Manual Testing Interview Questions

Here are some of the Manual Testing Interview questions.

What is baseline testing?
Baseline testing is the process of running a set of tests to capture performance information. Baseline testing use the information collected to made the changes in the application to improve performance and capabilities of the application. Baseline compares present performance of application with its own previous performance.

What is benchmark testing?
Benchmarking testing is the process of comparing application performance with respect to industry standard which is given by some other organization. Benchmark informs us where our application stands with respect to others. Benchmark compares our application performance with other company’s application’s performance.
What is verification and validation?
Verification: process of evaluating work-products of a development phase to determine whether they meet the specified requirements for that phase.

Validation: process of evaluating software during or at the end of the development process to determine whether it specified requirements.

What is the difference between Verification and Validation?

– Verification is Static Testing where as Validations is Dynamic Testing.
– Verification takes place before validation.
– Verification evaluates plans, document, requirements and specification, where as Validation evaluates product.
– Verification inputs are checklist, issues list, walkthroughs and inspection ,where as in Validation testing of actual product.
– Verification output is set of document, plans, specification and requirement documents where as in Validation actual product is output.

Explain Branch Coverage and Decision Coverage.
– Branch Coverage is testing performed in order to ensure that every branch of the software is executed atleast. To perform the Branch coverage testing we take the help of the Control Flow Graph.

– Decision coverage testing ensures that every decision taking statement is executed atleast once.

– Both decision and branch coverage testing is done to ensure the tester that no branch and decision taking statement, will not lead to failure of the software.

– To Calculate Branch Coverage:
Branch Coverage = Tested Decision Outcomes / Total Decision Outcomes.

What is difference between Retesting and Regression testing?
The differences between Retesting and Regression testing are below:

– Retesting is done to verify defect fix previous in now working correctly where as regression is perform to check if the defect fix have not impacted other functionality that was working fine before doing changes in the code.

– Retesting is specific and is performed on the bug which is fixed where as in regression is not be always specific to any defect fix it is performed when any bug is fixed.

– Retesting concern with executing those test cases that are failed earlier where as regression concern with executing test cases that was passed in earlier builds.

– Retesting has higher priority over regression.

What is Mutation testing & when can it be done?
Mutation testing is a performed to find out the defect in the program. It is performed to find put bugs in specific module or component of the application. Mutation testing is based on two assumptions:

Competent programmer hypothesis: according this hypothesis we suppose that program write the correct code of the program.
Coupling effect: according to this effect collection of different set of test data can also find large and complex bugs.
In this testing we insert few bugs into program to examine the optimal test inputs.

What is severity and priority of bug? Give some example.
Priority: concern with application from the business point of view.

It answers: How quickly we need to fix the bug? Or how soon the bug should get fixed?
Severity: concern with functionality of application.

How much the bug is affecting the functionality of the application?

Ex.

1. High Priority and Low Severity:
If a company logo is not properly displayed on their website.

2. High Priority and High Severity:
Suppose you are doing online shopping and filled payment information, but after submitting the form, you get a message like “Order has been cancelled.”

3. Low Priority and High Severity:
If we have a typical scenario in which the application get crashed, but that scenario exists rarely.

4. Low Priority and Low Severity:
There is a mistake like “You have registered success” instead of successfully, success is written.
Explain bug leakage and bug release.
Bug Leakage: When customer or end user discovered a bug which can be detected by the testing team. Or when a bug is detected which can be detected in pervious build then this is called as Bug Leakage.

Bug release: is when a build is handed to testing team with knowing that defect is present in the release. The priority and severity of bug is low. It is done when customer want the application on the time. Customer can tolerate the bug in the released then the delay in getting the application and the cost involved in removing that bug. These bugs are mentioned in the Release Notes handed to client for the future improvement chances.

What is alpha and beta testing?
Alpha testing: is performed by the IN-House developers. After alpha testing the software is handed over to software QA team, for additional testing in an environment that is similar to the client environment.

