General HR Interview Questions - Common for All

Top 200 Software Testing Interview Questions with Answers

The Interview Guide for Testers

Abstract

Software Testing is a discipline that requires varied skills. Interviewing Software Testers for recruitment is not the same as interviewing for other Software Engineering discipline. This paper aims at uncovering the essential elements that the interviewers and interviewees need to be aware of during the Software Testing interviews. In my earlier paper, I had discussed about the essential skills that a tester needs to possess and they are as follows: Understanding, Listening, Observation, Test Planning, Test Designing, Test Execution, Defect Reporting and Analysis and Test Automation. From the interviewer perspective, this paper discusses about how to evaluate software testers in an interview. >From the interviewee perspective, this paper discusses about the necessary assertive skills that a tester needs to possess for getting through the interview.

Evaluation of Understanding and Listening Skills

The first and foremost activity of Software Testing is to understand the system requirements of the software to be tested. The key references for these system requirements in most of the projects are formal software requirements specification documents or software functional specification documents or the use case documents. In order to evaluate the tester’s skills in understanding these formal documents, a sample of this formal requirement specification document may be provided to the interviewee. The interviewer may request the interviewee to read/ understand the requirements and explain the same. The interviewee shall read/ understand the requirements and explain the same to the interviewer without any discrepancies and ambiguity. If provided with any ambiguous requirements, the interviewee shall identify them and seek clarification from the interviewer. If provided with any missing requirements, the interviewee shall provide justification as to why he/she feels that there are few missing requirements and get them defined by the interviewer. If the interviewee finds any difficulty in understanding the requirements, he/ she may get them clarified from the interviewer. The interviewer shall welcome the assertive communication skills of the interviewee.

Software Testing cannot be performed based on “assumed requirements” and all the requirements shall be explicitly defined (except for implicit requirements, which cannot be defined). The interviewee may emphasize this fundamental software testing standpoint during the interview.

Requirement Example: Let us take the case of the classical triangle software to be tested. The triangle software requires 3 positive integer inputs, which are the lengths of the 3 sides of the triangle (say A, B and C). The software evaluates the following the logical expression: A+B>C && B+C>A && C+A>B. If this logical expression evaluates to True, the software displays the status as green in the system console indicating that the inputs are valid lengths of the sides of the triangle and vice versa.

The interviewer may provide the interviewee with a document explaining the above mentioned requirement with few modifications to suit his/her need. To evaluate the understanding/ listening skills of the interviewee, the logical expression may not be mentioned in the document. When the interviewee was asked to read and understand the requirement, he/she shall raise this as an issue of missing requirement to the interviewer. The interviewee shall not assume anything about how the software validates the inputs and explain a new set of expressions such as C^2=A^2+B^2 (which applies only for right angle triangle) to the interviewer. “Defining Requirements” is always not a goal of Software Testing. The interviewee may emphasize this fundamental software testing standpoint during the interview. If the interviewee does not understand any of the sections in the requirement document or if the requirements are ambiguous, he/she shall get them clarified by the interviewer. The interviewer shall welcome those clarifications and shall not discourage the interviewee with respect to the clarifications sought. When the interviewee was asked to explain the software functionality, he/she shall explain it without any discrepancies.

Test Planning and Designing Skills

Test Planning is an activity that focuses on establishing the path way for all the Software Testing activities. The Software Testers shall keep abreast of his/her knowledge about the latest industrial trends of executing the software testing projects. The interviewer may request the interviewee to explain the industrial hot topics/ news and have a small talk about the same. The interviewer may not concentrate on asking straight forward questions such as “What is Regression Testing?”, “What is Defect Severity?”, “What is Functional Testing?”, “What is UAT?”, etc. These questions may be good for a university question paper but not during the recruitment interviews and that too exclusively. The interviews shall focus on the application side of it. The small talk/ discussion shall focus more on the “Why?”, “Where?” and “How?” of these terminologies along with “What?”. The interviewee shall be able to correlate the testing methodologies and techniques and devise the testing approach for the software under test and explain the same to the interviewer. For the triangle sample, the interviewee shall be able to devise the testing strategy and explain the same to the interviewer. The interviewer may request the interviewee to explain about the testing metrics that he/she need to capture in order to report the status and progress of the testing activities to the project management team.

The interviewer shall request the interviewee to explain about the test plan/ approach/ designing techniques for his/her current project. This is supposed to be illegal as these results in the dissemination of confidential information of the interviewee’s current organization to the public.

To evaluate the test designing skills the interviewer may provide a sample requirement like the triangle sample and request the interviewee to design few tests for the testing the requirement and explain the techniques used for designing the tests. For the triangle sample, the interviewee shall use equivalence class partitioning, decision table technique and the multiple condition coverage technique for designing the tests. The interviewee shall be capable of explaining all these techniques and the tests to the interviewer. The interviewer may request the interviewee to write down few test cases for the sample requirements that he/she provided. The interviewee shall write the test cases clearly – the test steps shall have enough details up to the level of key presses and mouse clicks and the expected results shall be non-ambiguous.

Test Execution and Defect Reporting Skills

To evaluate the test execution and defect reporting skills, the interviewer may request the interviewee to explain what he/she think to be the ideal process to be followed for test execution and defect reporting. As mentioned previously, the interviewer shall not request the interviewee to explain what he/she is currently following in his/her current project. The interviewer may initiate a small talk/ debate regarding the defect life cycle, defect attributes, defect management tools and the test reporting tools. The interviewer may request the interviewee to write down a sample defect providing the defect details. The interviewee shall write the defect report clearly with detailed steps to reproduce, expected and actual results, non-ambiguously.

