senior QA question and answer
senior QA question and answer
com/blog/top-20-qa-testing-interview-questions-and-answers/
1). How can you differentiate the three related terms quality assurance,
quality control, and the testing?
Ans:- Quality assurance is the process of defining quality standards for the project.
Quality control is the process to find the defects and suggest necessary improvements
for the same. Testing is the process of finding the defects and reporting the bugs to the
developers.
Ans:- Well, QA activities should start from the beginning of a project. The early QA
activities generally help to control the overall project costs and sets quality standards
for the project. The costs, time management, and efforts are very difficult to manage
once QA activities are delayed.
Ans:- This is a step-by-step testing process that should be executed in a defined order
to make sure that the testing goals are achieved. There are multiple types of software
testing life cycle models that can be used based on your project needs and
requirements.
4). How are test plan and test strategies both different from each other?
Ans:- Test strategy is usually defined as the project manager, where the complete
approach to testing is given in detail. At the same time, the test plan will demonstrate
the testing process for a particular application or module under a project.
5). What are the steps involved when writing a test case?
Ans:- A test case should have the following details – Test Case ID, what is the
description, severity, define priority, environment, version of the build, steps to execute,
expected result, and the actual result.
6). How will you check whether a test case is good or bad?
Ans:- If there is a test case that finds all the defects within an application, then it is
good; otherwise, it will be bad. Also, a good test case is designed based on standard
guidelines and easy to read.
7). How can you execute a large suite of test cases in a short period?
Ans:- If you wanted to execute a large set of test cases together, then you should set
the priorities and execute the high priority test cases in the beginning, then you may
start with the low priority test cases. The process makes sure that the most important
modules of a project are tested already. Alternatively, you may also focus on customer
preferences and prioritize the test cases accordingly.
8). Do production issues can also be solved with the help of a QA expert?
Ans:- Obviously! This would be an amazing learning curve for the QA experts, and they
are highly in demand if they can manage the production issues too. They add some
extra features in test cases, and production issues are managed automatically when the
test engineer executes test cases.
9). If there is one bug identified in the application and fixed by the
development team, then how can you make sure that the same bug will not be
introduced again?
Ans:- The best solution to the problem is to write a test case and include the same in
the regression suite. It will make sure that a particular bug is not introduced again. Also,
you could think of alternative test cases that are considered as part of the planned
execution.
10). How function and non-functional testing is different from each other?
Ans:- As the name suggests, Functional Testing is usually related to the functionality of
an application. This particular technique makes sure that the product has been
designed based on customer needs and specifications. The modules are tested and
validated against customer specifications and marked as pass or fail accordingly.
Regression, performance, and smoke are the different types of functional testing.
The other popular technique is non-functional testing that will check the non-functional
parts of an application. It will check the performance, stress, or load for an application.
This technique is usually defined explicitly, and testers make sure that sufficient time is
given to check the different non-functional aspects of an application.
11). How can you define the positive and negative testing for a project?
Ans:- Negative testing will check whether the system behaves gracefully even when
non-valid inputs are given. At the same time, positive testing will check whether the
system behaves as per the expectations or not for the valid inputs.
12). How will you be sure that testing is complete for a project?
Ans:- There are two popular techniques requiring traceability and the coverage
matrices to check either testing is complete for a projector still need to perform.
13). Are there any technical requirements to consider when writing test
cases?
Ans:- There are plenty of technical requirements to consider when writing a test case
like functional specifications, user requirements, wireframes, user stories, acceptance
criteria, or UAT test cases, etc.
Ans:- Yes, this is possible to write a test case even in the absence of concrete
documents. In this case, you have to be more conscious and collaborate with BA team
continuously. Also, sit with the developers and try to understand the project
requirements deeply. Based on the discussion, you can define the test conditions
yourself and design the test case without any concrete documents.
15). How will you define the verification and validation in testing?
Ans:- Verification is the process of checking the progress of a project to make sure that
you are on the right track or not. Validation is the process of evaluating the final output
of the project to make sure that it perfectly meets the client's needs and requirements.
Ans:- Verification techniques are static in nature. A few verification techniques that I
have used for my past projects are – the walkthrough verification technique, Review,
and Inspection.
