http://www.exforsys.

com

Software Testing Interview Questions(225 Questions)

Test Automation: 1.What automating testing tools are you familiar with? 2.How did you use automating testing tools in your job? 3.Describe some problem that you had with automating testing tool. 4.How do you plan test automation? 5.Can test automation improve test effectiveness? 6.What is data - driven automation? 7.What are the main attributes of test automation? 8.Does automation replace manual testing? 9.How will you choose a tool for test automation? 10.How you will evaluate the tool for test automation? 11.What are main benefits of test automation? 12.What could go wrong with test automation? 13.How you will describe testing activities? 14.What testing activities you may want to automate? 15.Describe common problems of test automation. 16.What types of scripting techniques for test automation do you know? 17.What are principles of good testing scripts for automation? 18.What tools are available for support of testing during software development life cycle? 19.Can the activities of test case design be automated? 20.What are the limitations of automating software testing? 21.What skills needed to be a good test automator? 22.How to find that tools work well with your existing system? 23.Describe some problem that you had with automating testing tool. 24.What are the main attributes of test automation? 25.What testing activities you may want to automate in a project? 26.How to find that tools work well with your existing system? Load Testing: 1.What criteria would you use to select Web transactions for load testing? 2.For what purpose are virtual users created? 3.Why it is recommended to add verification checks to your all your scenarios? 4.In what situation would you want to parameterize a text verification check? 5.Why do you need to parameterize fields in your virtual user script? 6.What are the reasons why parameterization is necessary when load testing the Web server and the database server? 7.How can data caching have a negative effect on load testing results? 8.What usually indicates that your virtual user script has dynamic data that is dependent on you parameterized fields? 9.What are the benefits of creating multiple actions within any virtual user script? General questions:

1.What types of documents would you need for QA, QC, and Testing? 2.What did you include in a test plan? 3.Describe any bug you remember. 4.What is the purpose of the testing? http://www.exforsys.com 5.What do you like (not like) in this job? 6.What is quality assurance? 7.What is the difference between QA and testing? 8.How do you scope, organize, and execute a test project? 9.What is the role of QA in a development project?

10.What is the role of QA in a company that produces software? 11.Define quality for me as you understand it 12.Describe to me the difference between validation and verification. 13.Describe to me what you see as a process. Not a particular process, just the basics of having a process. 14.Describe to me when you would consider employing a failure mode and effect analysis. 15.Describe to me the Software Development Life Cycle as you would define it. 16.What are the properties of a good requirement? 17.How do you differentiate the roles of Quality Assurance Manager and Project Manager? 18.Tell me about any quality efforts you have overseen or implemented. Describe some of the challenges you faced and how you overcame them. 19.How do you deal with environments that are hostile to quality change efforts? 20.In general, how do you see automation fitting into the overall process of testing? 21.How do you promote the concept of phase containment and defect prevention? 22.If you come onboard, give me a general idea of what your first overall tasks will be as far as starting a quality effort. 23.What kinds of testing have you done? 24.Have you ever created a test plan? 25.Have you ever written test cases or did you just execute those written by others? 26.What did your base your test cases? 27.How do you determine what to test? 28.How do you decide when you have 'tested enough?' 29.How do you test if you have minimal or no documentation about the product? 30.Describe me to the basic elements you put in a defect report? 31.How do you perform regression testing? 32.At what stage of the life cycle does testing begin in your opinion? 33.How do you analyze your test results? What metrics do you try to provide? 34.Realising you won't be able to test everything - how do you decide what to test first? 35.Where do you get your expected results? 36.If automating - what is your process for determining what to automate and in what

order? 37.In the past, I have been asked to verbally start mapping out a test plan for a common situation, such as an ATM. The interviewer might say, "Just thinking out loud, if you were tasked to test an ATM, what items might you test plan include?" These type questions are not meant to be answered conclusively, but it is a good way for the interviewer to see how you approach the task. 38.If you're given a program that will average student grades, what kinds of inputs would you use? 39.Tell me about the best bug you ever found. http://www.exforsys.com 40.What made you pick testing over another career? 41.What is the exact difference between Integration & System testing, give me examples with your project. 42.How did you go about testing a project? 43.When should testing start in a project? Why? 44.How do you go about testing a web application? 45.Difference between Black & White box testing 46.What is Configuration management? Tools used? 47.What do you plan to become after say 2-5yrs (Ex: QA Manager, Why?) 48.Would you like to work in a team or alone, why? 49.Give me 5 strong & weak points of yours 50.Why do you want to join our company? 51.When should testing be stopped? 52.What sort of things would you put down in a bug report? 53.Who in the company is responsible for Quality? 54.Who defines quality? 55.What is an equivalence class? 56.Is a "A fast database retrieval rate" a testable requirement? 57.Should we test every possible combination/scenario for a program? 58.What criteria do you use when determining when to automate a test or leave it manual? 59.When do you start developing your automation tests? 60.Discuss what test metrics you feel are important to publish an organization? 61.In case anybody cares, here are the questions that I will be asking: 62.Describe the role that QA plays in the software lifecycle. 63.What should Development require of QA? 64.What should QA require of Development?

