... }

<!-- TestNG suite file -->
<suite name="API Tests" parallel="methods" thread-count="5">
    <test name="Critical API Tests">
        <classes>
            <class name="tests.AuthApiTest"/>
            <class name="tests.PaymentApiTest"/>
            <class name="tests.UserApiTest"/>
        </classes>
    </test>
</suite>

@DataProvider(name = "userData")
public Object[][] userData() {
    return new Object[][] {
        {"John", "john@test.com", "active", 201},
        {"",     "invalid",       "active", 400},
        {"Jane", "jane@test.com", "",       400}
    };
}

@Test(dataProvider = "userData")
public void testCreateUser(String name, String email, String status, int expectedCode) {
    String body = String.format("{ \"name\": \"%s\", \"email\": \"%s\", \"status\": \"%s\" }", name, email, status);

    given().body(body).contentType(ContentType.JSON)
           .when().post("/api/users")
           .then().statusCode(expectedCode);
}

mvn test -Dgroups="smoke" -DthreadCount=5

// Reuse base spec instead of repeating setup in every test
public static RequestSpecification getBaseSpec() {
    return given()
                .baseUri(BASE_URL)
                .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
                .header("Authorization", "Bearer " + getToken());
}