Testing Interview Questions: Everything You Need to Know

Testing interview questions are an essential and unavoidable part of beginning a career in software development.8 min read updated on February 01, 2023

What Are Testing Interview Questions?

Testing interview questions are an essential and unavoidable part of beginning a career in software development. Software testing is the process of finding bugs in a program or application. This is to ensure that the product being developed works as intended for the consumer. If you're going to be interviewed for a software testing position, be prepared for a rigorous screening process. However, you can feel confident knowing what kind of questions you'll be asked. Make sure you know how to answer the following questions to ensure a successful interview.

What's the primary benefit of designing tests early on in the life cycle?
What's risk-based testing?
How is the level of risk determined?
What purpose does exit criteria serve?
How are a preventative approach to testing and a reactive approach to testing different?
When is decision-table testing used?
When reviewing a software deliverable, what's the main thing to look for?
Do test case specification or test design specification define the expected results of a test?
How is test independence beneficial?
During which test process do you determine the exit criteria?
What's beta testing?
What's rapid application development?
How are testing techniques and testing tools different?
What are user acceptance test cases?
How would you describe component testing?
What is regression testing?
What's the purpose of functional system testing?
Which different methodologies are present in the agile development model?
Which part of the fundamental test process involves evaluation of the testability of the requirements and system?
What is the primary reason for using risk to drive testing efforts?
What is random/monkey testing, and when is it used?
What are valid objectives for incident reports?
Which testing techniques are static and which are dynamic?
Why are static and dynamic testing complementary?
How is a formal review organized?
What does a moderator do in the review process?
When should you implement configuration management procedures?
What type of testing investigates functions relating to threats?
What type of testing involves subjecting the target to varying workloads?
What type of testing exposes defects in integrated component systems?
What are structure-based testing techniques?
When should you perform regression testing?
How do negative and positive testing differ?
Are reviews and inspections part of testing?
What tools are involved in regression test automation?
Why is it difficult for developers to test their own work?
When should you stop testing?
What is the purpose of integration strategy?
What's a semi-random test case?
What is black box testing, and what are the different techniques?
Which review determines a product's suitability for use?
Why are decision tables used?
Who should document faults?
Which documentation standard is recognized worldwide?
Why are good test cases provided by boundary value analysis?
How can the tester rely on configuration management?
Why is testing split into separate stages?
What does DRE mean?
How do you estimate the required amount of re-testing?
How do you study data flow analysis?
What's alpha testing?
How do software testing life cycle and software development life cycle differ?
What's involved with a traceability matrix?
What are the different types of white box testing?
How do user acceptance testing and system testing differ?
What steps should you take to resolve issues while testing?
What does the phantom tool do?
Which testing activities would you automate in a testing project?
What are the test plan tables?
What's the difference between data-driven testing and retesting?
What valuable steps help resolve issues while testing?
Is Equivalence Partitioning static or dynamic?
Is use case testing static or dynamic?
Is data flow analysis static or dynamic?
Is exploratory testing static or dynamic?
Is decision testing static or dynamic?
Are inspections static or dynamic?
How do test scenarios, test cases, and test scripts differ?
How would you describe a latent defect?
What two parameters are useful to know the quality of test execution?
What are test deliverables?
How would you describe mutation testing?
What should you consider before selecting automation tools for the AUT?
How is technical feasibility relevant to AUT?
How is complexity level relevant to AUT?
How is application stability relevant to AUT?
How is test data relevant to AUT?
How is application size relevant to AUT?
How is re-usability of automated scripts relevant to AUT?
How is execution across environment relevant to AUT?
How do you conduct risk analysis?
How do you find the score of the risk?
How do you make a profile for the risk?
How do you change the risk properties?
How do you deploy the resources of that test risk?
How do you make a database of risk?
What are the debugging categories?
What is brute force debugging?
What is backtracking?
What is cause elimination?
What is program slicing?
What is fault tree analysis?
How would you describe fault masking?
What is an example of fault masking?
What information should be covered in a test plan?
Why is a test strategy important?
Why is a test objective important?
Why are exit and suspension criteria important?
Why is resource planning important?
Why are test deliverables important?
What can you do to eliminate product risk in your project?
How would you investigate the specification documents?
How would you conduct discussions with project stakeholders?
Why would you want to experience the website as a user?
What common risks lead to project failure?
Why would not having enough human resources lead to failure?
Why would a poorly set up testing environment lead to failure?
How do you control a limited budget?
How do you deal with time limitations?
How would you make an estimate for your project?
How would you divide the project into smaller tasks?
By what basis would you allocate tasks to team members?
How would you estimate the effort necessary for each task's completion?
How do you validate your estimation?
What are the commonly used testing types?
What is unit testing?
What is API testing?
What is integration testing?
What is system testing?
What is install/uninstall testing?
What is agile testing?
What do you have to consider when monitoring your project?
How do you recognize warning signs of impending problems?
What common mistakes create issues?
What do typical test reports contain?
Why are test reports beneficial?
How would you describe the test management review process?
What best practices ensure premier software quality assurance?
At what stage is a requirement traceability matrix prepared?
How do test matrices and traceability matrices differ?
What are stubs and drivers in manual testing?
What steps do you perform when you find a defect?
What's the keyword driven method of testing?
How would you describe a data flow diagram?
What does LCSAJ stand for?
What three items does LCSAJ consist of?
How would you describe N+1 testing?
What are the advantages of statement coverage metric of software testing?
How would you generate test cases for replace string method?
How would you manage conflict among your team?
How are defects categorized?
What is a wrong defect?
What is a missing defect?
What is an extra defect?
What's the difference between a defect and a failure?
How would you test documents in a project that span the entire development cycle?
What is the central project test plan?
What is the acceptance test plan?
What is the system test plan?
What is the integration and unit test plan?
Are black boxes or white boxes written first?
How do latent and masked defects differ?
How would you perform bottom-up testing?
What are the different types of test coverage techniques?
What is statement coverage?
What is decision coverage?
What is path coverage?
What does breadth testing do?
How do pilot testing and beta testing differ?
What are the basic components of defect report format?
Why would you perform end-to-end testing?
What's a test harness?

