Smoke

Sanity

1

Smoke testing originated in the hardware testing practice of turning on a new piece of hardware for the first time and considering it a success if it does not catch fire and smoke.  In software industry, smoke testing is a shallow and wide approach whereby all areas of the application without getting into too deep, is tested.

A sanity test is a narrow regression test that focuses on one or a few areas of functionality. Sanity testing is usually narrow and deep.

2

A smoke test is scripted--either using a written set of tests or an automated test

A sanity test is usually unscripted.

3

A Smoke test is designed to touch every part of the application in a cursory way. It's is shallow and wide.

A Sanity test is used to determine a small section of the application is still working after a minor change.

4

Smoke testing will be conducted to ensure whether the most crucial functions of a program work, but not bothering with finer details. (Such as build verification).

Sanity testing is a cursory testing; it is performed whenever a cursory testing is sufficient to prove the application is functioning according to specifications. This level of testing is a subset of regression testing.

5

Smoke testing is normal health check up to a build of an application before taking it to testing in depth.

sanity testing is to verify whether requirements are met or not,

checking all features breadth-first.