Sanity Testing vs Smoke Testing: In-depth Comparison

A key difference between sanity testing vs smoke testing is the depth of the testing objectives:

• Sanity testing checks if the core functions of the app works fine after a code change.
• Smoke testing checks if the app works at its bare minimum.

Sanity testing has a bigger scope than smoke testing. However, sanity testing's scope is smaller than regression testing.

Key Differences Between Sanity Testing vs Smoke Testing

What is Smoke Testing?

Smoke testing, also known as build verification testing or build acceptance testing, is a non-exhaustive testing type that ensures the proper function of basic components of a single build.

Smoke Testing Example

For example, smoke tests on a calculator should only involve checking if 1 + 1 = 2. It is the most basic feature of any calculator.

If the result is 3, there is no need for further testing, since its most basic features are not even working properly. The solution is to send it back to the development team for troubleshooting instead of trying to test if the quadratic formula works.

The Origin of Smoke Testing

The term “smoke testing” is believed to have originated from the plumbing industry, where plumbers would blow smoke into the water pipes to identify cracks in the pipe before fixing.

The term is then carried into the software testing world, and it has a similar meaning. In this sense, smoke testing is done to make sure that the very basic functionality of the product works, if at all. If those very basic features do not work, there is no point in continuing testing or building.

Smoke testing leaves little room for major errors to ripple through and become harder to fix down the line.

How Does Smoke Testing Work?

Commonly takes place after code reviews, if the initial build passes the smoke tests, it is qualified for further functional testing. If the smoke tests fail, the build is rejected and handed back to the development team.   
 

The standard process is illustrated below.

To achieve the best results when executing smoke testing, we should follow these common practices:

• Schedule smoke test suite on CI pipelines to automatically run when a new build is added
• Test early and regularly to assure the stability of the code build in every sprint
• Choosing the fitted testing method based on the requirements and resources of your project. If the budget is limited, a hybrid or an automated approach might be more optimal compared to conducting it all manually.

Advantages of Smoke Testing

• Early bug troubleshooting: It quickly evaluates the essential features at the initial stages of the project for earlier corrections
• Time and resources efficiency: Smoke test verifies the stability of a delivered build to avoid any QA efforts that may otherwise be wasted 
• Reduction of regression issues: Newly introduced build is first tested to reduce the major flaws that can break the integration with the original material
• Automation potential: Automated smoke testing can significantly reduce testing time, since smoke testing is inherently quite symbol and involves only a few specific scenarios

What is Sanity Testing?

Advantages Of Sanity Testing

• Speedy evaluation: Sanity testing identifies defects so much faster due to the unplanned and intuitive approach on a narrow set of functionalities. This laser-focus approach is amazing in time-constraint or budget-constraint situations.
• Save time and effort: It acts as a gatekeeper by determining if the application should be further tested or not, which saves time of rigorous regression tests in case the release is in poor condition.
• Less cost-intensive: Compared to other types of testing, sanity testing is usually cost-effective.
• Identify deployment issues: Sanity tests can early detect compilation problems that may arise if the basic functionality is not working fine, or the previous bugs still exist but done from the developer’s end

Disadvantages of Sanity Testing

• Lack of future reference: As it is often carried out without script or documentation, future references are not available.
• Time inefficiency: It takes more time to verify specific components than to check the whole application at once

Sanity Testing vs. Regression Testing

There are also many similarities between sanity testing and regression testing. They are all performed to check if the system still works well after updates.

The biggest difference is their scope: sanity testing only targets specific fixes, while regression testing ensures overall application stability after updates. Sanity is quick; regression is comprehensive.

Here is a simple comparison table for you:

FAQs about sanity testing

1. Why is sanity testing a subset of regression testing?

Regression testing is a software testing practice rather than a testing in itself. It contains multiple types of tests, with sanity tests being a checkpoint in the process to decide if the build can proceed with the next level of testing.    
 

Basically, sanity testing works just as regression testing but deals with a smaller test suite. This subset contains critical test cases that are run first before the examination of the whole package of regression tests.   
 

The relationship between sanity testing, smoke testing, and regression testing can be seen in the graph below.

2. Is sanity testing done before regression testing?

Yes, regression testing is performed after executing sanity tests of any modified or added functionality. It ensures an application still works as expected after any code changes, updates, or improvements. It determines whether or not the software is eligible for further functional validation.

3. Which comes first, sanity or smoke testing?

Smoke testing is executed first in the early stages of the SDLC to set out a foundation of bug-free and reliable core functionalities. Once passed smoke testing, the build moves onto sanity testing to ensure its stability and flawless integration with the existing features.  

It is the best practice that the testing team start with smoke testing, followed by sanity and then regression tests, based on the project’s timeline and requirements.

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Katalon accompanies your QA team throughout the entire software testing life cycle.

With Katalon, you can write tests in 3 modes (no-code, low-code, full-code), manage tests in a centralized dashboard, schedule test runs, execute tests across environments, and generate detailed reports.

And all of that can be done for web testing, API testing, and mobile application testing. In other words, Katalon is a centralized platform for all of your testing activities.

Let's take a look at Katalon in action:

Feature highlights:

• Suitable for any testing needs, from individual testers, QA teams, to large enterprises
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• AI-powered regression testing with TrueTest
• Data-driven testing and BDD testing supported
• Diverse integration ecosystem with ALM and CI/CD tools
• Detailed reports with analytics, screenshots, videos, HTML Snapshot, and Test Suite report email
• Detailed technical documentation and video tutorials on Katalon Academy

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