Manual and Automation Software Testing Interview Questions

What is the most challenging situation you've faced during testing?
How would you prepare for a software testing or QA interview?
What questions do you think would be asked regarding manual and automation software testing?
What is a sanity test?
How do client-server testing and web-based testing differ?
What are the different black box testing techniques?
What are the different white box testing techniques?
What are the different types of testing?
What's the difference between static and dynamic testing?
How would you describe formal testing?
Why would you perform early testing?
How would you describe defect clustering?
What is the purpose of exploratory testing?
What is monkey testing?
What's the difference between non-functionality testing and usability testing?
How would you define security testing?
Why is load testing important?
How would you describe performance testing?
How would you describe GUI testing?
How would you describe risk-based testing?
What is known as the pesticide paradox?
What is the lifecycle of the testing process?
How would you use software configuration management?
What does CMMI mean?
How does a code walkthrough work?
What's the difference between unit-level and system-level testing?
What does alpha testing mean?
How would you perform user acceptance testing?
How do you form a test plan?
What's the difference between exhaustive testing and exploratory testing?
How would you formulate a test scenario?
Why are both globalization testing and localization testing important?
How would you describe ECP?
How do you define entry criteria and exit criteria software testing?
Why are installation testing and un-installation testing important?
How do you determine severity?
How do you determine priority?
What qualifies as a defect?
How do you determine defect age?
How would you describe regression testing?
How would you describe the showstopper defect?
What would you do to perform concurrency testing?
How would you perform fuzz testing?
How do QA, QC, and testing differ?
When is testing considered data driven?
What stage of the process is considered gamma testing?
What testing activities would you automate in a testing project?
What is equivalence partitioning?
What is boundary value analysis?
What is state transition testing?
What is all-pairs testing?
How is performance testing useful for testing web applications?
How is security testing useful for testing web applications?
What's the difference between a web application and a desktop application?
How would a security test help estimate the risk of a DDoS attack?

Testing Interview Questions

When should exploratory testing be done?
What are the various test techniques?
How would you test a web application's login feature?
Which testing types are essential for web testing?
How are search results verified?
How would you describe acceptance testing?
How would you describe accessibility testing?
How would you describe ad hoc testing?
How would you describe agile testing?
What does API mean?
How would you describe bottom-up testing?
How would you describe automated testing?
How is beta testing different from alpha testing?
What qualifies as black box testing?

Job Interview Test Questions

Some interview questions don't change regardless of the job you're applying for. While you're busy memorizing all there is to know about software testing, don't forget the basics. Have a clear plan for your future and a set purpose for wanting the job you applied for. Remember the answers to the following questions as well.

In what ways would you describe yourself?
Would you have changed your college career given the opportunity and how so?
How are you motivated toward success?
What are your job goals in the short-term?
Are you more comfortable than others in job interviews?
What are your job goals in the long-term?
How much are you expecting to earn for this position?

With the answers to these questions in mind, you will excel at an interview for software testing and can begin or advance your career.

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