diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 818397f..49ab70f 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -77,6 +77,9 @@ jobs:
       - run:
           name: Heroku Deploy
           command: git push https://heroku:$HEROKU_API_KEY@git.heroku.com/$HEROKU_APP_NAME.git HEAD:main
+      - run:
+          name: Smoke test
+          command: ./testbackend.sh
   buildandpush_dockerhub:
     docker:
       - image: docker:17.05.0-ce-git
diff --git a/testbackend.sh b/testbackend.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5febb34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testbackend.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+HTTPCODE=$(echo `curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://$HEROKU_APP_NAME.herokuapp.com/api/articles` | tr -d ' ')
+if [ "$HTTPCODE" -ne 200 ];then
+    echo "heroku app not responding, failing deploy"
+    exit 1
+fi
\ No newline at end of file