Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T.

Training for Everyone Worldwide

www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

H2kInfosys
H2K Infosys provides online IT training and placement services worldwide.
www.H2KINFOSYS.com
USA- +1-(770)-777-1269, UK (020) 3371 7615
[email protected] / [email protected]

DISCLAIMER
H2K Infosys, LLC (hereinafter H2K) acknowledges the proprietary rights of the trademarks and
products names of other companies mentioned in any of the training material including but not
limited to the handouts, written material, videos, power point presentations, etc. All such training
materials are provided to H2K students for learning purposes only. H2K students shall not use such
materials for their private gain nor can they sell any such materials to a third party. Some of the
examples provided in any such training materials may not be owned by H2K and as such H2K does
not claim any proprietary rights for the same. H2K does not guarantee nor is it responsible for such
products and projects. H2K acknowledges that any such information or product that has been
lawfully received from third party source is free from restriction and without any breach or
violation of law whatsoever.

Loadrunner Interview Questions

and
Answers from H2kinfosys

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

Performance Testing Interview Questions and Answers

1) What is Performance Testing?

Ans:
The process of testing to determine the performance of software product.
2) What is Load Testing?
Ans:
A type of performance testing conducted to evaluate the behavior of a component or
system with increasing load, e.g. numbers of parallel users and/or numbers of
transactions, to determine what load can be handled by the component or system.
3) What is Stress Testing?
Ans:
A type of performance testing conducted to evaluate a system or component at or
beyond the limits of its anticipated or specified work loads, or with reduced
availability of resources such as access to memory or servers.
4) What is Spike Testing?
Ans:
Verify the Systems performance under sudden increments and decrements.
5) What is Data Volume Testing?
Ans:
Testing where the system is subjected to large volumes of data.
6) What is Endurance Testing?
Ans:
Verifying the Systems performance under continues load in terms of users and
transactions.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

7) What is LoadRunner?
Ans:
It is a Performance Test Tool from HP. It supports all aspects of Performance Testing
like Load, Stress, Endurance, spike and Data volume testing.
8) What are the tools available in the industry for Load Testing?
Ans:
LoadRunner from HP
RPT (Rational Performance Tester) from IBM
Silk Performer from Micro Focus
JMeter (Open source Tool) Etc

9) What is latest version of LoadRunner?

Ans:
LoadRunner 11.5
10) What is the scripting language that used in LoadRunner?
Ans:
VUser script (It is C like language)
11) What are the 4 important components in LoadRunner?
Ans:
Virtual User Generator (VUGEN)
Controller
Load Generator
Analysis
12) How do you identify the performance bottlenecks?
Ans:
Performance Bottlenecks can be detected by using monitors. These monitors might be
application server monitors, web server monitors, database server monitors and

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

network monitors. They help in finding out the troubled area in our scenario which
causes increased response time. The measurements made are usually performance
response time, throughput, hits/sec, network delay graphs, etc.

13) If web server, database and Network are all fine where could be the
problem?
Ans:
The problem could be in the system itself or in the application server or in the code
written for the application.
14) How did you find web server related issues?
Ans:
Using Web resource monitors we can find the performance of web servers. Using
these monitors we can analyze throughput on the web server, number of hits per
second that occurred during scenario, the number of http responses per second, the
number of downloaded pages per second.
15) How did you find database related issues?
Ans:
By running Database monitor and help of Data Resource Graph we can find
database related issues. E.g. You can specify the resource you want to measure on
before running the controller and than you can see database related issues
16) Explain all the web recording options?
17) What is the difference between Overlay graph and Correlate graph?
Ans:
Overlay Graph:
It overlay the content of two graphs that shares a common x-axis. Left Y-axis on the
merged graph shows the current graphs value & Right Y-axis show the value of Yaxis of the graph that was merged.
Correlate Graph:

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

Plot the Y-axis of two graphs against each other. The active graphs Y-axis becomes
X-axis of merged graph. Y-axis of the graph that was merged becomes merged
graphs Y-axis.