Beta testing: beta testing becomes active. It is performed by end user. So that they can make sure that the product is bug free or working as per the requirement. IN-house developers and software QA team perform alpha testing. The public, a few select prospective customers or the general public performs beta testing.

What is Monkey testing?
Monkey testing is a type of Black Box Testing used mostly at the Unit Level. In this tester enter the data in any format and check the software is not crashing. In this testing we use Smart monkey and Dumb monkey.

Smart monkeys are used for load and stress testing, they will help in finding the bugs. They are very expensive to develop.

Dumb monkey, are important for basic testing. They help in finding those bugs which are having high severity. Dumb monkey are less expensive as compare to Smart monkeys.

Example: In phone number filed Symbols are entered.

What is test driver and test stub?
– The Stub is called from the software component to be tested. It is used in top down approach.
– The driver calls a component to be tested. It is used in bottom up approach.
– Both test stub and test driver are dummy software components.

We need test stub and test driver because of following reason:

– Suppose we want to test the interface between modules A and B and we have developed only module A. So we cannot test module A but if a dummy module is prepare, using that we can test module A.

– Now module B cannot send or receive data from module A directly so, in these cases we have to transfer data from one module to another module by some external features. This external feature used is called Driver.

What is random testing?
When tester performs testing of application by using random input from the input domain of the system, this is Random Testing.

Random testing involve following procedures:

– Selection of input domain.
– Randomly selecting any input from input domain.
– Using these test input testing of application is performed.
– The results are compared to the system specification. The test is a failure if any input leads to incorrect results, otherwise it is a success.

What is Agile Testing?
Agile Testing means to quickly validation of the client requirements and make the application of good quality user interface. When the build is released to the testing team, testing of the application is started to find the bugs. As a Tester, we need to focus on the customer or end user requirements. We put the efforts to deliver the quality product in spite of short time frame which will further help in reducing the cost of development and test feedbacks will be implemented in the code which will avoid the defects coming from the end user.
Describe Use Case Testing.
Use Case: A use case is a description of the process which is performed by the end user for a particular task. Use case contains a sequence of step which is performed by the end user to complete a specific task or a step by step process that describe how the application and end user interact with each other. Use case is written by the user point of view.

Use case Testing: the use case testing uses this use case to evaluate the application. So that, the tester can examines all the functionalities of the application. Use case testing cover whole application,

What is the purpose of test strategy?
We need Test Strategy for the following reasons:

1. To have a signed, sealed, and delivered document, where the document contains details about the testing methodology, test plan, and test cases.
2. Test strategy document tells us how the software product will be tested.
3. Test strategy document helps to review the test plan with the project team members.
4. It describes the roles, responsibilities and the resources required for the test and schedule.
5. When we create a test strategy document, we have to put into writing any testing issues requiring resolution.

The test strategy is decided first, before lower level decisions are made on the test plan, test design, and other testing issues.

Explain bug life cycle.
Bug Life Cycle:

– When a tester finds a bug .The bug is assigned with NEW or OPEN status,

– The bug is assigned to development project manager who will analyze the bug .He will check whether it is a valid defect. If not valid bug is rejected then status is REJECTED.

– If not, next the defect is checked whether it is in scope. When bug is not part of the current release .Such defects are POSTPONED

– Now, Tester checks whether a similar defect was raised earlier. If yes defect is assigned a status DUPLICATE

– When bug is assigned to developer. During this stage bug is assigned a status IN-PROGRESS

– Once code is fixed. Defect is assigned a status FIXED

– Next the tester will re-test the code. In case the test case passes the defect is CLOSED

– If the test case fails again the bug is RE-OPENED and assigned to the developer. That’s all to Bug Life Cycle.

What is Error guessing and Error seeding?
Error Guessing is a test case design technique where the tester has to guess what faults might occur and to design the tests to represent them.