65.How would you define a "bug?" 66.Give me an example of the best and worst experiences you've had with QA. 67.How does unit testing play a role in the development / software lifecycle? 68.Explain some techniques for developing software components with respect to testability. 69.Describe a past experience with implementing a test harness in the development of software. 70.Have you ever worked with QA in developing test tools? Explain the participation Development should have with QA in leveraging such test tools for QA use. 71.Give me some examples of how you have participated in Integration Testing. 72.How would you describe the involvement you have had with the bugfix cycle between Development and QA? 72.What is unit testing? 73.Describe your personal software development process. 74.How do you know when your code has met specifications? 75.How do you know your code has met specifications when there are no specifications? 76.Describe your experiences with code analyzers. 77.How do you feel about cyclomatic complexity? 78.Who should test your code? http://www.exforsys.com 79.How do you survive chaos? 80.What processes/methodologies are you familiar with? 81.What type of documents would you need for QA/QC/Testing? 82.How can you use technology to solve problem? 83.What type of metrics would you use? 84.How to find that tools work well with your existing system? 85.What automated tools are you familiar with? 86.How well you work with a team? 87.How would you ensure 100% coverage of testing? 88.How would you build a test team? 89.What problem you have right now or in the past? How you solved it? 90.What you will do during the first day of job? 91.What would you like to do five years from now? 92.Tell me about the worst boss you've ever had. 93.What are your greatest weaknesses? 94.What are your strengths? 95.What is a successful product?

96.What do you like about Windows? 97.What is good code? 98.Who is Kent Beck, Dr Grace Hopper, Dennis Ritchie? 99.What are basic, core, practises for a QA specialist? 100.What do you like about QA? 101.What has not worked well in your previous QA experience and what would you change? 102.How you will begin to improve the QA process? 103.What is the difference between QA and QC? 104.What is UML and how to use it for testing? 105.What is CMM and CMMI? What is the difference? 106.What do you like about computers? 107.Do you have a favourite QA book? More than one? Which ones? And why. 108.What is the responsibility of programmers vs QA? 109.What are the properties of a good requirement? 110.How do you test if we have minimal or no documentation about the product? 111.What are all the basic elements in a defect report? 112.Is an "A fast database retrieval rate" a testable requirement? 113.What is software quality assurance? 114.What is the value of a testing group? How do you justify your work and budget? 115.What is the role of the test group vis-is documentation, tech support, and so forth? 116.How much interaction with users should testers have, and why? 117.How should you learn about problems discovered in the field, and what should you learn from those problems? 118.What are the roles of glass-box and black-box testing tools? 119.What issues come up in test automation, and how do you manage them? 120.What development model should programmers and the test group use? 121.How do you get programmers to build testability support into their code? 122.What is the role of a bug tracking system? http://www.exforsys.com 123.What are the key challenges of testing? 124.Have you ever completely tested any part of a product? How? 125.Have you done exploratory or specification-driven testing? 126.Should every business test its software the same way? 127.Discuss the economics of automation and the role of metrics in testing.

128.Describe components of a typical test plan, such as tools for interactive products and for database products, as well as cause-and-effect graphs and data-flow diagrams. 129.When have you had to focus on data integrity? 130.What are some of the typical bugs you encountered in your last assignment? 131.How do you prioritize testing tasks within a project? 132.How do you develop a test plan and schedule? Describe bottom-up and top-down approaches. 133.When should you begin test planning? 134.When should you begin testing? 135.Do you know of metrics that help you estimate the size of the testing effort? 136.How do you scope out the size of the testing effort? 137.How many hours a week should a tester work? 138.How should your staff be managed? How about your overtime? 139.How do you estimate staff requirements? 140.What do you do (with the project tasks) when the schedule fails? 141.How do you handle conflict with programmers? 142.How do you know when the product is tested well enough? 143.What characteristics would you seek in a candidate for test-group manager? 144.What do you think the role of test-group manager should be? Relative to senior management? Relative to other technical groups in the company? Relative to your staff? 145.How do your characteristics compare to the profile of the ideal manager that you just described? 146.How does your preferred work style work with the ideal testmanager role that you just described? What is different between the way you work and the role you described? 147.Who should you hire in a testing group and why? 148.What is the role of metrics in comparing staff performance in human resources management? 149.How do you estimate staff requirements? 150.What do you do (with the project staff) when the schedule fails? 151.Describe some staff conflicts you have handled. 152.Why did you ever become involved in QA/testing? 153.What is the testing lifecycle and explain each of its phases? 154.What is the difference between testing and Quality Assurance? 155.What is Negative testing?