Test Automation Skills

Test Automation is a wonderful phenomenon by which the testing cost is drastically reduced. On the other side, if there is no proper planning for Automation Script Creation & Maintenance, there is a risk that the Automation Suite may get outdated and may not be usable. This renders ROI=0. The testers shall be aware of this business risk and identify the automation candidates accordingly. The interviewers may provide a set of test cases that includes automation candidates (simple & complex) and non-automation candidates, to the interviewees for identifying the automation candidates. The interviewees may ask for clarifications, if any, and they shall be able to identify the automation candidates successfully. The interviewer may request the interviewee to explain the various Automation metrics that he/she need to capture in order to report the Automation ROI and other figures of interest to the project management team.

To evaluate the automation tool knowledge, the interviewer may initiate a small talk or discussion based on the respective automation tool. As mentioned previously, the questions may not focus on the automation activities in the interviewees’ current project.

Conclusion

The interviewer shall use several sample requirements and concentrate on evaluating the interviewees’ application of the software testing principles and techniques. This paper is purely a guideline and it talks about the basic things to focus on. The interviewers are requested to amend this guideline with their own approaches for conducting the interviews. The interviewees shall reply answers aptly and boldly – bold enough to challenge the interviewer in case of any wrong questions put forth by the interviewer where he/she may expect you to put the question back to him in this case.

Manual Testing Reatime FAQ

What's difference between client/server and Web Application?

•          Client/server based is any application architecture where one server application and one or many client applications are involved like your mail server and MS outlook Express.

•           Web Application is a kind that hosted on the web server and accessed over the internet or intranet.  

What is Mutation testing?

•          Testing the application behavior when we introduce some known bugs.

•          Our expected result will be user friendly error messages rather than technical error messages.

•                      Note: this can also be used for testing the completeness of the Test Cases.

What are the browser compatibility test elements?

•          Client side scripting

•          Frames

•          Images

•          Links

•          Browser specific HTML tabs

•          Cookies

What is Memory Leak?

•          While running a application if the created variables or objects are not destroyed after their usage, those variables forms as garbage in the runtime memory and this is called Memory Leak.

•          Memory Leaks to introduce poor performance or application crash.

•          Memory leaks can be identify by using Bounds checker or rational purity.

What is DLL?

•          A dynamic link library which maintains code as methods and which performs some actions.

•          DLL cannot run on their own. DLL need to be called by another running exe or DLL.

What is kickoff meeting?

•          An initial Project start up meeting from which the formal test activities are initiated.

What are the drawbacks in manual testing compared to Automation?

•          Following are the drawbacks of manual testing,

•          Time consuming

•          Low reliability

•          Human resources

•          Inconsistent

How do you conduct KT sessions?

•          In my company different KT sessions would be conducted starting after gathering requirements, SRS preparation,

•          Dev.team and testing team KT sessions with respect to client environment, domain etc.

•          In most of KT will be coordinated by management team includes PM,PL,TL(Dev team),Test Lead.

Explain testing process?

•          Explain STLC phases?

•          Test initiation

•          Test planning

•          Test case design

•          Test execution

•          Defect Reporting and defect Tracking

•          Test closure.

What is Test Strategy?

•          The Test Strategy is the plan for how you are going to approach testing. It describes how you are going to approach the project to test.

What is cyclomatic complexity and function point?

•          Using cyclomatic complexity techniques we can measure the complexity of requirements

•          Using function point we can analyze the complexity of the requirement.

How do you plan the testing of an application when there was no-requirements or insufficient requirements are given?

•          We plan the exploratory testing and we should start creating some of the documents during testing which can be helpful for future testing.

•          Note: most of the exploratory test bugs may not be the real bugs.

How do you plan for testing?

•          Test execution plan should be done based on the build that is delivered from the development team for testing.

•           It consists of preparation of test sets ,setting up of test environment, identification of the resources and their respective tasks to be performed and the other related templates for reporting the status.

What is Test Setup environment?

•          Test environment is the working environment where tests will be executed.

•          The Testing Team may have their own Test Environment. Once the testing team certifies the system in Test Environment, it is migrated to the Production Environment

•          Operating System

•          Browsers

•          Web Server and App Server

•          Database (Oracle/DB2)

     What are the testing metrics?

•          There can be different levels of metrics:

1. Test Metrics:
2. Defect Metrics:
3. Resource Metrics:

 Can you provide status as closed for Duplicate and Rejected bugs?

•          Duplicate and Rejected bugs may not be closed, Because closing such bugs will not allows to identify the actual bugs.

How many test cases you write in one day?

•          On an average of 25 test cases a day

How many defects you find in one day?

•           It depends on the application and the number of test cases executed in a day.

What is a release note?

•          A release note is given to client along with the build when it is ready for the deployment. Release notes consists of the deployment details and also the known limitations of the build, if there are any critical errors that are still

•          Not resolved and build is to be released, then those are also mentioned in the release notes.

What is Test Data?

•          The data we need to supply on test cases which consists of customer expected data at the time of execution of test cases.

•          We prepare test data generally in excel sheet based LLD,FRS/SRS.

What are the severity levels you give for a defect?

•          We follow four levels of severity for a defect,

•          Critical, High, Medium and low (cosmetic)

What are test scenarios?

•          A. Test Scenarios are the end-to-end test cases prepared to test a realistic business flow with a specific pre-condition, Test Data Values and expected behavior.

How do you prepare test scenarios?

•          The Test Scenarios are derived from Requirements documents/Use Case Documents based on the following factors

•          Identify the multiple flows associated with a given event or a business scenario.

•          Identify the multiple conditions associated with a given event.

•          Identify the multiple data values required.

How are you tracking defects in your project?

•          A: Using defect tracking tool (Quality Center)

To whom you report defects?

•          A defect is generally reported to the test lead and lead will intern assign it to the development team, but at times the defect is assigned directly to the developer by the test engineer.

What is difference between severity and priority of a defect?

•          Defect Severity represents how badly the functionality was failed and what serious impact it will have on the remaining system functionalities and also on the customer business.

•          Defect Priority represents the importance of the defect and its resolution by the developers.

•          The Severity and Priority levels are provided by the testers, The Severity levels should not be changed, but the priority levels can be changed by the Test Lead /Developers from one build to another based on the defects to be resolved.

