Monkey Testing vs Gorilla Testing
By Neha Bharati, Community Contributor - June 15, 2022
Monkey testing and Gorilla testing are terms that we come across in the testing cycle in software development. Both are similar yet distinct techniques to test applications and have their own advantages and use cases. The main objective of both these techniques is to identify the critical bugs in the system and report them. The way each method achieves this is explained in this article.
Must-Read: Exploratory Testing: A Detailed Guide
Table of Contents
What is Monkey Testing?
Monkey testing is a testing technique in software development where a tester provides random inputs to the application without any test cases to crash the system. This technique is applied to the entire system and is used to discover bugs that otherwise would not be detected by traditional means.
Features of Monkey Testing
There are multiple benefits of Monkey Testing:
- There are no pre-determined test cases, and all the inputs are random
- It is an automated test with integrations available with popular testing tools
- It requires no planning or preparation
- The tester performing this test need not have full knowledge of the application
- It requires less time and effort
- It is used to test the reliability and performance of a system
What is Gorilla Testing?
Gorilla Testing is similar to monkey testing, the only difference being that it tests particular modules, whereas monkey testing tests the system as a whole. Each module in a product is picked and random valid and invalid inputs are fed into it until the module crashes. It is a rigorous manual test to check the robustness of an application.
Learn More: Manual Testing for Beginners
Features of Gorilla Testing
There are multiple benefits of Gorilla Testing:
- It uses random inputs and tests
- It is a rigorous repetitive, manual testing process
- It does not require pre-determined test cases
- It is used to test the robustness of a module
- It is module-specific and tests each module before moving to the next module
- It requires some preparation to test a module
Monkey Testing vs Gorilla Testing: Usage
Monkey testing is used to test the performance of an application. It is suitable for load testing an application by providing random inputs trying to break the application. There may be cases where some bugs don’t get caught during regular intervals by traditional means. Providing random inputs gives these bugs a higher chance of being discovered. Once the bugs are reported, they can be resolved.
Gorilla testing picks up every tiny piece of code and rigorously tests it with random inputs until it crashes. This step is done for every module in the application to check the app’s robustness. Due to this brutal nature of the testing, it is also called Torture testing or Fault Tolerance testing. It is usually performed in the last stages of the software development cycle to verify that all the application modules are working as expected.
Read More: Software Testing Strategies and Approaches
Monkey Testing vs Gorilla Testing: A Comparison
| Feature | Monkey Testing | Gorilla Testing |
|---|---|---|
| Type of tests | Random with valid and invalid inputs | Repetitive manual test with random inputs |
| Can it be Automated? | Yes | No |
| Tested by | Developer, tester, or automated tool | Developers and testers |
| Purpose of Test | To ensure that the system doesn’t break, i.e.reliabilty and performance | To examine the capacity of each module |
| Classification | It is further classified as Dumb testing, Smart testing, and Brilliant testing | There is no such classification |
It is always advisable to check if an application is reliable and robust enough to handle more load on itself. Although monkey testing isn’t as popular because of the time it takes to catch bugs, it still is used in some cases as required.
Gorilla testing, on the other hand, gives developers an idea about the strength of the application and how well it behaves under immense stress. That is why it is performed at the later stages of development when the system is in place. It is a gauge of whether the system behaves within the acceptable range.
Follow-Up Read: Stages of Development Sprint Cycle
Conclusion
Before you end up putting time and effort into Monkey Testing or Gorilla Testing, make sure to give BrowserStack a trial run to avoid any sort of last-minute monkey business. Whether you prefer manual app testing or automated app testing, your development and testing teams can opt to use App Live or App Automate depending on their overall testing needs.
As opposed to emulators or simulators you can access a real-device cloud to test under real-world conditions. And when it comes to automating it, you can integrate Appium, Espresso, XCUITest, and EarlGrey to flawlessly test your builds faster and debug instantly using text logs, video recordings, and screenshots.
Was this post useful?
We're sorry to hear that. Please share your feedback so we can do better
Thanks a lot for your feedback!
