This post is for QA engineers who are planning for a Senior test engineer or a Team lead role. To help them in their preparation, we’ve added ten must-know QA interview questions and answers in this article.
We brought these must-know QA interview questions after putting up a lot of research. It involved meeting with candidates who appeared for a Senior test engineer/Test lead interview. That’s how we could keep the questionnaire a bit more realistic and practical.
Also, most interviewers expect an answer that seems real and backed by an example. So, don’t reply with answers that look like reading from a book.
Apart from these must-know QA interview questions, you might like to check out the below posts. These offer some of the best technical questionnaires for Senior test engineers.
Now, it’s time to dive into reading the must-know QA interview questions and answers.
Must Know QA Interview Questions.
Q-1# What are the steps you follow to create a test script?
Ans# Creating a test script usually requires the below steps.
Step-1# The primary requirement is to get a thorough understanding of the Application Under Test.
- To achieve this, we will read the requirements-related documents very thoroughly.
- In case the requirements document is not available with us, then we will use other available references like the previous version of the application or wire-frames or screenshots.
Step-2# After developing an understanding of the requirements, we will prepare an exhaustive list of the areas to be tested for the AUT. The focus of this step is to identify “What” to test. Thus the outcome of this step is a list of test scenarios.
Step-3# After we are ready with the test scenarios, our focus shifts to “How” to test them. This phase involves writing detailed steps about how to test a particular feature, what data to enter (test data) and what is the expected outcome.
With all this done we are ready for testing.
Q-2# What are the key elements in a bug report?
Ans# An ideal bug report should contain the following key points.
- A unique ID.
- Defect description – A short description of the bug.
- Steps to reproduce – Include the detailed test steps to emulate the issue. We should also provide the test data and the time of its occurrence.
- Environment – Add any system settings that could help in reproducing the issue.
- Module/section of the application in which the issue has occurred.
- Severity.
- Screenshots.
- Responsible QA – This person is a point of contact in case you want to follow up regarding this issue.
Q-3# How will you overcome the challenges due to the unavailability of proper documentation for testing?
Ans# If the standard documents like System Requirement Specification or Feature Description Document are not available then QAs may have to rely on the following references if available.
- Screenshots.
- A previous version of the application.
- Wireframes.
Another reliable method is to have discussions with the developer and business analyst. It helps in closing the doubts and opens a channel for bringing clarity to the requirements. Also, the e-mails exchanged could also be useful as a testing reference.
SMOKE testing is another good option that will help to verify the main functionality of the application. It also reveals some very basic bugs in the application.
If none of these work we can just test the application from our previous experiences.
Q-4# Is there any difference between Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Software Testing? What is it?
Ans# Quality Assurance (QA): QA refers to the planned and systematic way of monitoring the quality of the process that is followed to produce a quality product. QA tracks the outcomes and adjusts the process to meet the expectations.
Quality Control (QC) is related to the quality of the product. QC not only finds the defects but suggests improvements also. Thus the process that is set by QA is implemented by QC. QC is the responsibility of the testing team.
Software Testing is the process of ensuring that the product that is developed by the developer meets the user’s requirements. The motive to perform testing is to find the bugs and make sure that they get fixed. Thus it helps to maintain the quality of the product to be delivered to the customer.
Q-5# What is the best approach to start QA in a project?
Ans# A good time to start the QA is from the beginning of the project startup. In this way, the QA team will get enough time to do proper planning for the processes followed during the testing life cycle.
It’ll also ensure that the product to be delivered to the customer satisfies the quality criteria.
QA also plays an important role in initiating the communication between the domain teams. The testing phase starts after the test plans are written, reviewed, and approved.
Q-6# Explain the difference between Smoke testing and Sanity Testing.
Ans# The main differences between smoke and sanity testing are as follows.
- Whenever there is a new build delivered after bug fixing, it has to pass through sanity testing. However, smoke testing is done to check the major functionalities of the application.
- Sanity testing is done either by the tester or the developer. However, smoke testing is not necessarily done by a tester or developer.
- Smoke tests precede sanity test execution.
- Sanity testing touches critical areas of the product to ensure the basics are working fine. However, smoke tests include a set of high-priority test cases focussing on a particular functionality.
Q-7# Is there any difference between Retesting and Regression testing?
Ans# The possible differences between Retesting and Regression testing are as follows.
- We perform retesting to verify the defect fixes. However, the regression testing assures that the bug fix didn’t break other parts of the application.
- Also, regression test cases verify the functionality of some or all the modules.
- Retesting involves the execution of test cases that are in a failed state. However, the regression ensures the re-execution of passed test cases.
- Retesting has a higher priority over regression. But in some cases, both get executed in parallel.
Q-8# What are the severity and priority of a defect? Explain using an example.
Ans# Priority reflects the urgency of the defect from the business point of view. It indicates – How quickly we need to fix the bug.
Severity reflects the impact of the defect on the functionality of the application. Bugs having a critical impact on the functionality require a quick fix.
Here are examples that show the bugs under different priority and severity combinations.
High Priority and Low Severity.
The display of the company logo is not proper on its website.
High Priority and High Severity.
While making an online purchase, if the user sees a message like “Error in order processing, please try again.” at the time of submitting the payment details.
Low Priority and High Severity.
Suppose we have a typical scenario in which the application crashes, but such a scenario has a rare occurrence.
Low Priority and Low Severity.
These are typo errors in the displayed content like “You have registered success”. Instead of “successfully”, “success” is written.
Q-9# What is the role of QA in project development?
Ans# QA stands for QUALITY ASSURANCE. QA team assures the quality by monitoring the whole development process. QA tracks the outcomes after adjusting the process to meet the expectations.
Quality Assurance (QA) does many tasks like the following.
- Responsible for monitoring the process to be carried out during development.
- Plans the processes to follow for the test execution phase.
- Prepares the timetable and agrees on the Quality Assurance plan for the product with the customer.
- Communicates the QA process to other teams and their members.
- Ensures traceability of test cases to requirements.
Q-10# As per your understanding, list down the key challenges of software testing.
Ans# Following are some of the key challenges of software testing.
- Availability of Standard documents to understand the application.
- Lack of skilled testers, tools, and training.
- Understanding requirements, Domain knowledge, and business user perspective understanding.
- Agreeing on the Test Plan and the test cases with the customer.
- Re-execution efforts due to changing requirements.
- The application is stable enough to be tested otherwise retesting efforts become high.
- Testers always work under stringent timelines.
- Deciding on which tests to execute first.
- Testing the complete application using an optimized number of test cases.
- Planning test cases for other stages of testing like Regression, Release, and Performance testing.
Also, it’s not too late that we posted a two-part series of Software testing interview questions and answers. So please see through these blog posts, they might be pretty useful for the interview preparation.
- Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers – Part1
- 20 Interview Questions for Manual Testers – Part2
Summary – Must Know QA Interview Questions
It was one more post that can boost your chances in a job interview. Also, we try our posts could teach skills that can help you most in your work. That’s why we came up with this blog post on the ten must-know QA interview questions for SSE/Test leads.
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TechBeamers