What are the status for a Test Case?

•          1.NoRun

•          2.Not Completed

•          3.Passed

•          4.Failed

What is the status for defect?

•          Open:

•          Pending/deferred:

•          Fixed:

•          Rejected:

•          Reopen:

•          Closed:

Who will prepare a Test Summary Report?

FAQ’s on Manual Testing-In Real Time

1. What is software testing?

Testing is the process of evaluating a system or system component by manual or automated means to verify that it satisfies specified requirements”.

 2. Importance of software testing?

1. To deliver a bug free application to the customer (Error free superior product)
2. To deliver more reliable S/w to customer (Quality Assurance to the client)
3. To reduce the maintenance cost to customer
4. Early finding defects which helps to reduce cost to fix those defects (cut-down cost)
5. When defects are removed quality improves.

3. Why do we need specialist tester?

1. Developers will not do systematic and complete testing.
2. A developer assumes few things to be working fine as they are owners of the work.

4. What is software Quality?

1. Quality from the customer view point is that the S/w should be fit for use and for producer point of view the S/w should meet customer requirement.
2. Factors affecting the quality:
3. Time
4. Cost/budget
5. Reliability

5. Explain Quality management process?

Quality management is process of preventing defects in the S/w process to ensure that there are no defects in the final product, the whole quality process is divided into two parts:

1)      Quality Assurance (QA)

2)      Quality Control (QC)

6. What is Quality Assurance?

1. It measures the quality of processes used to create a quality product.
2. It is an activity that is based on process where we measure each process, identify any weakness and suggest improvement. 

7. What is Quality Control?

1. It is an activity that is based on product where we measure the product, identify any weakness and improve the product.
2. QC is oriented towards detection of defects.

8. Explain objective of S/w tester?

1. The goal of a tester is to find bugs.
2. Find bugs as early as possible
3. Make sure those bugs should be fixed.

09. Explain Testing Limitations

1. We can only test against system requirements
2. May not detect errors in the requirements
3. Incomplete requirements may lead to inadequate or incorrect testing.
4. Exhaustive (total) testing is impossible in present scenario.
5. Time and Budget constrains normally require very carefully planning of the testing effort.
6. Test results are use to make business decisions for release dates.

10. Why Testing CANNOT Ensure Quality? Testing in itself cannot ensure the quality of software. All testing can do is give you a certain     level of assurance (confidence) in the software. On its own, the only thing that testing proves is that under specific controlled conditions, the software functioned as expected by the test cases executed.

11. What is SDLC?

SDLC: It is a process of developing a software project or product to fulfill the customer requirements within the specified cost and time.

15. Common problems in SDLC?

1. Poor Requirements:
2. Unrealistic schedule:
3. adequate testing:
4. Miscommunications:

16. Explain some of SDLC Models?

Based on the requirements and the needs of the customer there can be a specific model adopted in order to implement a S/w application

SDLC Models are:

1. Waterfall Model
2. Incremental Model
3. Prototype Model
4. Rapid Application Development (RAD) Model
5. Spiral Model
6. V-Model

17. What is Agile Testing model?

1. It is new Gen. SDLC Model.
2. Agile testing involves testing from the customer perspective as early as possible.
3. Testing early and often as code becomes available and stable enough from module/unit level testing.

18. Explain V-model? Advantage of V-model?

1. verification & validation. It is a suitable model for large scale companies to maintain testing process. This model defines co-existence relation between development process and testing process.
2. The difference between other models and this model is that it has provided testing the same weight-age as other S/w development activities.

19. Explain Verification?

1. In this process we say “Are we building the product right”?
2. It is performed by reviewing the SRS Document, Design Document, Code to find any mistakes.
3. It is consider as “Static” testing.
4. Reviews, Walkthrough and Inspection are the examples of Verification Techniques.

20. Explain Verification Techniques?

a. Peer Review: It is informal meeting where the author provides the document to any one person to identify any mistakes.

b. Walkthrough: Semi-informal meeting where the participants comes to the meeting and author gives the presentation. In this case author himself is the presenter for explaining the project requirement.

It is planned meeting characterized by team of 2- people, led by author

Objective is to make other participants familiarize with the material and find any mistakes.

c. Inspection:

•          Formal meeting characterized by individual preparation presentation prior to the   meeting

•          The meeting is led by the Moderator who assure that rules are been followed and review is effective. Inspector does review for the document been presented.

•          Presenter is the reader other than the author.

•          Recorder records the defect identified in the meeting.

21.Explain Validation process?

•          In this process we say “Are we build the right product?

•          It is the process of confirmation whether software meets customer requirements.

•          It is performed by executing the application to find any defect

•          It is consider as “DYNAMIC” testing or testing with execution of system.

•          Unit testing, Integration testing, system testing and Acceptance testing are the examples of validation techniques.

22. What is Coding, Testing, Debugging and Bug fixing?

23. What is White Box Testing?

1. It is based on knowledge of the internal logic of the application’s code.
2. Tests are based on coverage of code, statements, branches, paths, conditions & loops.
3. It is also called as Clear Box or Glass Box or Open Box or Structural Testing.
4. Explain disadvantages in WBT?
5. Testers should be skilled to understand the code and internal structure.

In case of code lengthy it would impossible to go through each statement to find the hidden errors

24. What is Black Box Testing?

1. Black box testing not based on any knowledge of internal design or code.
2. Tests are based on requirements & functionality.

25. What is Gray box testing?

1. This is just a combination of both black box and white box testing.  Tester should have the knowledge of both the internal and externals of the function.
2. Tester should have good knowledge of white box testing & complete knowledge of black box testing
3. Grey box testing is especially important with web & internet applications, because the internet is built around loosely integrated components that connect via relatively well-defined interfaces.

26. Explain levels of tests?

1. Unit testing
2.   Module testing
3. Integration testing
4. System testing
5. User acceptance testing

27.Explain Unit Testing?

