diff --git a/tests/model/test_configs/test_sparse.yml b/tests/model/test_configs/test_sparse.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4b350d177
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/model/test_configs/test_sparse.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Add this to your config for sparse attention every other layer
+{
+  "attention_config": [[["local"], "all"]],
+
+  # sparsity config:
+  # (these are the defaults for local sliding window sparsity, training will work without this here, but it's left in for
+  # illustrative purposes)
+  # see https://www.deepspeed.ai/tutorials/sparse-attention/#how-to-config-sparsity-structures for
+  # more detailed config instructions and available parameters
+
+  "sparsity_config": {
+    "block": 16, # block size
+    "num_local_blocks": 32,
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/model/test_model_instantiation.py b/tests/model/test_model_instantiation.py
index 35ddcb7cd..25119859d 100644
--- a/tests/model/test_model_instantiation.py
+++ b/tests/model/test_model_instantiation.py
@@ -60,8 +60,10 @@ def test_model_instantiation_small_test(self):
     def test_model_instantiation_medium_test(self):
         self.run_instantiation_test(get_test_configs_with_path(["test_local_setup.yml", "test_medium.yml"]), DeepSpeedEngine)
 
+    def test_model_instantiation_small_sparse_test(self):
+        self.run_instantiation_test(get_test_configs_with_path(["test_local_setup.yml", "test_small.yml", "test_sparse.yml"]), DeepSpeedEngine)
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     suite = unittest.TestSuite()
-    suite.addTest(TestModelInstantiation("test_model_instantiation_small_test"))
-    suite.addTest(TestModelInstantiation("test_model_instantiation_medium_test"))
+    suite.addTest(TestModelInstantiation("test_model_instantiation_small_sparse_test"))
     unittest.TextTestRunner(failfast=True).run(suite)
\ No newline at end of file