17). How can you define the load testing and stress testing for a project?
Ans:- Load testing will check the system performance under heavy loads. On the other
hand, stress testing will test the system behavior when test cases are executed under
stress.
18). Have you used any automation tools for your past projects?
Ans:- Yes, of course. The answer to this question is exclusive to the individual and
depends on the experience of a candidate.
Ans:- For this purpose, you should check the technical specifications for a test case. If
you still have any doubts, then ask your senior team members.
20). Can you define the amount of testing required by a particular piece of
software?
Ans:- You first need to calculate the cyclomatic complexity of a software product to
check how much testing is required by a particular software.
Ans:- The build is a product given to the testing team by the development team for
inspecting the quality issues while Release is the final installable product handed over
to customers by tester or developer.
23). What are the automation challenges faced by a QA Tester when testing a
product?
Ans:-
Ans:- Bug release is a technique when the software application is handed over to the
testing team knowing that bug is present in the build and it can be removed before the
final handover. Bug leakage is something when a bug is discovered by end-users and
not detected by testing team or developers.
26). What is a bug cycle? Discuss different steps followed in a bug cycle.
Ans:-
Ans:-
28). Name a different type of software testing you are familiar with.
Unit testing
Integration testing and regression testing
Shakeout testing
Smoke testing
Functional testing
Performance testing
White box and Black box testing
Alpha and Beta testing
Load testing and stress testing
System testing
Functional testing
Ans:- The testing for all branches of code is known as the branch testing.
31). What are the different components of test cases and test plans?
Ans:-
Testing objectives
Testing scope
Testing the frame
The environment
Reason for testing
The criteria for entrance and exit
Deliverables and Risk factors
Ans:- It is a process for controlling and documenting changes made during the life
cycle of a project. Change control and release control are important aspects of
configuration management.
Ans:- This is the testing phase, where a tester tries to break the system by trying the
system’s functionality randomly. It may include negative testing too.
Ans:- Agile testing is a popular type of software testing based on agile methodologies.
This is a common approach used by developers these days.
Ans:- The significance of agile testing is that testers don’t have to wait for the
development team to complete the coding, but testing and coding may continue
simultaneously. It is based on continuous customer interactions too.
37). What steps are you following for an automation test plan?
Ans:-
Define the strategy first for the automation test plan
Start with the preparation of the automation test plan
Record the scenario and follow the best error handling mechanism
Debug the script and fix the issues.
Run the script again and report the script.
Ans:- It is the process of checking a system whether a system can manage the
required amount of data or user requests, etc.
Ans:-
Ans:-
42). Why are test drivers and test stubs are required?
Ans:- It is required when you want to test the interface between two modules X and Y.
We have developed the X module, and we need a dummy module Y to check the
functionality of another module.
Ans:- A cause-effect graph is the representation of inputs and associated outputs that
are used to design test cases.
Ans:- A test metric refers to the test measurement standards. They are statistics that
narrate the structure or content of the testing.
Ans:- The important information contained by the test metric can be given as:
Total test
Test passed/failed
Test passed the first time
Test run
Tests deferred
Ans:- Retesting is performed to check the defect fixes, and regression testing is
performed to check the impact of defect fixes on product functionality.
Ans:- A traceability matrix is used for mapping test scripts and requirements together.
49). Name a different type of document you have used in software testing.
Ans:- Different types of documents in QA
Requirement Document
Test Metrics
Test cases and Test plan
Task distribution flow chart
Transaction Mix
User profiles
Test log
User profiles
Test incident report
Test summary report
Ans:- Here are the details that every QA document should include:
Ans:-
Specifications
Designs
Business rules
Configurations
Code changes
Test plans
Test cases
Bug reports
User manuals
52). What are the best software quality practices as per your work
experience?
Ans:-
I have been into software testing for more than five years, and these are some best
practices I usually follow to deliver a high-quality product.
Read: Everything you Need to Know about QA Roles and Responsibilities in Software
Testing
Review the requirements in depth before you start with the development.
This is the time to review the code.
Write comprehensive test cases as required.
Perform session-based testing, then risk-based testing.
Set the priority for bugs based on usage.
Run a regression cycle
Perform sanity tests on production
Focus on QA test reports too.
