In the course of software development, several tests are done to ensure that the software rendered is efficient and glitch-free. Among many such testing techniques, smoke and sanity testing are two important pedagogies that we shall discuss in this blog.

What Is A Smoke Test?

In software development, a smoke test, also known as “build verification testing” or “confidence testing,” is used to determine if the most crucial functions of a piece of software work correctly. The purpose of smoke testing is to quickly identify significant issues that would prevent the software from being used. It is often used as an initial test before more thorough testing is done. Smoke testing in software testing typically involves running a set of basic tests on the software to make sure that it can start up, run, and shut down without any major errors, i.e it is functioning as expected.

For example, when a software development team releases a new build of their application, they may run a series of smoke tests to ensure that the basic features of the application, such as login, logout, and navigation, are working correctly. Smoke testing is a quick and efficient way to ensure that the basic functionality of a piece of software is working as expected and that any major issues are identified early in the development process.

What Is A Sanity Test?

Sanity Testing is a subset of regression testing. Sanity testing ensures that the alteration in the code are working as properly. It is checkpoint that verifies whether testing for the build can proceed or not. Thus it focusses on validating the functionality of the application and not detailed testing. It is primarily performed on a build where the production deployment is required immediately for instance, a critical bug fix. 

For example, if a software development team makes a change to the application’s checkout process, they may run a series of sanity tests to ensure that the change has not caused any major issues with the application’s overall functionality.

Smoke Testing Vs Sanity Testing : Differences

Smoke testing and sanity testing are both types of software testing that are used to quickly evaluate the basic functionality of a piece of software and ensure that it is functioning as expected. However, the differences between the two are as follows:

• Scope : Smoke testing is typically more comprehensive in scope, covering a wide range of functionality and features. Sanity testing, on the other hand, is more focused and limited in scope, typically covering only a subset of the overall functionality.
• Depth: Smoke testing is generally more superficial, designed to quickly identify any major issues or defects in the software. Sanity testing is more in-depth, designed to verify that specific functionality or features are working as expected.
• Purpose:  The main purpose of smoke testing is to ensure that the software is stable enough to proceed with further testing. The main purpose of sanity testing is to quickly verify that specific functionality or features are working as expected and that any issues are identified early in the development process.

Timing: Smoke testing is typically done early in the software development process before more thorough testing is done. Sanity testing is often done later in the development process, after more detailed testing has been completed.

Bottom line

We have compared smoke testing and sanity testing in this article. Here we have concluded that the execution of smoke and sanity testing is needed to test the software or the application. In summary, smoke testing is a broad and superficial test to quickly identify any major issues, while sanity testing is a more specific, focused, and deeper test to verify that specific functionality or features are working as expected. Thus smoke testing is done to check whether the build is stable or not and sanity testing is done to check whether the recent changes are working as expected or not.

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