diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go
index 2ef2cc6ece92d..25742a07ec681 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go
@@ -68,23 +68,23 @@ func (b *backend) ProcessEvents(events ...*auditinternal.Event) bool {
 }
 
 func (b *backend) logEvent(ev *auditinternal.Event) bool {
-	line := ""
+	var err error
+	var line []byte
 	switch b.format {
 	case FormatLegacy:
-		line = audit.EventString(ev) + "\n"
+		line = []byte(audit.EventString(ev) + "\n")
 	case FormatJson:
-		bs, err := runtime.Encode(b.encoder, ev)
+		line, err = runtime.Encode(b.encoder, ev)
 		if err != nil {
 			audit.HandlePluginError(PluginName, err, ev)
 			return false
 		}
-		line = string(bs[:])
 	default:
 		audit.HandlePluginError(PluginName, fmt.Errorf("log format %q is not in list of known formats (%s)",
 			b.format, strings.Join(AllowedFormats, ",")), ev)
 		return false
 	}
-	if _, err := fmt.Fprint(b.out, line); err != nil {
+	if _, err := b.out.Write(line); err != nil {
 		audit.HandlePluginError(PluginName, err, ev)
 		return false
 	}
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend_test.go
index 65b64052fd2ef..976331425b2ff 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend_test.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend_test.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package log
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 	"regexp"
 	"testing"
@@ -162,3 +163,56 @@ func TestLogEventsJson(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+func BenchmarkLogEvents(b *testing.B) {
+	sampleEvents := []*auditinternal.Event{
+		{
+			AuditID: types.UID(uuid.New().String()),
+		},
+		{
+			AuditID: types.UID(uuid.New().String()),
+			Level:   auditinternal.LevelMetadata,
+			ObjectRef: &auditinternal.ObjectReference{
+				Resource:    "foo",
+				APIVersion:  "v1",
+				Subresource: "bar",
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			ResponseStatus: &metav1.Status{
+				Code: 200,
+			},
+			RequestURI: "/apis/rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/roles",
+			SourceIPs: []string{
+				"127.0.0.1",
+			},
+			RequestReceivedTimestamp: metav1.NewMicroTime(time.Now()),
+			AuditID:                  types.UID(uuid.New().String()),
+			Stage:                    auditinternal.StageRequestReceived,
+			Verb:                     "get",
+			User: authnv1.UserInfo{
+				Username: "admin",
+				Groups: []string{
+					"system:masters",
+					"system:authenticated",
+				},
+			},
+			UserAgent: "kube-admin",
+			ObjectRef: &auditinternal.ObjectReference{
+				Namespace: "default",
+			},
+		},
+	}
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	backend := NewBackend(&buf, FormatJson, auditv1.SchemeGroupVersion)
+	for index, event := range sampleEvents {
+		b.Run(fmt.Sprintf("sample=%d", index), func(b *testing.B) {
+			b.ReportAllocs()
+			b.ResetTimer()
+			for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+				backend.ProcessEvents(event)
+			}
+			b.StopTimer()
+		})
+	}
+}