Error Seeding is the process of adding known faults intentionally in a program for the reason of monitoring the rate of detection & removal and also to estimate the number of faults remaining in the program.
Explain Compatibility testing with an example.
Compatibility testing is to evaluate the application compatibility with the computing environment like Operating System, Database, Browser compatibility, backwards compatibility, computing capacity of the Hardware Platform and compatibility of the Peripherals. Example, If Compatibility testing is done on a Game application, before installing a game on a computer, its compatibility is checked with the computer specification that whether it is compatible with the computer having that much of specification or not.

What is Test Harness?
A test harness is a collection of software and test data required to test the application by running it in different testing condition like stress, load, data- driven, and monitoring its behavior and outputs. Test Harness contains two main parts:

– Test execution engine
– Test script repository

Automation testing is the use of a tool to control the execution of tests and compare the actual results with the expected results. It also involves the setting up of test pre-conditions.
Explain Statement coverage.
Statement Coverage is a metric used in White Box Testing. Statement coverage is used to ensure that all the statement in the program code is executed at least once. The advantages of Statement Coverage are:

– Verifies that written code is correct.
– Measures the quality of code written.
– Determine the control flow of the program.
– To Calculate Statement Coverage:
– Statement Coverage = Statements Tested / Total No. of Statements.

What are the types of testing?
There are two types of testing:

– Static testing: Static testing is a technique used in the earlier phase of the development life cycle. The code error detection and execution of program is not concern in this type of testing. Also known as non-execution technique. The Verification of the product is performed in this testing technique like Code Reviews, Inspections, Walkthroughs are mostly done in this stage of testing.

– Dynamic testing: Dynamic Testing is concern with the execution of the software. This technique is used to test the dynamic behavior of the code. Most of the bugs are identified using this technique. These are the Validation activities. It uses different methodologies to perform testing like Unit Tests, Integration Tests, System Tests and Acceptance Testing, etc.
Explain User acceptance testing.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is performed by the end users on the applications before accepting the application.

Alpha testing: is performed by the IN-House developers. After alpha testing the software is handed for the Beta testing phase, for additional testing in an environment that is similar to the client environment.

Beta testing: is performed by the end user. So that they can make sure that the product is bug free or working as per the requirement. IN-house developers and software QA team perform alpha testing. The public, a few select prospective customers or the general public performs beta testing.

Gamma Testing: Gamma Testing is done when the software is ready for release with specified requirements. This testing is done directly by skipping all the in-house testing activities.

What should be done after a bug is found?
After finding the bug the first step is bug to be locked in bug report. Then this bug needs to be communicated and assigned to developers that can fix it. After the bug is fixes by the developer, fixes should be re-tested, and determinations made regarding requirements for regression testing to check that fixes didn’t create problems elsewhere.

What if the software is so buggy it can’t really be tested at all?
In this situation is for the testers to go through the process of reporting of bugs with the focus being on critical bugs. Since this type of problem can severely affect schedules, and indicates deeper problems in the software development process project managers should be notified, and provided with some documentation.

What are the types of maintenance?
There are four types of maintenance. They are:

– Corrective Maintenance
– Adaptive Maintenance
– Perfective Maintenance
– Preventive Maintenance

What are the advantages of waterfall model?
The advantages of the waterfall model are:

– Simple to implement and required fewer amounts of resources.
– After every phase output is generate.
– Help in methods of analysis, design, coding, testing and maintenance.
– Preferred in projects where quality is more important than schedule and cost.
– Systematic and sequential model.
– Proper documentation of the project.

What is Rapid Application Development model (RAD)?
The RAD model Rapid Application development (RAD) is incremental software development process models that focus on the development of the project in very short time. It is enhanced version of Waterfall model. It is proposed when requirements and solutions can be made independently system or software components, which is developed by different teams. After these smaller system components are developed, they are integrated to produce the large software system solution.