156.What was a problem you had in your previous assignment (testing if possible)? How did you resolve it? 157.What are two of your strengths that you will bring to our QA/testing team? 158.How would you define Quality Assurance? 159.What do you like most about Quality Assurance/Testing? 160.What do you like least about Quality Assurance/Testing? 161.What is the Waterfall Development Method and do you agree with all the steps? http://www.exforsys.com 162.What is the V-Model Development Method and do you agree with this model? 163.What is the Capability Maturity Model (CMM)? At what CMM level were the last few companies you worked? 164.What is a "Good Tester"? 165.Could you tell me two things you did in your prev. assignment (QA/Testing related hopefully) that you are proud of? 166.What methodologies have you used to develop test cases? 167.In an application currently in production, one module of code is being modified. Is it necessary to re- test the whole application or is it enough to just test functionality associated with that module? 168.Define each of the following and explain how each relates to the other: Unit, System, and Integration testing. 169.Define Verification and Validation. Explain the differences between the two. 170.Explain the differences between White-box, Gray-box, and Blackbox testing. 171.How do you go about going into a new organization? How do you assimilate? 172.Define the following and explain their usefulness: Change Management, Configuration Management, Version Control, and Defect Tracking. 173.What is ISO 9000? Have you ever been in an ISO shop? 174.What is the difference between a test strategy and a test plan? 175.What is ISO 9003? Why is it important 176.What are ISO standards? Why are they important? 177.What is IEEE 829? (This standard is important for Software Test DocumentationWhy?) 178.What is IEEE? Why is it important?

179.Do you support automated testing? Why? 180.We have a testing assignment that is time-driven. Do you think automated tests are the best solution? 181.What is your experience with change control? Our development team has only 10 members. Do you think managing change is such a big deal for us? 182.Are reusable test cases a big plus of automated testing and explain why. 183.Can you build a good audit trail using Compuware's QACenter products. Explain why. 184.How important is Change Management in today's computing environments? 185.Do you think tools are required for managing change. Explain and please list some tools/practices which can help you managing change. 186.We believe in ad-hoc software processes for projects. Do you agree with this? Please explain your answer. 187.When is a good time for system testing? 188.Are regression tests required or do you feel there is a better use for resources? 189.Our software designers use UML for modeling applications. Based on their use cases, we would like to plan a test strategy. Do you agree with this approach or would this mean more effort for the testers. 190.Give me an example of something you tried at work but did not work out so you had to go at things another way.
1. Tell me about your previous project, what you did? Capital one is well known Credit card Company. Application was for Mortgage and Credit card. This was POS application This application was concern with the providing the Auto or Home loan against the mortgage. Involved in QA team meetings and bug tracking meetings. Intensively involved in Integration, Regression, UAT, Black Box testing. Verified the functionality of the Loan generated and Mortgage. Verified and tested the migrated data from MS Access to Oracle. Automated test scenarios using QTP. Logged Defects According to priority using Test Director 8.0. Intensively Involved in Database testing by writing SQL queries and executing Complex Stored Procedures to check the accuracy & integrity of database field values. Involved with Functional testing, Integration testing, Regression testing, Smoke Testing. Used Quality Centre to crate test plan, for bug tracking and reporting.

 2.

Tested the functionality of each screen and monitored the proper navigation. Identified the objects and created the synchronization steps Updated Weekly Status Report to the Manager. What is test plan, test case? Test plan: Document that describes the direction for overall Testing. Like, Test Scope, Testing objective, Features to be tested, not to be tested, Testing Approach, Testing tools required, Test Environment, Risk analysis, etc. Test case: Documentation specifying inputs, predicted results, and a set of execution conditions for a test item.

3.

