Smoke Testing vs Unit Testing

Developers should use smoke testing after each build or deployment to catch show-stopping bugs before proceeding to more comprehensive testing phases like regression or integration testing meets developers should learn and use unit testing to catch defects early, reduce debugging time, and facilitate code refactoring without breaking existing functionality. Here's our take.

Smoke Testing

Nice Pick

Developers should use smoke testing after each build or deployment to catch show-stopping bugs before proceeding to more comprehensive testing phases like regression or integration testing

Pros

• It is particularly valuable in continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to ensure new code changes don't break the application's basic operations, saving time and resources by filtering out unstable builds early
• Related to: software-testing, regression-testing

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Unit Testing

Developers should learn and use unit testing to catch defects early, reduce debugging time, and facilitate code refactoring without breaking existing functionality

Pros

• It is essential in agile and test-driven development (TDD) environments, where tests are written before the code to guide design and ensure quality
• Related to: test-driven-development, integration-testing

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Smoke Testing if: You want it is particularly valuable in continuous integration/continuous deployment (ci/cd) pipelines to ensure new code changes don't break the application's basic operations, saving time and resources by filtering out unstable builds early and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Unit Testing if: You prioritize it is essential in agile and test-driven development (tdd) environments, where tests are written before the code to guide design and ensure quality over what Smoke Testing offers.

The Bottom Line

Smoke Testing wins

Developers should use smoke testing after each build or deployment to catch show-stopping bugs before proceeding to more comprehensive testing phases like regression or integration testing