Testing & QualityBeginner
Smoke Test
PronunciationSMOHK TEST
Definition
A smoke test is a preliminary set of tests performed to ensure that the most critical functions of a software application work as expected. It is designed to identify major failures quickly before proceeding to more rigorous testing.
Where you hear it
During the CI/CD pipeline, at the start of a QA cycle, or after a new deployment to a staging environment.
Examples
We run a smoke test after every deployment to ensure the login page loads correctly.
If the smoke test fails, we stop the release process immediately.
Common mistake
Confusing a smoke test with a comprehensive test suite; a smoke test is meant to be fast and shallow, not to cover every possible edge case or functional requirement.
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