18) How did you plan the Load? What are the Criteria?
Ans:
Load test is planned to decide the number of users, what kind of machines we are
going to use and from where they are run. It is based on 2 important documents, Task
Distribution Diagram and Transaction profile. Task Distribution Diagram gives us the
information on number of users for a particular transaction and the time of the load.
The peak usage and off-usage are decided from this Diagram. Transaction profile
gives us the information about the transactions name and their priority levels with
regard to the scenario we are deciding.
19) What does vuser_init action contain?
Ans:
Vuser_init action contains procedures to login to a server.
20) What does vuser_end action contain?
Ans:
Vuser_end section contains log off procedures.

21) What is Performance Test Tool?

Ans:
A tool to support performance testing that usually has two main
Facilities: load generation and test transaction measurement.
Load generation can simulate either multiple users or high volumes of input data.
During execution, response time measurements are taken from selected transactions
and these are logged.
Performance testing tools normally provide reports based on test logs and graphs of
load against response times.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

22) What are the phases in LoadRunner Test Process?

Ans:
I) Planning the Test
II) Creating VUser Scripts
III) Creating the Scenario
IV) Running the Scenario
V) Monitoring the Scenario
VI) Analyzing Test Result
23) How LoadRunner interact with Software Application?
Ans:
LoadRunner interacts with Software Application based on Protocols.
24) What is Protocol?
Ans:
A set of rules that enable Computer devices to connect and transmit data to one
another. Protocols determine how data are transmitted between computing devices
and over networks.
25) What are the important Protocol Bundles that LoadRunner supports?
Ans:
LoadRunner Supporting Protocol Bundles
.NET Record/Replay
Database
DCOM
Network

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

Oracle E-Business
Remote Access
Rich Internet Applications
SAP
SOA
Templates
Web and Multimedia
Wireless
GUI
Java Record/Replay
Remote Desktop
Web 2.0
26) What is the extension of LoadRunner scenario file?
Ans:
Extension of LoadRunner scenario file is .lrs
27) How many areas we can do the correlation?
Ans:
Areas of correlation are:
1) ItemData
2) TimeStamp
3) Links
4) Check Boxes
5) List Buttons
6) Radio Buttons
28) Tell something about LoadRunner?

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

Ans:
1) LoadRunner is the industry standard automated performance and load testing tool.
2) HP acquired LoadRunner as part of its acquisition of Mercury Interactive.
3) Using LoadRunner one can emulated hundreds and thousand of virtual users for
performance and load testing.
4) LoadRunner supports wide range of industry standard applications for load testing.
29) What are the features of HP LoadRunner?
Ans:
The key features of HP LoadRunner are as follows:
1. TruClient technology that simplifies and accelerates scripting for complex Rich
Internet applications.
2. Enterprise load generation that applies measurable and repeatable loads while
monitoring systems and end-user transactions to identify issues.
3. Powerful analysis and reporting capabilities that help isolate performance
bottlenecks quickly and easily.
4.Integrated diagnostics help pinpoint the root causes of application-level issues down
to the code level.
30) What is a virtual user or VUser in LoadRunner?
Ans:
Virtual user or Vuser emulates the real user steps. The real user steps are recorded a
test script.
During the recording time user steps (like posting the requests or accessing the pages)
are recorded as test script. When the test script is played back the script is going to
perform the user actions. The real user emulation by playing back the script is called
virtual user or vuser.
The vusers are created as a process or a thread in LoadRunner for multiple users.
31) What are the LoadRunner components?
Ans:
LoadRunner has majorily 4 components
1. LoadRunner VuGen - Virtual user generator - used for scripting purpose.
2. LoadRunner Controller - used for load test execution and monitoring purpose.
3. LoadRunner Load Generator - used for generating the load of multiple virtual users.
4. LoadRunner Analysis - used for analysis and reporting purpose.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

32) What is a transaction in LoadRunner?

