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QA Foundations

Smoke testing

Smoke testing is a quick, shallow check that the critical functions of a build work, verifying it is stable enough for deeper testing to begin.

Smoke vs Sanity vs Regression Testing

The name comes from hardware testing: power on the device and see if it smokes. In software, a small set of high-priority happy-path cases runs on every build, often automated in CI as a gate. If the smoke tests fail, the build is rejected immediately and no time is spent on detailed testing.

Smoke testing is broad but shallow: it touches many features lightly rather than testing any one deeply. That distinguishes it from sanity testing, which narrowly verifies a specific fix, and from regression testing, which checks that nothing previously working has broken.

  • Broad, shallow check of critical paths, run on every build.
  • A gate: if smoke fails, reject the build before deeper testing.
  • Different from sanity (narrow, one fix) and regression (nothing else broke).

Related terms

System integration testing Quality gate Shift-left testing Test pyramid

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Last reviewed August 2, 2026