1. It is code oriented testing.
2. Individual components are tested to ensure that they operate correctly. Each component is tested independently, without other system components.

28. Explain Module Testing?

A module is a collection of dependent components such as an object class, an abstract data type or some looser collection of procedures and functions.A module encapsulate related components so it can be tested without other system modules.

29. Explain Integration testing?

1. It is also called sub-system testing.
2. It is Design oriented.

This phase involves testing collections of modules, which have been integrated into sub-systems. Sub-systems may be independently designed and implemented. The most common problems, which arise in large software systems, are sub-systems interface mismatches. The sub-system test process should therefore concentrate on the detection of interface errors by rigorously exercising these interfaces.

30. Explain system testing?

The sub-systems are integrated to make up the entire system. The testing process is concerned with finding errors that result from unanticipated interactions between sub-systems and system components. It is also concerned with validating that the system meets its functional and non-functional requirements.

Manual Testing FAQ’s-1

Hi,

Most Important Manual Testing Interview Question,as my knowledge

1.      What are different Software Development models?

A: Waterfall Model, Incremental Model, Prototype Model, Spiral Model, Agile Methodology and V-Model

2.      What are the steps in SDLC?

A: Feasibility analysis, Requirements gathering, Design, Implementation, Testing and Release&Maintenance

3.      Describe V-Model?

A: It is otherwise called as Verification Validation model, testing start at very initial stage of software development process.

There are 2 categories of testing performed as part of V-Model, static and dynamic testing, for every level of testing there will be plan defined

4.      What is Agile Testing model?

A: Agile testing involves testing from the customer perspective as early as possible, testing early and often as code becomes available and stable enough from module/unit level testing.

5.      What is prototype testing?

A: It is a very effective method for finding design errors at an early stage in product development, when functionalities are in basic form, or not yet implemented. This testing method involves target-group test users to carry out specific tasks on the prototype of your product

6.      What is a prototype?

A: In software development, a prototype is a rudimentary working model of a product or information system, usually built for demonstration purposes or as part of the development process.

7.      What is White box testing and black box testing?

A: White box testing is based on knowledge of the internal logic of an application's code. Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths and conditions.

Black box testing is functional testing, not based on any knowledge of internal software design or code. Black box testing is based on requirements and functionality.

8.      What is sanity testing?

A: A quick and initial test to make sure the system can operate and process at least a minimal workload. It is a good idea to use a smoke test as entry criteria into feature testing, in order to ensure that the system is testable, and to avoid wasting time trying to test a system, which fails frequently.

9.      Can you name few types of testing?

A: As part of Black box testing, following testing types can be performed:

Sanity testing, Functional Testing, Re Testing, Regression Testing, System Testing, Back-End Testing, Acceptance Testing, Ad-hoc testing.

10.  How do you plan for testing?

A: Test execution plan should be done based the build that is delivered from the development team for testing. It consists of preparation of test sets (collection of test cases to be executed on the current build), setting up of test environment, identification of the resources and their respective tasks to be performed and the other related templates for reporting the status.

11.  What is Test Plan?

A: A test plan is a systematic approach to testing a system such as software. The plan typically contains a detailed understanding of what the eventual workflow will be.

The test plan defines the objectives and scope of the testing effort, and identifies the methodology that your team will use to conduct tests. It also identifies the hardware, software, and tools required for testing and the features and functions that will be tested. A well-rounded test plan notes any risk factors that jeopardize testing and includes a testing schedule.

12.  What is Testing Life Cycle?

A: A collection various activities performed in executing a software application, it consists of the following stages.

1.      Requirements stage
2. Test Plan
3. Test Design.
4. Design Reviews
5. Test Cases preparation.
6. Test Execution
7. Test Reports.
8. Bugs Reporting
9. Reworking on patches.
10. Release to production.

13.  What is Test Strategy?

A: The Test Strategy is the plan for how you are going to approach testing. It is like a project charter that tells the world how you are going to approach the project.

14.  What is difference between QA and QC?

A: Quality Assurance: A set of activities designed to ensure that the development and/or maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives.

 Quality Control: A set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product.

15.  What are the domains you have worked on?

A: BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance)…

16.  To whom you report defects?

A: A defect is generally reported to the test lead and lead will intern assign it to the development team, but at times the defect is assigned directly to the developer by the test engineer.

17.  What is showstopper?

A: A hardware or especially software bug that makes an implementation effectively unusable; one that absolutely has to be fixed as early as possible.

18.  What are the severity levels you give for a defect?

A: We follow four levels of severity for a defect,

Critical, High, Medium and low (cosmetic)

19.  How are you tracking defects in your project?

A: Using defect tracking tool (Quality Center)

20.  What is defect life cycle?

A: Various stages of a defect from the time it’s identified till the same is closed is know as defect life cycle.

21.  What are the defect statuses?

A: Statuses of a defect can be:

New, Open, Fixed, Deferred, Not a bug, duplicate, reopen and closed.

22.  What are error, defect and failure?

A: Error: A human action that produces an incorrect result

Defect: A flaw in a component or system that can cause the          component or system to fail to perform its required function

Failure: Deviation of the component or system from its expected delivery, service or result              

23.  What is difference between unit testing and Integration Testing?

A:  Unit Testing: It is a method of testing that verifies the individual units of source code are working fine.

 Integration Testing: Objective of Integration testing is to make sure that the interaction of two or more components produces results that satisfy functional requirement. In integration testing, test cases are developed with the express purpose of exercising the interface between the components.

24.  What is regression testing and Retesting?

A: Regression Testing: Regression testing is done to ensure that enhancement, defect fixes or any other changes made to the software has not broken any existing functionality.

Retesting: 
When a developer resolves/fixes a defect on a modified build, then it would be sent to testing team for retesting that defect, to evaluate the bug fix work. 
Perform the retesting, If the defect is successfully resolved then the corresponding defect can be formally closed otherwise it should be properly fixed in the next build.

