Different Testing methods

Unit vs Integration vs System vs E2E Testing

The table below illustrates the most critical characteristics and differences among Unit, Integration, System, and End-to-End Testing, and when to apply each methodology in a project.

Unit Test
Integration Test
System Testing
E2E Test

Scope

Modules, APIs

Modules, interfaces

Application, system

All sub-systems, network dependencies, services and databases

Size

Tiny

Small to medium

Large

X-Large

Environment

Development

Integration test

QA test

Production like

Data

Mock data

Test data

Test data

Copy of real production data

System Under Test

Isolated unit test

Interfaces and flow data between the modules

Particular system as a whole

Application flow from start to end

Scenarios

Developer perspectives

Developers and IT Pro tester perspectives

Developer and QA tester perspectives

End-user perspectives

When

After each build

After Unit testing

Before E2E testing and after Unit and Integration testing

After System testing

Automated or Manual

Automated

Manual or automated

Manual or automated

Manual

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