Unit testing vs. functional testing: What's the difference?

 What is unit testing?

It is a testing method where the smallest piece of code known as a unit is tested. A unit can be a method, subroutine, function etc. These units are also called as the individual components of a software application. Unit tests are written by developers for their code, in order to check whether the code is working correctly.

A section of code is isolated and then its correctness is verified in this particular testing method. The cost of testing is reduced as defects in an application are found at the early stages of software development.

What is functional testing?

It is a type of software testing where the software system is validated against the functional requirements/specifications. Each function of the software application is thoroughly tested in this testing method. Appropriate input is provided and then output is verified against the functional requirements.

This testing method checks the client/server communication, security, database, APIs, User Interface and other functionalities of the Application Under Test. This testing can be performed either manually or through automation. Integration testing, system testing, component testing, regression testing, smoke testing, sanity testing etc., are some of the important types of functional testing.

Difference between Unit testing and Functional testing:

Unit testing

Functional testing

Individual modules are tested

Specific functionalities of the software application are tested as per the user requirements

This testing method is written by developers

This testing method is written by testers

It is a White box testing technique

It is a Black box testing technique

The number of test cases are higher

Test cases are lower when compared to unit and integration testing

Low cost and low maintenance is required

High cost and high maintenance is required

There are frequent changes that happen in this testing method

The changes are comparatively less in this testing method

Some of the popular tools used are JUnit, NUnit, TestNG, Mockito etc.,

Some of the popular tools used are Selenium, UFT etc.,

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