25.  Which are all the test cases are executed in retesting? 
       Only those test cases, which corresponds to the resolved defects.

B.

26.  What is BVA?

A: The purpose of boundary value analysis is to concentrate the testing effort on error prone areas by accurately pinpointing the boundaries of conditions

27.   Suppose you want to test a text field, which accepts 1 to 100, what are the BVA conditions?

A: As per BVA we get six conditions in and around the boundaries.

Consider 1 as lower limit and 100 as upper limit:

1) Lower limit –1 = 0        

2) Lower limit      = 1

3) Lower limit +1 = 2

4) Upper limit –1 = 99

5) Upper limit      = 100

6) Upper limit +1 = 101

28.  What is Traceability matrix?

A: A traceability matrix is created by associating requirements with the work products that satisfy them. Tests are associated with the requirements on which they are based and the product tested to meet the requirement                              

29.  How do you prepare traceability matrix?

A.     Requirements traceability with the tests can be prepared in to a simple EXCEL documents or we can also perform this activity more effectively Quality Center (Test Management Tool)

30.  What are the contents of Test Plan?

A: Contents of Test Plan:

1.      Title of the Project

2.      Document History and Approvals

3.      Overview

4.      Purpose

5.      Scope

6.      Assumptions and Dependencies

7.      Risks and Mitigations

8.      Resources

9.      Trainings Required

10.  Entry and Exit Criteria

11.  Suspension and Resumption Criteria

12.  Test Deliverables

13.  Test Environment

14.  Schedules

15.  Test approach

16.  Test Management

17.  Defect Prioritization

18.  Documents Referred

31.  What do you prepare Test Estimations?

A. Test Estimations include estimating the effort required to perform the core
testing activities. For example in manual testing both test design and test
execution activities are to be estimated. We can use an appropriate estimation
techniques like Use Case or Function Point Method.

32.  What are the Testing metrics?

A: There are several test metrics identified as part of the overall testing activity in order to track and measure the entire testing process. These test metrics are collected at each phase of the testing life cycle /SDLC and analyzed and appropriate process improvements are determined and implemented as a result of these test metrics that are constantly collected and evaluated as a parallel activity together with testing both for manual and automated testing irrespective of the type of application. The test metrics can be broadly classified into the following three categories such as:

Project Related Metrics – such as Test Size, # of Test Cases tested per day –Automated (NTTA), # of Test Cases tested per day –Manual (NTTM), # of Test Cases created per day – Manual (TCED), Total number of review defects (RD), Total number of testing defects (TD), etc

Process Related Metrics – such as Schedule Adherence (SA), Effort Variance (EV), Schedule Slippage (SS), Test Cases and Scripts Rework Effort, etc.

Customer related Metrics – such as Percentage of defects leaked per release (PDLPR), Percentage of automation per release (PAPR), Application Stability Index (ASI), etc.

33.  Suppose if the developer rejects defect what you will do as a Test Engineer?

A: Firstly I will set up a review meeting with the developer and make him understand, by reproducing the defect and referring to the requirements documents.

34.  How many test cases you write in one day?

A: On an average of 25 test cases a day

35.  How many defects you find in one day?

A: It depends on the application and the number of test cases executed in a day.

36.  How do you calculate Testing Efforts?

A: Testing effort calculated for the core testing activities like test design based on the type of project, Type of testing to be performed and the complexity of the functionality to be tested for which the designing is performed. Testing effort represents the number of hours per resource per day should contribute to how many test designs or test executions.

37.  What is SQL injection?

A: SQL injection is a type of security exploit in which the attacker adds Structured Query Language (SQL) code to a Web form input box to gain access to resources or make changes to data. An SQL query is a request for some action to be performed on a database. Typically, on a Web form for user authentication, when a user enters their name and password into the text boxes provided for them, those values are inserted into a SELECT query. If the values entered are found as expected, the user is allowed access; if they aren't found, access is denied. However, most Web forms have no mechanisms in place to block input other than names and passwords. Unless such precautions are taken, an attacker can use the input boxes to send their own request to the database, which could allow them to download the entire database or interact with it in other illicit ways.

38.  How many testers are there in your project?

Depends on the project type 4 to 5 test enggs are involved in the project.

39.  What is a Build?

After completion of development dev. team release to testing team. After sanity testing if any changes required dev.team modifies the build & releases with different build name.

40.  How do you perform configuration management?

In my company all different builds are stored in configuration tool VSS (Visual Source Safe) with different names along with all the other details.

41.  What is configuration management?

Configuration management (CM) is a processes used to control, coordinate and track code, requirements, documentation, problems, change requests, designs, tools, compilers, libraries, patches, changes made to them and who makes the changes.

42.  What are your major achievements?

I got appreciation from client when I completed testing within in the time even though no.of change requests comes on the current module.\

43.  What is ECP? 

1.    Equivalence partitioning is a black-box testing method
2.      Derive test cases based on these partitions. 
3.      An input condition is:
4.      A specific numeric value, a range of values
5.     A set of related values, or a Boolean condition

44.  What is a Test Case?

A. Normally a system is expected to perform a certain function. The Test cases verifies that the system does in fact perform this function as expected – that is, as described by the use case/Requirement.

45.  What are the fields in Test Case? 
The test case will have

A.     Test Case ID

B.     Description

C.     Preconditions

D.     Priority

E.     Steps /Action

F.      Expected Result

G.    Actual Result

H.    Status

I.       Module name

J.      Test Engineer name

K.    Project name

L.     Date

46.  What are the fields in Defect report? 
The defect report will have

A.     Defect ID

B.     Summary

C.     Priority

D.     Severity

E.     Assigned To

F.      Detected By

G.    Status

H.    Resolution Type

I.       Fixed By

J.      Build Ver

K.    Expected

L.     Actual

M.   Repro Steps

N.     Release Ver

O.    Comments

47.  What is your approach to design Test Cases?

A. The formal test design approach should be initiated with the requirements analysis and Test Scenarios Identification.These Scenarios would need to be reviewed and accepted, then we could prepare a detailed design for every identified test cases by using a formal test design template.