Software life cycle testing. SDLC : Software Development Life Cycle

The following are the actives of the SDLC 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) System engineering and modeling Software require analysis Systems analysis and design Code generation Testing Development and Maintenance

System Engineering and Modeling In this process we have to identify the projects requirement and main features proposed in the application. Here the development team visits the customer and their system. They investigate the need for possible software automation in the given system. By the end of the investigation study. The team writes a document that holds the specifications for the customer system. Software Requirement Analysis In this software requirements analysis, firstly analysis the requirement for the proposed system. To understand the nature of the program to built, the system engineer must understand the information domain for the software, as well as required functions, performance and the interfacing. From the available information the system engineer develops a list of the actors use cases and system level requirement for the project. With the help of key user the list of use case and requirement is reviewed. Refined and updated in an iterative fashion until the user is satisfied that it represents the essence of the proposed system. Systems analysis and design The design is the process of designing exactly how the specifications are to be implemented. It defines specifically how the software is to be written including an object model with properties and method for each object, the client/server technology, the number of tiers needed for the package architecture and a detailed database design. Analysis and design are very important in the whole development cycle. Any glitch in the design could be very expensive to solve in the later stage of the software development.

Code generation The design must be translated into a machine readable form. The code generation step performs this task. The development phase involves the actual coding of the entire application. If design is performed in a detailed manner. Code generation can be accomplished with out much complicated. Programming tools like compilers, interpreters like c, c++, and java are used for coding .with respect to the type of application. The right programming language is chosen. Testing After the coding. The program testing begins. There are different methods are there to detect the error in coding .different method are already available. Some companies are developed they own testing tools. Development and Maintenance The development and maintenance is a staged roll out of the new application, this involves installation and initial training and may involve hardware and network upgrades. Software will definitely undergo change once it is delivered to the customer. There are many reasons for the change. Change could be happen because of some unexpected input values into the system. In addition, the changes in the system could be directly affecting the software operations. The software should be developed to accommodate changes that could happen during the post implementation period. STLC: Software Testing Life Cycle 4. Unit testing, regression testing, black box/white box, user acceptance testing, functional testing.

Unit Testing: Testing of a module for typographic, syntactic, and logical errors, for correct implementation of its design, and for satisfaction of its requirements (or) Testing conducted to verify the implementation of the design for one software element; e.g., a unit or module; or a collection of software elements. Regression Testing: Rerunning test cases which a program has previously executed correctly in order to detect errors spawned by changes or corrections made during software development and maintenance.
Black Box Testing Black box testing attempts to derive sets of inputs that will fully exercise all the functional requirements of a system. It is not an alternative to white box testing. This type of testing attempts to find errors in the following categories: 1. incorrect or missing functions, 2. interface errors, 3. errors in data structures or external database access, 4. performance errors, and 5. initialization and termination errors. Tests are designed to answer the following questions: 1. How is the function's validity tested? 2. What classes of input will make good test cases?

3. Is the system particularly sensitive to certain input values? 4. How are the boundaries of a data class isolated? 5. What data rates and data volume can the system tolerate? 6. What effect will specific combinations of data have on system operation? White box testing should be performed early in the testing process, while black box testing tends to be applied during later stages. Test cases should be derived which 1. reduce the number of additional test cases that must be designed to achieve reasonable testing, and 2. tell us something about the presence or absence of classes of errors, rather than an error associated only with the specific test at hand.

4. Decision table rules are converted to test cases. White Box Testing

White box testing is a test case design method that uses the control structure of the procedural design to derive test cases. Test cases can be derived that

1. guarantee that all independent paths within a module have been exercised at least once, 2. exercise all logical decisions on their true and false sides, 3. execute all loops at their boundaries and within their operational bounds, and 4. exercise internal data structures to ensure their validity.

Black box testing not based on any knowledge of internal design or code. Tests are based on requirements and functionality. White box testing based on knowledge of the internal logic of an applications code. Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths, conditions. Unit testing the most micro scale of testing; to test particular functions or code modules. Typically done by the programmer and not by testers, as it requires detailed knowledge of the internal program design and code. Not always easily done unless the application has a well-designed architecture with tight code; may require developing test driver modules or test harnesses.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

How do you log a defect? How do you decide the severity of Bug/defect? Do you know Clear Quest/ Test Director? Who do you go to when you find a defect? What will you do if the developer doesnt accept the defect?

10. 11. 12. 13.

What version of Test Director? What is risk analysis? What is RTM (Requirements traceability matrics)? Do you know any Automation tools??

