We’ve assembled here the most important Software testing interview questions. All of these questions have appeared in the software testing interviews held by top IT companies.
If you read them thoroughly, then it will help you face the interview with conviction. By the way, if you have any doubt about any of the questions, then do let us know and we’ll address it.
We’ve tried this online questionnaire to be as useful as it could be for Software Testers. You can use this list as a quick reference and revise the basic principles of Software testing in your free time.
Questions like equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, state transition testing, decision table, traceability matrix, and risk analysis are still relevant and will always be. Here, we’ve answered them all in a simplified manner so that you can understand the concepts instead of just memorizing the answers.
20 Software Testing Interview Questions to Know the Basics
Let’s first check upon a couple of Software testing questions on key testing terms used in interviews.
1. What is equivalence partitioning? Explain by example.
Answer.
It’s a famous black box testing technique that defines the effectiveness of manual test cases. You can apply it to a range of testing areas like unit testing, acceptance testing, integration testing, and so on. It works by breaking the test data into different sets and selecting one input value from each range.
It’s not possible to validate all data points from the domain because any attempt to do so would result in a huge number of test cases. Hence, you should apply this technique in such situations. It classifies the data into different classes where each class lays the input criteria from the equivalence class.
For example, let’s assume an application that accepts dates from the calendar year. If we apply the above technique, then we can break the inputs into classes. For example, one for valid dates and another for invalid dates. We’ll now create test cases from each class.
TC#1. Valid date class would allow cases with dates from the current calendar year.
TC#2. Dates from years other than the current calendar year would belong to the invalid class.
2. What is boundary value analysis? Explain by example.
Answer.
Most of the errors emanate either from the head or the tail ends of the test data. The values at these extreme ends are the boundary values. And the process to analyze them is Boundary value analysis. We may sometimes call it <range checking>.
It’s one more black-box testing approach that focuses on finding errors at the terminating ends of the input domain. You can use this technique at all levels of testing.
While designing test cases using BV, you should consider both valid and invalid boundary values for the edges. Usually, we pick one test case from each boundary.
Understanding the principles of black-box and white-box testing is crucial when preparing for software testing interview questions
Let’s see some examples to demonstrate the use of BV analysis.
TC#1. The first test case will analyze exact boundary values from the input data. Considering the example in Q:1, it would be the dates from January and the dates from December.
TC#2. For invalid values, you may consider using the dates from months other than Jan or Dec.
Must Read: Defect Life Cycle
3. What is state transition testing? Explain by example.
Answer.
This approach is best suitable where there is a possibility to view the whole system as a <finite state machine>. It works on the notion that a system can be in a finite number of distinct states. And it’s the rules of the machine that drive the transitions from one state to another.
It’s the model which is the basis for the system and the test cases. Any system that produces a different output for the constant input, depending on what has happened before, is a finite state system.
For example. you can consider a bank account. If you use it regularly, it’ll stay active. If you don’t make any transactions over 12 months, then your account will become inactive. You can though choose to close your account. Once it’s closed, you can not use it until you reopen. So, a bank account can have the following states.
1. Open,
2. Inactive,
3. Close,
4. Reopen.
Hence, you can design cases to test all transitions around the states mentioned above. In this model, you measure coverage in terms of switches, see below.
1. <0-switch> => You are testing every valid transition.
2. <1-switch> => You’ve covered the pair of two valid transitions.
3. <2-switch> => You need to test the sets of 3 transitions for this coverage.
4. What is the difference between white box, black box, and gray box testing?
Answer.
4.1. Black box testing is a testing approach that depends completely on the product requirements and specifications. The knowledge of internal paths, structures, or implementation of the software isn’t a prereq for it.
4.2. White box testing is a testing mechanism that covers the internal paths, code structures, and implementation of the software under test. It generally demands that a tester should possess serious programming skills.
4.3. Last but not least is the gray box testing. It allows looking into the “box” being tested to understand the implementation. Finally, you close the box and apply knowledge to choose more effective black box tests.
5. What are the categories of defects?
Answer.
There are three main categories of defects:
5.1. Wrong: It indicates a mismatch in the requirement and implementation. It implies a variance from the given specification.
5.2. Missing: The end product doesn’t have a feature matching the requirement. It’s a variance from the specifications and represents that you didn’t document the requirement properly.
5.3. Extra: You added a feature that the customer didn’t ask for. It’s again a variance from the specification. And the users of the product may like this feature. But it’s still a defect because it’s not part of the specs.
