Smoke & Sanity Testing

Smoke testing is a quick check that the major functions of the application work at all. It provides a fast check that the application can start, load key screens, trigger essential flows without collapsing. It acts like a quick health scan that reveals serious failures immediately, so the team avoids wasting time on a build that cannot support deeper work. Smoke tests often include actions such as launching the app, reaching the dashboard, submitting a basic form, moving through primary navigation.

Sanity testing focuses on a specific area after a small change or bug fix to confirm that it behaves correctly. Its purpose is to confirm that a focused change behaves correctly without exploring the full system. For instance, if a login bug receives a patch, a sanity test verifies that login works for typical credentials, invalid entries, locked accounts. It checks only the area influenced by the update.