Ans:- Yes, the rule for test-driven development is that you should write the test cases
first before you start with the actual coding.
Ans:- MR means a modification request that is also referred to as the defect report. It is
used for reporting errors or any other potential problems in the software.
Ans:- System testing is done when all units are in place and working properly. It should
be done before UAT (User Acceptance Testing).
57). What are the different SDLC models you know so far?
Ans:-
Waterfall
Spiral
V Model
Prototype
Agile
Ans:- The prerequisites that should be achieved before you start with the QA testing.
Ans:- The conditions that should be met before you conclude the testing.
Ans:- For state transitions, we pick test cases from an application where different
system transitions are tested.
Ans:- In the case of Equivalence class partition, inputs are divided into different logical
groups that exhibit the same behavior. Hence, it becomes easy to design test cases in a
proper way.
Ans:- The boundary value analysis technique tests the boundary values of valid and
invalid partitions.
Ans:- It is a defect that does not allow users to move further in the application. It can
be named a crash as well. Take an example of a Login button that is not working
properly. Even if you have the right login id and password, it will not allow you to move
ahead.
Ans:- It is the process of introducing known errors intentionally to check the rate of
error detection. It helps in analyzing the tester capabilities of finding bugs.
Ans:- It can be defined as the time gap between defect detection and the closure of a
defect.
Ans:- A critical bug can affect a large piece of functionality for a software product or it
signifies that major software components are broken. Simply, bugs that affect the
business of customers are called critical.
Ans:- The bug priority decides which bug should be fixed early and their order too. As
soon as, high priority bug is resolved, it will move to the next level.
Ans:- It makes you a highly knowledgeable resource with depth knowledge of the
product and helps in identifying and resolving the most potential errors to achieve
maximum client satisfaction.
73). According to your resume, you have worked for multiple industries in a
short time span. Can you explain why?
Ans:- Answers for this question vary from person to person. You just have to brief your
experience for the last project and how you become successful in fixing malfunctioning
issues.
Ans:- Mostly, I like to work in a team where each member supports others, and there
are always more options to learn something new.
Ans:- Everyone has different hobbies, lifestyles, and their area of expertise is also
different. Based on my experience, I believe in establishing a nice relationship with
team members during short tea breaks.
77). How was your experience with Managers in your previous Companies?
Ans:- I was lucky to meet terrific managers in my previous Companies, who made me
comfortable and helped me to solve tough issues gracefully. When a manager is
organized, he helps in managing team effectively and achieving goals at the right time.
Read: Know the Key Difference Between Waterfall vs Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban!
78). Share some about job conflicts you experience so far, and how were you
dealing with it?
Ans:- In my last Company, I faced disagreements by customers that should be fixed on
time, and it seems frustrating too many times. So, I designed my own plan to deal with
the issue and enable me to maintain a good relationship with the client.
Ans:- I learned many new things, and I was able to improve my technical competencies
to a great extent. The work culture and atmosphere differ from Company to Company,
and I learned how to adjust in diverse working environments.
Ans:- I want to become a successful QA engineer first then will improve my skills and
level onwards. Basically, I want to lead this domain so that I can help others struggling
in the testing field.
Ans:- Nobody is perfect, but I always try to turn my weaknesses into strengths.
82). As an experienced QA tester, which was the proudest moment for you till
the time. Please share your achievements with us.
Ans:- Here, you have to explain something that makes you different from the crowd.
Think deeply before you answer this question, and it should be impressive and worth
mentioning your skills.
Ans:- I have good storing skills and am able to learn a lot of good stuff together. I also
know how to work with deadlines and satisfying a customer with best project
deliverables.
84). Is there any special reason for leaving the last job?
Ans:- I have been working in the last Company for a long time, and my career graph is
also exciting, but this is the time to give a new boost to the career with a new Company,
staff, and salary structure.
85). What are your expectations from our Company if you get hired?
Ans:- I am expecting that I will definitely learn more and improve my skills definitely. At
the same time, I will put maximum efforts to enhance the productivity of the Company. I
also want to get acquainted with new people who are knowledgeable and interested in
the same area.
Ans:- I will definitely improve my levels and skills during the next few years to become
a pro in the QA domain.