48.  What is Test Data?

The data we need to supply on test cases which consists of customer expected data at the time of execution of test cases.

49.  How do you prepare Test Data?

We prepare test data generally in excel sheet based LLD,FRS/SRS.

50.  What is Clear box testing?

White box testing is also called as clear box testing as dev. team verifies internal logic.

51.  What is Cyclomatic complexity?

A. Cyclomatic complexity is software metric (measurement). It was developed by Thomas McCabe and is used to measure the complexity of a program. It directly measures the

Number of linearly independent paths through a program's source code. It is computed using a graph that describes the control flow of the program. The nodes of the graph correspond to the commands of a program. A directed edge connects two nodes if the second command might be executed immediately after the first command.

Definition

M = E − N + 2P

Where

M = cyclomatic complexity

E = the number of edges of the graph

N = the number of nodes of the graph

P = the number of connected components.

"M" is alternatively defined to be one larger than the number of decision points (if/case-statements, while-statements, etc) in a module (function, procedure, chart node, etc.), or more generally a system.

52.  As a Test Engineer what are your responsibilities?

1. Requirement Analysis and Test case Identification
2.  Preparing testcases
3.  Executing testcases
4. Preparing defects reports Participating in review meetings.

53.  As a Test Lead what are your responsibilities?

1.  Prepare testplan
2. Conducting review meetings
3. Scheduling
4. Review test documents 
5.  Preparing status reports
6. Monitoring the process

54.  How do you prepare Test Plan?

A document describing the scope, approach, resources and schedule of intended test activities. It identifies amongst others test items, the features to be tested, the testing tasks, who will do each task, degree of tester independence, the test environment, the test design techniques and entry and exit criteria to be used, and the rationale for their choice, and any risks requiring contingency planning. It is a record of the test planning process.

55.  What is kickoff meeting?

A. An initial Project start up meeting from which the formal test activities are initiated.

56.  What are the Test Deliverables?

A. The following items will be delivered

1. Test Plan
2. Test Cases (Maintained in QC)
3. Daily Test Execution Report
4. Test Exit Report
5.  Defect Log (Maintained in QC)
6.  Traceability Matrix
7.   Project Metrics

57.   What are the drawbacks in manual testing compared to Automation?

A. Following are the drawbacks of manual testing,

1. Time consuming
2. Low reliability
3. Human resources
4. Inconsistent

58.  What are the different types of reviews?

A. Walk-through, informal reviews, technical reviews and Inspections are fundamental techniques that must be used throughout the development process.

59.  Did you conduct any reviews as a test engineer?

A.     Yes, I was actively participated in Peer Reviews, mostly test case design reviews in which I was covering the predefined list of questioners as Checklist.

60.  Did you conduct any reviews as a Test Lead?

A. Yes, I was major responsible for reviews on all the work products performed by test engineers .for example I would define the checklist factors to be followed for test case design and use same factors for review, they are

Has the correct template been used?

Have all the expected details to be mentioned in the test case correctly filled in?
Has the test data set up been done? Has it been included in the test case?
Have all the positive and negative scenarios, boundary value conditions been covered in test cases?    
Are all scripts free from grammatical and formatting errors?

61.  Suppose if you don’t have test cases how do you conduct Testing?

A.     We have to adopt for the informal test execution processes to uncover defects in the system by performing testing like Ad-Hoc, Where this testing does not require the formal test cases but it is based on the previous experience on the system under test.

62.  What are the difficulties if you do testing without test cases?

A. Test Cases would provide formal way of performing testing, which contribute for the expected requirements coverage with out test case design,

Expectations may not be clear

Possibility of missing some of the test scenarios

Test Data not documented and hence no proper impact on the functionalities.

Test execution can be initiated by testers without 100% system knowledge.

It cannot guaranty the expected test coverage.

63.  What is functional testing and nonfunctional testing?

A. Functional testing would address testing the functional features of the software system like Customer Creation, Fund Transfer etc, Where as nonfunctional testing concentrates on testing nonfunctional features of the software system like the Performance Parameters associated with the system, Security Testing, Compatability Testing.

64.  What is difference between load and stress testing?

A. Load Testing: Load Testing is done in order to check when the application fails by increasing the number of users and keeping the system resources as constant.

Stress Testing: Stress Testing is done in order to check when the application fails by reducing the system resources such as RAM, HDD etc. and keeping the number of users as constant.

65.  How do you conduct localization testing?

A. This is one of the key factors considered during testing applications, which are operated across the globe. Various countries have their own formats of representing the data. Few examples are numeric format, date format and many more. In Europe the numeric format is represented in the opposite way as that of other countries. This can be illustrated with an example as mentioned below:

In US the number is represented as 1,73,000.50
In Europe the same number is represented as 1.73.000, 50

66.  How do you conduct I18N Testing?

A. Internationalization (I18N) test Ideally, the set of tests performed on the original program prior to localization.  Issues such as hard-coded strings, concatenation, character sets, encoding, and support for locales are examined.  This is the program owner’s responsibility.  Doing a thorough internationalization test will prevent problems during the localization phase.

67.  What is Test Bed?

A. Test Bed is an execution environment configured for software testing. It consists of specific hardware, network topology, Operating System, configuration of the product to be under test, system software and other applications.

68.  What is Test Setup environment?

A. A Test Environment set up would have the selection of the following components as closely as possible to the live environment in which the build would be deployed and tested.           

