Techniques for using emulation to disassociate verification from stimulus in functional test are described. In one approach, a computer stores first data representing an initial state of an application and second data representing the same initial state of a model application, wherein the model application models expected behavior of the application. The computer selects actions for the application to perform and causes both the application and the model application to perform the actions. The computer updates the first and second data to represent the state of both the application and the model application after performing the actions. The computer then compares the first and second data to determine whether both refer to the same state. In response to a determination that the first data and the second data do not refer to the same state, the computer stores data indicating a test failure.