87). Why do you want to join another Company when everything is going well
with the existing one?
Ans:- I want to thank my current Company for giving me an opportunity to work with
them. But we cannot be restricted to a place. Like everybody, I am also futuristic and
looking for a good option that can help me to grow ultimately.
Ans:- I will acquaint myself with new team members and Company documents to make
myself familiar with the current work culture.
Ans:- My skills set completely matches your job description, and I can be a good team
player because I enjoy different work atmospheres. I know how valuable it is to work on
Company goals and how to work with team members to attain those goals.
90). How will you solve document challenges when detailed inputs or
requirements are not given?
Ans:- If BRD and FSD are not available, I focus on a different point of reference as given
below.
Screenshots
Wireframes
Previous Software versions.
91). How will you define the term Error for a software product?
Ans:- If a programmer is not able to run or execute the program, it means there is
some error, and you need to fix it now.
Ans:- If the product is deployed at your end with successful testing and end-users find
bugs, it is called product failure.
Ans:- The difference between the actual and the expected outcome is a defect. If a
developer finds a defect and corrects itself, then it is a defect.
Author
Moderator
Reviewer(s)
Scribe/Recorder
Manager.
Ans:- It is the process of repeating the same test cases again and again. Same test
cases will not find new bugs so they should be revised from time to time, and it is called
the pesticide paradox technique.
Ans:- When a defect is not identified or fixed during testing, it triggers other defects. It
results in increasing the number of defects at later stages.
Ans:- It signifies that a small piece of code has maximum bugs that may lead to
operational failures later.
That’s all for the day! Hope these QA testing interview questions and answers will help
you to prepare for the next interview. To increase your chances of getting hired by top
MNCs, join our QA certification course at JanBask Training.
Frequently asked Conceptual QA Interview
Questions and Answers
101). State the difference between Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and
Testing?
Ans:- Quality Assurance is the process of planning and defining the way of monitoring
and implementing the quality(test) processes within a team and organization. This
method defines and sets the quality standards of the projects.
Quality Control is the process of finding defects and providing suggestions to improve
the quality of the software. The methods used by Quality Control are usually established
by quality assurance. It is the primary responsibility of the testing team to implement
quality control.
Testing is the process of finding defects/bugs. It validates whether the software built by
the development team meets the requirements set by the user and the standards set
by the organization.
Here, the main focus is on finding bugs and the testing teams work as a quality
gatekeeper.
Ans:- QA activity should start at the beginning of the project. The more early it starts
the more beneficial it is to set the standard for achieving quality.
The cost, time, and efforts are very challenging in case the QA activities get delayed.
103). What is the difference between the Test Plan and Test Strategy?
Ans:- Test Strategy is at a higher level, mostly created by the Project Manager which
demonstrates the overall approach of the testing for the entire project, whereas the
Test plan depicts how the testing should be performed for a particular application,
falling under a project.
Ans:- Software Testing Life Cycle refers to a testing process that has specific steps to
be executed in a definite sequence to ensure that the quality goals have been met.
105). How do you define the format of writing a good test case?
Test case ID
Test case description
Severity
Priority
Environment
Build version
Steps to execute
Expected results
Actual results
Ans:- In simple words, a good test case is one that finds a defect. But all test cases will
not find defects, so a good test case can also be one that has all the prescribed details
and coverage.
107). What would you do if you have a large suite to execute in very less
time?
Ans:- In case we have less time and have to execute a larger volume of test cases, we
should prioritize the test case and execute the high priority test cases first and then
move on to the lower priority ones.
This way we can make sure that the important aspects of the software are tested.
Alternatively, we may also seek customer preference that which is the most important
function of the software according to them, and we should start testing from those
areas and then gradually move to those areas which are of less importance.
108). Do you think QAs can also participate to resolve production issues?
These kinds of environmental issues could be very well fixed by the QA team.
Also, if QA has an insight into resolving the production issues, they may include them
while writing the test cases, and this way they can contribute to improving quality and
try to minimize the production defects.
109). Suppose you find a bug in production, how would you make sure that
the same bug is not introduced again?
Ans:- The best way is to immediately write a test case for the production defect and
include it in the regression suite. This way we ensure that the bug does not get
introduced again.