What are the advantages of black box testing?
The advantages of this type of testing include:

– Developer and tester are independent of each other.
– The tester does not need knowledge of any programming languages.
– The test is done from the point-of-view of the user.
– Test cases can be designed when specifications are complete.
– Testing helps to identify issues related to functional specifications.

What is software review?
A software review can be defined as a filter for the software engineering process. The purpose of any review is to discover errors in the analysis, design, and coding, testing and implementation phases of the software development cycle. The other purpose of a review is to see whether procedures are applied uniformly and in a manageable manner. It is used to check the process followed to develop the software is right.

What is reverse engineering?
By analyzing a final product the process of recreating a design is known as reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is the process followed in order to find difficult, unknown, and hidden information about a software system. It is important when software products lack proper documentation, and are highly unstructured, or their structure has degraded through a series of maintenance efforts. Maintenance activities cannot be performed without a complete understanding of the software system.

What is data flow diagram?
The Data Flow Diagram gives us information of the flow of data within the application.

– The DFD can be used to analyze the design of the application.
– It is a graphical representation of the structure of the data.
– A developer draws context level DFD first showing interaction between the different components of the application.
– DFD help in developing the software by clarifying the requirements and major functionalities.
– DFDs show the flow of data through a system.
– It is an important modeling tool that allows us to picture a system as a network of functional processes.

What is exploratory testing?
Exploratory testing: means testing an application without a test plan and test script. In exploring testing test explore the application on the basis on his knowledge. The tester has no knowledge about the application previously. He explores the application like an end user and try to use it. While using the application his main motive is to find the bugs which are in the application.

What is compatibility testing?
Compatibility testing is a type of testing used to find out the compatibility between the application and platform on which application works, web browsers, hardware, operating systems etc. Good software must be compatible with different hardware, web browser and database.

What is SRS and BRS document?
Software Requirements Specification (SRS) is documented form of the requirement of the customer. It consists of all requirement of the customer regarding that software to be developed. The SRS document work as agreement between the company and the customer consisting of all functional and non functional requirements.

Business Requirement Specification (BRS) are the requirements as described by the business people. The business tells “what” they want for the application to do. In simple word BRS contain the functional requirement of the application.

Can you explain V model in manual testing?
V model: it is enhanced version of waterfall model where each level of the development lifecycle is verified before moving to next level. In this testing starts at the very beginning. By testing we mean verification by means of reviews and inspections, static testing. Each level of the development life – cycle has a corresponding test plan. A test plan is developed to prepare for the testing of the products of that phase. Be developing the test plans, we can also define the expected results for testing of the products for that level as well as defining the entry and exit criteria for each level.

What is Concurrency Testing?
Concurrency Testing is used to know the effects of using the software by different users at the same time. In this type of testing we have multiple users performing the exact same requests at the same time. It helps in identifying and measuring the problems in Response time, levels of locking and deadlocking in the application. For this we use Load runner to create VUGen (Virtual User Generator) is used to add the number of concurrent users and perform operation on the application on the same time.

What is an inspection in software testing?
An inspection is more formalized than a walkt hrough. Inspection technique involves 3 to 8 team member consisting of a moderator, reader, and a recorder to take notes. The subject of the inspection is typically a document such as a requirements or a test plan, and the purpose is to find problems and see what is missing, most problems will be found during this preparation. The result of the inspection meeting should be a written report. It is one of the most cost effective methods of ensuring quality.

A Form has four mandatory fields to be entered before you Submit. How many numbers of test cases are required to verify this? And what are they?
Five test cases are required to test:

1. Enter the data in all the mandatory fields and submit, should not display error message.
2. Enter data in any two mandatory fields and summit, should issue an error message.
3. Do not enter in any of the fields should issue an error message.
4. If the fields accept only number, enter numbers in the fields and submit, should not issue an error message, try to enter only in two fields should issue an error message, and enter alphabets in two fields and number in other two fields it should issue an error message.
5. If the fields do not accept special characters, then enter the characters and submit it.