Also Read: Difference Between a Bug
6. What is the basis for preparing an acceptance plan?
Answer.
First of all, you need inputs from the following areas to prepare for the acceptance document. These may vary from company to company and from project to project.
6.1. Requirement document: This document specifies what exactly is needed in the project from the customer’s perspective.
6.2. Customer Input: It could be discussions, informal chats, email addresses, etc.
6.3. Project Plan: The project plan from the project manager (PM) also serves as a good input to conclude your acceptance test.
7. What is the Requirement Traceability Matrix?
Answer.
It’s a common Software testing interview question that you might get asked during an interview. The Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) is a requirement tracking tool that ensures the requirements are the same for the whole development process. There are the following reasons to use it:
7.1. To determine whether the developed project is meeting the requirements of the user.
7.2. To determine all the requirements given by the user.
7.3. To make sure the application requirement can be fulfilled in the verification process.
8. Describe how to perform Risk analysis during software testing.
Answer.
Risk analysis is the process of foreseeing the risks in an application and prioritizing them to test. Following are some of the risks:
8.1- New Hardware.
8.2. New Technology.
8.3. New Automation Tool.
8.4. The sequence of code delivery.
8.5. Availability of application and test resources.
You can prioritize them into three categories in the following manner:
i. High magnitude: Impact of the bug on the other functionality of the application.
ii. Medium: It can be tolerable in the application but not desirable.
iii. Low: It can be bearable. This type of risk has no impact on the company’s business.
9. How to deal with a bug that is intermittent and not reproducible?
Answer.
Again, it’s one of the practical software testing interview questions. A bug might not be reproducible for a variety of reasons. Some of these are as follows.
9.1. Low memory.
9.2. Addressing an unavailable memory location.
9.3. Things happening in a particular sequence.
10. When do you perform decision table testing?
Answer.
We may use the <decision table testing> for testing systems for which the specification takes the form of rules or cause-effect sequences. In a decision table, the input gets listed in a column, with the outputs in the same column but below the inputs. The remainder of the table examines the different sets of inputs to define the outputs produced.
11. What is Boundary Testing?
Answer.
Boundary testing proposes to focus on the limit or edge conditions of the software under test.
12. What is Branch Testing?
Answer.
Branch testing requires testing of all the branches in the program source code at least once.
13. What is Breadth Testing?
Answer.
It is also known as overview testing. It covers the main functionality of the product but does not test the features in detail.
14. What is Alpha Testing?
Answer.
The Alpha Testing takes place at the developer’s end but in a controlled environment. And it is the end user of the software who does it.
15. What is Beta Testing?
Answer.
The purpose of Beta testing is to gather feedback from the real-time usage of the product. It happens after the installation at the client’s end.
16. What is Component Testing?
Answer.
This testing focuses on validating the individual components rather than the whole application.
17. What is End-to-End Testing?
Answer.
End-to-end testing verifies the complete flow of an application right from start to finish. Its purpose is to identify the system dependencies and ensure that the data integrity is intact.
Software testing interview questions focussing on different testing types are useful to check the depth of a candidate’s knowledge.
18. What is Monkey Testing?
Answer.
Monkey testing is a black-box testing technique. It proposes to enter data in any format and verify the software is not crashing. It uses the concept of smart monkeys and dumb monkeys.
- Smart Monkey – Used for load and stress testing and leads to high development cost.
- Dumb Monkey – Used for basic testing and helps in locating quality bugs.
19. What is the difference between baseline and benchmark testing?
Answer.
Following are the primary differences between the baseline and benchmark testing.
- Baseline testing intends to collect the performance of an application. Benchmark testing compares the app’s performance with the industry standard.
- Baseline testing utilizes the data collected to improve performance. Benchmark testing returns the information of the target application vs. other applications.
- Baseline testing compares the current performance with the application’s previous performance whereas benchmark testing compares our app’s performance with the competitor’s performance.
20. What is the role of QA in project development?
Answer.
- The QA team is responsible for ensuring the quality of the software product.
- They are involved in planning, testing, and execution.
- QA manager prepares an estimate and agrees on a Quality Assurance plan for the product.
- He explains the QA process to the team members.
- The test engineers ensure the traceability of test cases to requirements.
Summary – 20 Software Testing Interview Questions.
We hope you would have liked this tiny list of Software testing interview questions and answers. However, don’t just leave without checking these ultimate Web testing interview questions. And, by the way, if you’ve any queries, please share them with us via email.
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Best,
TechBeamers.