Also, we can think of alternate test cases or similar kinds of test cases and include them
in our planned execution.
Ans:- Functional testing deals with the functional aspect of the application. This
technique tests that the system is behaving as per the requirement and specification.
These are directly linked with customer requirements. We validate the test cases
against the specified requirement and make the test results as pass or fail accordingly.
Nonfunctional testing, on the other hand, tests the non-functional aspect of the
application. It does not focus on the requirement, but on environmental factors like
performance, load, and stress. These are not explicitly specified in the requirement but
are prescribed in the quality standards. So, as QA we have to make sure that these
testing are also given sufficient time and priority.
Ans:- Negative testing is a technique that validates that the system behaves
gracefully in case of any invalid inputs. For example, in case the user enters any invalid
data in a text box, the system should display a proper message instead of the technical
message that the user does not understand.
Negative testing is different from positive testing in way that positive testing validates
that our system works as expected and compares the test results with the expected
results.
Most of the time scenarios for negative testing are not mentioned in the functional
requirement documents. As a QA we have to identify the negative scenarios and should
have provisions to test those.
112) How would you ensure that your testing is complete and has good
coverage?
Ans:- Requirement Traceability Matrix and Test coverage matrices will help us to
determine that our test cases have good coverage.
The requirement traceability matrix will help us to determine that the test conditions
are enough so that all the requirements are covered. Coverage matrices will help us to
determine that the test cases are enough to satisfy all the identified test conditions in
RTM.
113) What are the different artifacts you refer to when you write the test
cases?
114). Have you ever managed writing the test cases without having any
documents?
Ans:- Yes, there are cases when we have a situation where we have to write test cases
without having any concrete documents.
(i) Review – This is a method by which the code/test cases are examined by an
individual other than the author who has produced it. It is one of the easy and best ways
to ensure coverage and quality.
(ii) Inspection – This is a technical and disciplined way to examine and correct the
defects in the test artifact or code. Because it is disciplined, it has various roles:
Recorder – Records the minutes of the meeting, defects that occurred, and other
points discussed.
Reader – Read out the document/code. The leader also leads the entire inspection
meeting.
Producer – The author. They are ultimately responsible to update their document/code
as per the comments.
Reviewer – All the team members can be considered a reviewer. This role can also be
played by some group of experts if the project demands it.
(iii) Walkthrough – This is a process in which the author of the document/code reads
the content and gets the feedback. This is mostly a kind of FYI (For Your Information)
session rather than seeking corrections.
Ans:- Stress Testing is a technique that validates the behavior of the system when it
executes under stress. To explain, we reduce the resources and check the behavior of
the system. We first understand the upper limit of the system and gradually reduce the
resources and check the system behavior.
In Load testing, we validate the system behavior under the expected load. The load can
be of concurrent users or resources accessing the system at the same time.
118). In case you have any doubts regarding your project, how do you
approach it?
Ans:- In case of any doubts, first, try to get it cleared by reading the available
artifacts/application help. In case of doubts that persist, ask an immediate supervisor or
the senior member of your team.
Business Analysts can also be a good choice to ask doubts. We can also convey our
queries to the development team in case of any other doubts. The last option would be
to follow up with the manager and finally with the stakeholders.
Ans:- The answer to this question is very much exclusive to the individual. Reply to all
the tools and strategies of automation that you have used in your project.
120). How do you determine which piece of software requires how much
testing?
Ans:- We can know this factor by finding out the Cyclomatic Complexity. The
technique helps to identify the below 3 questions for the programs/features
Ans:- Load testing is when you test the software under a heavier load that is still in the
expected range, whereas stress testing is when you test the software under a much
heavier load that goes outside the expected range. Volume testing is a system check to
find out if the software can manage the expected data or requests
Ans:- When completing an automation test plan, I review the company's strategy to
ensure I follow their guidelines. Typically, I record the scenario while incorporating an
error handler. I then debug the script and fix the issues as needed, rerun the script and
track the results of the fix.
Ans:- I first rerun the test to ensure it was not just an error. If the problem persists, I try
to restart the software and the testing environment. This can confirm if everything is
working fine on the testing side. If the issue persists, I contact my supervisor for
guidance.