Smoke Testing vs Sanity Testing in Software Testing

Smoke testing and sanity testing are two important testing techniques in software testing that are often confused with each other. Here's how they differ:

Smoke Testing:

Smoke testing is a preliminary testing process that checks whether the most critical functionalities of a software application are working fine. It is usually performed after a new build is deployed to ensure that the application is stable enough for further testing. The main goal of smoke testing is to identify major issues early on in the testing process.

Sanity Testing:

Sanity testing, on the other hand, is a subset of regression testing and is performed after minor changes or bug fixes to ensure that the specific areas of functionality that were impacted by the changes are working as expected. It is a focused and narrow test that validates specific features or functionalities of the application without retesting all the details.

Overall, smoke testing is more broad and general, focusing on the overall stability of the application, while sanity testing is more specific and targeted, focusing on specific changes or areas of the application.