What is Cyclomatic Complexity?
Cyclomatic complexity is used to measure the complexity of the software using the control flow graph of the software. It is a graphical representation, consisting of following:

NODE: statement of the program is taken as node of the graph.

Edges: the flow of command is denoted by edges. Edges are used to connect two node , this show flow of control from one node to other node in the program.

Using this node and edges we calculate the complexity of the program.
This determines the minimum number of inputs you need to test always to execute the program.

How does one manually test the performance of a website?

Well, this is what we do all the time, if we are not running those fancy app testing tools. In an open device lab or a private one, we use stop watches and perform certain actions to check if it loads fast. Or, you may even go ahead and say that you mentally calculate the time if you do not have access to a stop watch on your phone (which is next to impossible). The bottom-line is, this is one of the questions that is asked for the sake of asking. You must stand your ground and not be overcome with nervousness or fear.

What are the disadvantages of automated testing?

Automated testing does not represent reality. Real time testing helps you to check for yourself how an application behaves on a particular device. If the automated software does not have access to a particular device, you may miss out on that. Moreover, comprehensive app testing programs are expensive. Last but not the least, all the areas of testing cannot be automated. Ensure that you have all these points in mind, and your interview should go well no matter what.

Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

Interview questions cannot get more clichéd than this one. Nevertheless, they are still asked. Your focus should be on revealing that you would like to remain updated with newer software programs, languages, app designing skills and continued learning.

What is the difference between priority and severity?

Severity refers to the consequence of a bug or a fault within an application and how serious that fault really is. Severity is something that an app developer must always be aware of. It tells a developer how serious a bug is when it comes to an app’s functionality. On the other hand, priority refers to how important a bug is with respect to customers.

For instance, Apple may one day realize that its Calendar application has certain bugs that are high in ‘severity’. The users may not realize it, but the Calendar app on the iOS platform may have certain security issues. On the other hand, when iPhone’s battery heats up after a software update, it is high on a customer’s priority. One cannot say which one is more important than the other.

One can rather put it this way: as an app developer, you must constantly be looking for a bug’s severity, whether you receive complaints or you don’t. On the other hand, peering through all the consumer feedback helps you to assign priority to certain bugs.

Why did you choose testing as a profession?

This is a question that is so clichéd that it does not require to be on the list of clichés either. Nevertheless, this is also one of those questions that leave many app developers and testers dumbfounded. Take a moment’s deep breath and think. Why did you choose to be an app developer? Well, because it is exciting, and you always learn something new and you get to be creative. This is what an app tester or developer’s job is all about. Your recruiter just wants to know if you are happy about your profession or you are not. If you are, then show it to them that you are. It is as simple as that.

What are the key challenges of software testing that you faced in your career?

Following are some challenges of software testing that I faced in my career:

i) Unstable Application Under Test.

ii) Time constraints.

iii) Understanding and Analyzing the requirements.

iv) Changing Requirements.

v) Lack of Domain knowledge and business user perspective understanding.

vi) Prioritizing Test cases

vii) Lack of skilled team members.

viii) Selecting Test Cases for Regression testing.

ix) Lack of resources and training.

x) Test Environment issues.

 How you derived Test Cases?

That depends on project, sometimes we derived Test cases from requirements and sometimes from use cases.

How many Test cases did you write for last project?

Nearly 170 Test cases.

How much time is required to write a Test case?

That depends on complexity of the functionality.

How many defects did you detect in your last project?

I executed nearly 150 Test cases, in which some 22 defects were raised including 3 showstoppers.

 Did you face any problems during defect reporting and tracking?

Yes, Developers rejected 2 or 3 valid defects.

Did you create RTM (Requirements Traceability Matrix) document in your project?

I only updated the RTM document.

Did you involve in Test Environment setup?

