Smoke Testing
In plain terms
Quick checks that the most critical features work.
Going deeper
Smoke testing runs a minimal set of tests to confirm the build is stable enough for deeper testing, catching show-stoppers fast. It's a basic go/no-go check.
Under the hood
Cheap and fast; named after hardware testing where you check if it smokes when powered on.
Examples
Build verification, post-deploy checks, CI gates, critical-path validation.
Think of it like...
Like flicking on a new gadget to see it powers up before testing every button.