Difference between smoke testing and sanity testing

Smoke Testing

Software Testing done to ensure that whether the build can be accepted for through software testing or not. Basically, it is done to check the stability of the build received for software testing.

In Smoke Testing, the test cases chosen cover the most important functionality or component of the system. The objective is not to perform exhaustive testing, but to verify that the critical functionality of the system are working fine.

For Example a typical smoke test would be - Verify that the application launches
successfully, Check that the GUI is responsive ... etc.

Sanity Testing

After receiving a build with minor changes in the code or functionality, a subset of regression test cases are executed that to check whether it rectified the software bugs or issues and no other software bug is introduced by the changes. Sometimes, when multiple cycles of regression testing are executed, sanity testing of the software can be done at later cycles after through regression test cycles. If we are moving a build from staging / testing server to production server, sanity testing of the software application can be done to check that whether the build is sane enough to move to further at production server or not.

Differences:

Sl.No	Smoke Testing	Sanity Testing
1	Smoke Testing is performed to ascertain that the critical functionality of the program is working fine	Sanity Testing is done to check the new functionality / bugs have been fixed
2	Smoke testing is usually documented or scripted	Sanity testing is usually not documented and is unscripted
3	This testing is performed by the developers or testers	Sanity testing is usually performed by testers
4	The objective of this testing is to verify the "stability" of the system in order to proceed with more rigorous testing	The objective of the testing is to verify the "rationality" of the system in order to proceed with more rigorous testing
5	Smoke testing is a subset of Regression testing	Sanity testing is a subset of Acceptance testing
6	Smoke testing is like General Health Check Up	Sanity Testing is like specialized health check up
7	Smoke testing exercises the entire system from end to end	Sanity testing exercises only the particular component of the entire system
8	Smoke testing performed on a particular build is also known as a build verification test.	Sanity Testing is also called tester acceptance testing.

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