Yes, I involved in verifying Test Lab setup along with other team members.

Did you perform any Live testing?

Yes, In my current project we used live data for some test cases.

What is difference between Front End Testing and Back End testing?

Front End Testing is performed on the Graphical User Interface (GUI), whereas Back End Testing involves databases testing.

We conduct Database Testing using SQL Queries.

Database Testing is subset of Functional Testing.

What is the difference between System Testing and Functional Testing?

System Testing is a Test Level

Functional Testing is a Test Type that can be performed in all levels of Testing (Unit Testing, Integration Testing, system Testing and Acceptance Testing).

What is the difference between Performance Testing and Load Testing?

Load Testing, Stress Testing, Spike Testing and Endurance Testing all are subsets of performance Testing.

What are the Test types that you performed in your Software Testing career?

Functionality Testing

Security Testing

Usability Testing

Compatibility Testing

Installation Testing etc…

What are the Test deliverables?

What documentation we produce during testing all come under Test deliverable s.

Test Plan

Test Scenarios

Test Cases

Opened and Closed Defect Reports

Test metrics reports

Test summary Report etc…

Did you involve in Test plan documentation?

Yes, I involved in Test plan documentation in the last project, identified Features to be Tested, Entry criteria, Exit criteria.

What is Exhaustive Testing?

Exhaustive Testing – testing with all possible inputs and pre-conditions and it is impractical, so we use Test design techniques to reduce the size of Input and Output domains.

What are the important phases in Formal Software test process or Software test life cycle?

i) Test Planning

ii) Test Design

iii) Test Execution

iv) Evaluating exit criteria and Test closure.

What are the important tasks in Test Planning phase?

Important tasks in Test planning phase are:

i) Understanding and Analyzing the Requirements
ii) Risk Analysis
iii) Test Strategy Implementation
iv) Test Estimations (Scope, Time, Resources, Budget etc…)
v) Team Formation
vi) Test Plan Documentation
vii) Configuration Management Planning
viii) Tractability Matrix documentation
ix) Define Test Environment Setup

What are important tasks in Test Design phase?

i) Understanding Requirements
ii) Generate Test Scenarios
iii) Test Case Documentation
iv) Test Data Collection

What are Test design techniques that you used?

I used Black box Test Design Techniques,

i) Equivalence Class Partitioning

ii) Boundary Value Analysis

iii) Decision Tables

iv) State Transition Testing etc…

$That depends on Company and some times depends on Project, in my current project I am communicating Developers via our Test Lead.

What is Configuration Management? Did you any Configuration Management Tool in your Testing career?

Storing and Organizing all configurable items is called Configuration Management, It is not only for Testing Team, also for all Stake holders of the Project.

It is very important for Development than Testing Team, I used VSS Tool for Configuration Management in my last project.

You told Configurable items, What are Configurable items in Software Test Process?

What Software & Hardware we use and What Documents (Test Plan, Test Cases, defect Reports, Test Summary Report etc…) we produce during Testing all are come under Configurable items.

When we choose Informal Testing?

Whenever we don’t have proper documentation (Requirements etc…) and sufficient Time then we choose Informal Testing. Using Experienced based Techniques (Ex: Error Guessing, Exploratory Testing etc…) we conduct Testing.

What are the important Test Types that can be applied for Web Applications?

Test Types that applied for Web Applications are,

i) Functionality Testing
ii) Security Testing
iii) Compatibility Testing (OS Compatibility and Browser Compatibility)
iv) Navigation Testing
v) Database Testing
vi) Reliability Testing
vii) Usability Testing
viii) Recovery Testing
ix) Performance Testing Etc…

Do You have experience in Database Testing?

Yes, I conducted Database Testing Manually using SQL Commands,

I Tested the following Database operations during Database Testing,

i) Data Manipulations (Add / Edit / Delete Records)
ii) Data Integrity
ii) Data Retrievals
iii) Data Comparisons etc…

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