Do you know Shell scripting?? What is LS? What is GREP?? How do you compare two files?? What is $HOME?? How do you copy files from one dir to another Dir How do you find out what directory you are in?? PWD How do you change the permissions of a file?? In UNIX File name chmod 777 What is CHMOD?? Command Its for permissions What is CAT?? Command Cat is a concatenation command with this we can view files and append one r more files into another file. What is PS command??

ORACLE What is a view?? How do you join two tables?? Using join command like inner join and outer join How do you eliminate duplicate rows?? By using distinct keyword How do you update a column in a table?? Update What is inner Join and Outer Join?? How do you delete a particular row in a table?? What is referential Integrity?? What is Commit/Rollback?? There r transactional control commands. Commit is save And rollback is undo What is TRUNCATE?? This is cut the take r delete the table We will let you know soon.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Why did you ever become involved in QA/testing? What is the testing lifecycle and explain each of its phases? What is the difference between testing and Quality Assurance? What is Negative testing?

5. 6. 7.

What was a problem you had in your previous assignment (testing if possible)? How did you resolve it? What are two of your strengths that you will bring to our QA/testing team? How would you define Quality Assurance?

Ans: 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. What do you like most about Quality Assurance/Testing? What do you like least about Quality Assurance/Testing? What is the Waterfall Development Method and do you agree with all the steps? What is the V-Model Development Method and do you agree with this model? What is the Capability Maturity Model (CMM)? At what CMM level were the last few companies you worked? What is a "Good Tester"? Could you tell me two things you did in your previous assignment (QA/Testing related hopefully) that you are proud of? List 5 words that best describe your strengths. What are two of your weaknesses? What methodologies have you used to develop test cases? In an application currently in production, one module of code is being modified. Is it necessary to re- test the whole application or is it enough to just test functionality associated with that module? Define each of the following and explain how each relates to the other: Unit, System, and Integration testing.

20. Define Verification and Validation. Explain the differences between the two. Ans: Verification ensures that the product is designed to deliver all functionality to the customer. It typically involves reviews, meetings and walk through to evaluate the documents, plans, code, requirements and specifications. Verification takes place before validation, not vice versa. Validation ensures the functionality, as defined in requirements, is the intended behavior of the product, Validation is typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed. 21. Explain the differences between White-box, Gray-box, and Black-box testing. 22. How do you go about going into a new organization? How do you assimilate? 23. Define the following and explain their usefulness: Change Management, Configuration Management, Version Control, and Defect Tracking. 24. What is ISO 9000? Have you ever been in an ISO shop? 25. When are you done testing? 26. What is the difference between a test strategy and a test plan? 27. What is ISO 9003? Why is it important 28. What are ISO standards? Why are they important? 29. What is IEEE 829? (This standard is important for Software Test Documentation-Why?) 30. What is IEEE? Why is it important? 31. Do you support automated testing? Why? 32. We have a testing assignment that is time-driven. Do you think automated tests are the best solution? 33. What is your experience with change control? Our development team has only 10 members. Do you think managing change is such a big deal for us? 34. Are reusable test cases a big plus of automated testing and explain why. 35. Can you build a good audit trail using Compuware's QA Center products. Explain why. 36. How important is Change Management in today's computing environments?

37. Do you think tools are required for managing change. Explain and please list some tools/practices which can help you managing change. 38. We believe in ad-hoc software processes for projects. Do you agree with this? Please explain your answer. 39. When is a good time for system testing? 40. Are regression tests required or do you feel there is a better use for resources? 41. Our software designers use UML for modeling applications. Based on their use cases, we would like to plan a test strategy. Do you agree with this approach or would this mean more effort for the testers. 42. Tell me about a difficult time you had at work and how you worked through it. 43. Give me an example of something you tried at work but did not work out so you had to go at things another way. 44. How can one file compare future dated output files from a program which has change, against the baseline run which used current date for input. The client does not want to mask dates on the output files to allow compares. - Answer-Rerun baseline and future date input files same # of days as future dated run of program with change. Now run a file compare against the baseline future dated output and the changed programs' future dated output. Interviewing Suggestions 1. 2. If you do not recognize a term ask for further definition. You may know the methodology/term but you have used a different name for it. Always keep in mind that the employer wants to know what you are going to do for them, with that you should always stay/be positive.

Preinterview Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. What is the structure of the company? Who is going to do the interview-possible background information of interviewer? What is the employer's environment (platforms, tools, etc.)? What are the employer's methods and processes used in software arena? What is the employer's philosophy? What is the project all about you are interviewing for-as much information as possible. Any terminologies that the company may use.