1. Operating System
2. Browsers
3. Web Server and App Server
4. Database (Oracle/DB2)

1. Test environment is the working environment where tests will be executed.
2. The Testing Team may have their own Test Environment. Once the testing team certifies the system in Test Environment, it is migrated to the Production Environment

69.  What are the different types of testing can be conducted for web application?

A. The Web Application testing should have the following coverage’s.

1. Web Functionality Testing
2. Database functionality Testing
3. Usability Testing
4.  Performance Testing
5. Browser Compatibility Testing
6.  Security Testing
7.  Localization Testing

70.  How important is the user Interface testing on the web applications and how do you perform?

A. User Interface can be defined as the interaction between the user and the computer. That is the first point of contact between the user and the application. On a broader perspective, User interface testing involves testing the external features of the application (excluding its functionality). By this we mean testing the components in the application like objects, images, hyperlinks, contents, buttons etc. Testing of the user interface is very essential in the whole SDLC as the end user would be concerned only on the user interface and not on the 1000 lines of brilliantly written code. User interface results in developing perceptions about the application. A single simple defect in the user interface could suppress the entire effort put in the development of the application.

User Interface testing of a web application involves testing the following components present: 

1. Text present in every page.
2. All links in a page.
3. All the images present in all the pages.
4.  Layout provided for each region in a page.
5.  Text displayed in the drop-down.
6. Contents in tool tip.

71.  What is smoke testing? 
A. A quick and initial test to make sure the system can operate and process at least a minimal workload. It is a good idea to use a smoke test as entry criteria into feature testing, in order to ensure that the system is testable, and to avoid wasting time trying to test a system, which fails frequently.

72.  What is adhoc testing
 A. random and informal test performed based on the experience, this would be conducted at later stages in the test execution life cycle since the test case execution may not provide 100 % test coverage.

We would use this test to improve test coverage by identifying the defects, which are uncovered by the test cases.

73.  What is peer review?

A. It is an informal review process used for work product evaluation.

This includes

1. Document the review comments
2. Defined fault-detection process
3. Includes peers and technical experts
4. §  No Management participation

74.  What is performance testing? 
A. Testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified performance requirements.
In other words, testing conducted to measure several system characteristics such as processing speed, response time, resource consumption, throughput, system threshold limits and efficiency

75.  What tools you have used to conduct performance testing?

A.Following are the Performance Test Tools in the Market

A.     Segue Silk Performer

B.     Rational Team Test

C.     Mercury/HP Load Runner

D.     Empirix e-Load/RSW)

E.     Soft Light Site Tools Loader

76.  What did you do in security testing?

A. As a part of functionality testing we would perform the security validations, which would include.

Test for Authorization and access control.

The System must not store any information in a Cookie that could be used to hijack a customer’s session, gain access to a customer’s account, or compromise a customer’s privacy.

The System Must Not Use Hidden Fields For Sensitive Information.

77.  What is web service and how do you test web service?

A. The term web services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. Web services instead share business logic, data and processes through a programmatic interface across a network.

78.  What are the skills a test engineer should have?

A. Must be familiar with different operating systems

Must become familiar with the product being tested
Must be familiar with general software quality assurance procedures
Must be analytical
Must understand what a test case is
For applications with a GUI, must know how to make screen shots
For other applications, the tester needs to be able to accurately identify specific functions.

79.  Suppose there is a screen with 2 text fields, each text filed has validation, how many test cases can be written?

A. Minimum Four test cases are required to test these fields from all positive and negative possibilities.

80.  What are test scenarios?

A. Test Scenarios are the end-to-end test cases prepared to test a realistic business flow with a specific pre-condition, Test Data Values and expected behavior.

81.  How do you prepare test scenarios?

A. The Test Scenarios are derived from Requirements documents/Use Case Documents based on the following factors

Identify the multiple flows associated with a given event or a business
scenario.

Identify the multiple conditions associated with a given event.

Identify the multiple data values required.

82.  What is difference between severity and priority of a defect?

A. Defect Severity represents how badly the functionality was failed and what serious impact it will have on the remaining system functionalities and also on the customer business, where as Defect Priority represents the importance of the defect and its resolution by the developers.

The Severity and Priority levels are provided by the testers, The Severity levels should not be changed, but the priority levels can be changed by the Test Lead Developers from on build to another based on the defects to be resolved.

83.  What is priority for a Test Case?

A. Priority of a test case should represent what risk and important functionality Requirement it would cover for testing.

84.  What is the status for a Test Case?

A. 1.No Run

2.Not Completed

3.Passed

4.Failed

85.  After you report defect, how do you know that developer has accepted the defect or not?

A. The Defect Reporting Process should happen through a Test Management Tool Like Quality Center so that both Testers and Developers would have an access to it.

The testers would post the defect with a NEW Status, if it is accepted by the developer then this status would be OPEN.

86.  Suppose if developer rejects a defect what you will do?

A. Defect Rejections should happen with a proper Comments and proofs by the developers but if they are not satisfactory to us and still we believe that it is defect then we should respond back with a detailed steps to Reproduce the defect with the conditions assumed and the specific data combinations used by us and also the screen shots for the proof of testing.

87.  Suppose you as a test engineer you feel the functionality need to be changed, but right now it is as per the requirements, you raise the defect what is the status you give for the defect? (New / suggestion)

A. Test engineers should be creative enough to these situations, The Impact associated with such situations should be clearly communicated as a functionality Suggestion.

88.  What is check in and check out?

A. The Process Associated with the management of Testing Related Work Products in to a SCM tool like Microsoft Visual Source Safe for version controlling.

Check Out: To Retrieve the document from the VSS to local system to use, modify.

Check In: To place the documents back to the VSS folder so that it would get the new version.

89.  Have you performed database testing and how do you conduct?

A. Yes, We can perform the database tests just like we would do any other type of test. 

Database tests are typically a three-step process:

Setup the test.  You need to put your database into a known state before running tests against it.  There are several strategies for doing so.

Run the test.  Using a database regression-testing tool, run your database tests just like you would run your application tests.

Check the results.  You'll need to be able to do "table dumps" to obtain the current values in the database so that you can compare them against the results which you expected.

90.  What is exploratory testing?

A. It is an approach in which we perform test design and test execution with simultaneous learning. While the software is being tested, the tester learns things that together with experience and creativity generates new good tests to run.

