diff --git a/pkg/api/testing/BUILD b/pkg/api/testing/BUILD
index b1a1b19be3b..66a98efbe00 100644
--- a/pkg/api/testing/BUILD
+++ b/pkg/api/testing/BUILD
@@ -112,5 +112,6 @@ go_test(
         "//vendor/github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/google/gofuzz:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/github.com/json-iterator/go:go_default_library",
+        "//vendor/sigs.k8s.io/yaml:go_default_library",
     ],
 )
diff --git a/pkg/api/testing/serialization_test.go b/pkg/api/testing/serialization_test.go
index e841f956f64..5c10f07a4e7 100644
--- a/pkg/api/testing/serialization_test.go
+++ b/pkg/api/testing/serialization_test.go
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import (
 	k8s_apps_v1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/apps/v1"
 	api "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/core"
 	k8s_api_v1 "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/core/v1"
+	"sigs.k8s.io/yaml"
 )
 
 // fuzzInternalObject fuzzes an arbitrary runtime object using the appropriate
@@ -634,3 +635,40 @@ func BenchmarkDecodeIntoJSONCodecGenConfigCompatibleWithStandardLibrary(b *testi
 	}
 	b.StopTimer()
 }
+
+// BenchmarkEncodeYAMLMarshal provides a baseline for regular YAML encode performance
+func BenchmarkEncodeYAMLMarshal(b *testing.B) {
+	items := benchmarkItems(b)
+	width := len(items)
+	b.ResetTimer()
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		if _, err := yaml.Marshal(&items[i%width]); err != nil {
+			b.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+	b.StopTimer()
+}
+
+// BenchmarkDecodeYAML provides a baseline for regular YAML decode performance
+func BenchmarkDecodeIntoYAML(b *testing.B) {
+	codec := testapi.Default.Codec()
+	items := benchmarkItems(b)
+	width := len(items)
+	encoded := make([][]byte, width)
+	for i := range items {
+		data, err := runtime.Encode(codec, &items[i])
+		if err != nil {
+			b.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		encoded[i] = data
+	}
+
+	b.ResetTimer()
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		obj := v1.Pod{}
+		if err := yaml.Unmarshal(encoded[i%width], &obj); err != nil {
+			b.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+	b.StopTimer()
+}