In what order thread groups are executed in JMeter?

Thread groups, including regular "Thread Groups", "setUp Thread Groups", and "tearDown Thread Group", are executed in the order described in the rules below:

1. "setUp Thread Groups" are executed first, even they are placed at the bottom of the "Test Plan".
2. Regular "Thread Groups" are executed second.
3. "tearDown Thread Group" are executed last, even they are placed at the top of the "Test Plan".
4. Thread groups of the same type are executed sequentially.

Let's create the following Test Plan tree, JMeter-Execution-Order.jmx, to verify these rules:

Test Plan
   |- setUp Thread Group
   |     |- Sampler Z
   |- tearDown Thread Group
   |     |- Sampler A
   |- Thread Group 1
   |     |- Sampler 11
   |     |- Sampler 12
   |- Thread Group 2
         |- Sampler 21
         |- Sampler 22

Run the above Test Plan. You see the following execution order:

Sampler A
Sampler 11
Sampler 12
Sampler 21
Sampler 22
Sampler Z

⇒ JMeter Execution Order - Samplers

⇐ JMeter Execution Order - General Rules

⇑ JMeter Test Elements and Execution Order

⇑⇑ Apache JMeter Tutorials