91.  Can you write test cases for a pen?

A. Dimension of the pen,
 Color of the pen,
 logo of the pen maker,
 Total length that pen can write,
 Strength of the nib,
 grip of the pen.
  Against the surface it can write.
 Hanger provided in the cap,
 body of the pen should perfectly fit with the cap of the pen,

92.  What is defect Age?

A. The time difference between defect reported and the defect resolved on.

93.  What is latency time?

A. Latency time is a wasted time where a specific event would be waiting for another event to happen, for example a defect reported by the testing team would not get resolved for several modified builds would be called as a latent defect.

94.  What is response time?

A. It is one of the important performance parameter, which would evaluate the Time interval between the instance at which a user at a GUI of the software system enters a request for a response from a computer and the instance at which the first character of the response is received at the GUI.

95.  What are entry criteria for Test Execution?

A. Test Execution process can be formally initiated based on the following conditions.

1.The Test case design is completed with expected coverage for the given requirements.

2.Test Data set up completed and incorporated in all the test cases.

3.Test Environment set up completed

4.Build Have enough stability to take testing(Testable).

96.  When do you stop testing?

A. "When to stop testing" is one of the most difficult questions to a test engineer.

The following are few of the common Test Stop criteria: 

• All the high priority bugs are fixed.
• The rate at which bugs are found is too small. (For example if th
• Defect Density has fall to a very low value).
• The testing budget is exhausted.
• The risk in the project is under acceptable limit.
• Dead lines (release deadlines, testing dead lines etc.)
• TC completed with good percentage passed.

97.  How do you plan for regression testing?

A. As a part of regression testing on every software build, some identified functionalities whose behavior should not be affected due to addition of new functionalities or changes performed for defect resolutions by the developers are to be tested.

Regression Test Suites for the selected functionalities are prepared and used throughout the test execution life cycle and maintained.

98.  If sanity test is fail do you log a defect?

A.     Yes, since such failures are to be reported as p1 issues, which require immediate resolution from the development team.

99.  What is Alpha & Beta Testing?

A. Alpha Testing: 
The Alpha test is conducted at the developer’s site by a customer. 
The Software is used in a natural setting along with the developer.
The developer records the error and usage problems.
Alpha Tests are done in a controlled environment.

Beta Testing: 
The Beta Test is conducted at one or more customer site by the end users of the software.
The developer is not present during these tests.
The customer records the error and reports these to the developers.
This is followed by the release of the product.

100. How do you analyze / Gather Requirements?

A significant number of defects found during testing are the result of requirements analysis

Ambiguous, incomplete, incorrect and inconsistent requirements must be detected in requirements inspections.

Testers must analyze requirements carefully and clarify any issues prior to test scenarios identification.

“It is hazardous for testers to make invalidated assumptions concerning the requirements of the product.”

101.How do you differentiate b/w test case doc & use case doc?

A use case is a sequence of actions performed on a system, which combined produce, a result of value to a system user.

The use cases are a practical way of specifying the behaviour of a system from a User’s perspective. They can provide a powerful source for generating Test cases

§  Normally a system is expected to perform a certain function. The Test cases verifies that the system does in fact perform this function as expected – that is, as described by the use case/Requirement

102.How do you review the test cases?

A.     The Reviews are the Static Techniques, which are driven by the Checklist. The Checklist should be provided with the list of questionnaires indicating the information to be incorporated, Standards to be followed for a Test Case.

103.What should be included in a typical review checklist for test cases?

A. Review checklist for test cases should have the following Factors.

Has the correct template been used?

Have all the expected details to be mentioned in the test case correctly filled in?

Has the test data set up been done? Has it been included in the test case?

Have all the positive and negative scenarios, boundary value conditions been covered in test cases?   

Are all scripts free from grammatical and formatting errors?

104.What is Cache?

A. A small amount of high-speed memory residing on or close to the CPU. Cache memory is fast memory that is used to hold the most recently accessed data of main memory.

105.What is a cookie and how do you test in a web application?

•     A cookie would generally expected to store the user session related information, we have to test whether this information is in the encrypted format so that it can not be retrieved by any one and hence a security feature.
•      Test whether appropriate message is displayed or not by disabling the cookies from the browser settings.
•      Test Cookies on multiple browsers
•      The sensitive information like passwords, Credit Card Numbers should not be stored in the cookies.

106. What is Data Migration Testing?

A. Ex: Data Migration from the existing database to SQL Server would require the testing of the following areas.

A.     Have the data files, Transaction log, table spaces, and 

other items that comprise the database been created correctly? 

Has the SQL Server instance been properly configured?

B.      Have the logins and users been correctly created?

C.      Have the appropriate permissions been assigned? Is the

D.      Databases physically secure?

E.      Do the stored procedures, triggers, views, and other items comprising 

Transact-SQL code operate in the same manner as the original database objects?

F.       Does response time and throughput meet requirements and match 

user expectations?

107. Tell me the defect you found due to the connectivity issue.

A.  The criticalities of defects related to connectivity are severe and can cause lots of damage to the company as well as its customers. Hence, testing connectivity between various modules is a challenging task to increase the capability of the application.

B. During Connectivity testing it is important to verify the data that is flowing between modules. There could be a loss of data during the flow of transactions between modules. Also validating that the correct data is displayed in the other module screens is very important

108.How do you perform version controlling?

A.     Version controlling is required for all the configurable items in a testing project, it can be performed by using appropriate SCM tool like Microsoft Visual Source Safe (VSS). HP-Quality Center Test Management tool can also be customized for version controlling.

109.How the Defect Density would contribute for the test exit criteria?

A.     For the number of test cases being executed if the rate at which defects found have come done to a very low value and also saturated, Hence an important input for test stop criteria.

110 .What should be included in a Test Environment?

A.     Where a Test Environment set up would have the selection of the following components as closely as possible to the live environment in which the build would be deployed and tested.         

Operating System

Browsers

Web Server and App Server

Database (Oracle/DB2)