QA/TestingTable-stakes
Smoke Testing
Also written as Sanity Testing
A quick, shallow set of tests run right after a build or deploy to check that the most critical functionality isn't completely broken, before investing time in deeper testing.
Think of it like
Like flipping the power switch on a newly repaired appliance just to check it doesn't immediately spark, before running the full diagnostic suite.
Junior or senior?
Junior sounds like
Has a smoke test suite that exists only on paper.
Senior sounds like
Can describe what it actually checks and a time it caught a bad deploy before it reached users.
Ask them
“What did your smoke test suite actually check, and did it ever catch a bad deploy before it reached users?”