Ans:
Transaction is defined as response time of one or more than one user steps.
Transaction in LoadRunner is used for measuring the response time of user steps. If
one has to measure the response time one or more than one page, the measure
statements will be inserted at the appropriate pages.
lr_measure_start("trans1")
Step 1
Step 2
lr_measure_stop("trans1")
lr_measure_start("trans2)
Step 3
lr_measure_stop("trans2)
Step 4
trans1 and trans2 are transaction names, which will have the response times to
measure periodically and those response times will be displayed from the graphs in
controller during the load test execution and those transaction response times can be
analyzed from LoadRunner analysis after load test execution.
33) What is think time in LoadRunner?
Ans:
AThink time is nothing but the user delay between two subsequent requests.
Assume that a user opened page1 and he is filling the data on page1. During filling the
page the user has spent 10 sec, and he has submitted the page1, then page2 is loaded.
In this case the user wait time between pag1 and page2 10 sec is called think time.
34) What is tuning in LoadRunner? How to use this tuning option in any
project?Any one pls explain me in detail.?
Ans:
We are having different tunings like DB Tuning, Network Tuning, and Server Tuning
and so on.
35) What is VUGen?
Ans:

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

The VUGen stands for Virtual User Generator. VuGen is used to generate vuser script
(here we record a business operation performed by a single user).
36) What is the analyzer in LoadRunner?
Ans:
This gives you the results of the load runner test. These results can be viewed in
graphs and reports.
37) Do we see much difference in load testing for web applications versus
traditional software?
Ans:
Yes. From own experience, in traditional applications, the developers know more
about how it all works, if its in house then developers are easy to access and know
the environment. With Web and CMS, there is so much the developers dont know
about, this is especially true when they integrate out of the box solutions. So many
software developers now are using solutions they buy from someone else and they are
slow to turn around bugs, functional or non-functional. Obviously this depends on a
lot again, traditional applications can also fall into these traps, but its more common
with Web.
38) What are some of the most common web app bottlenecks that you find and/or
fix?
Ans:
Some of the most common web app bottlenecks that you find and/or fix:
Misconfigured server, poor performing stored procedure, or the application. Less
down to infrastructure as most places we have been they spend a lot of money in this
area.
39) Have you ever measured application performance re-engineering impact by
operations cost reduction?
Ans:
Yes. We can test a work-flow application, and the speed of this application had an
impact on both the productivity of a large portion of their workforce, and the
performance of their helpdesk staff, which had a direct effect on their reputation.
40) What do you think is the most important aspect of load testing?

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

Ans:
Most important aspect of load testing:
As mentioned getting the scenario right and answering the business question. No point
telling them , it breaks at 1000 users, when they have 100 people working there and
they were concerned only with network latency". (Simplistic example as we know).

41) What kind of applications LR tests?

Ans:
LR tests Client / Server & Web based applications.
42) What is correlation?
Ans:
Correlation is used to obtain data which are unique for each run of the script and
which are generated by nested queries. Correlation provides the value to avoid errors
arising out of duplicate values and also optimizing the code (to avoid nested queries).
Automatic correlation is where we set some rules for correlation. It can be application
server specific. Here values are replaced by data which are created by these rules. In
manual correlation, the value we want to correlate is scanned and create correlation is
used to correlate.
43) How do you find out where correlation is required?
Ans:
In two ways we can find out where correlation is required.
First we can scan for correlations, and see the list of values which can be correlated.
From this we can pick a value to be correlated.
Secondly, we can record two scripts and compare them. We can look up the difference
file to see for the values which needed to be correlated.
44) Why do you create parameters?
Ans:
Parameters are like script variables. They are used to vary input to the server and to
emulate real users. Different sets of data are sent to the server each time the script is
run. Better simulate the usage model for more accurate testing from the Controller;
one script can emulate many different users on the system.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

45) What is the controller in LoadRunner?

Ans:
The more important and critical component of LoadRunner is the Controller.
LoadRunner uses the Controller to emulate the real time users. Here is where we
configure our scenario settings like Scripts need to be executed, No of Vusers, Load
Generators, Run-time settings, Load test duration etc..
46) What is the use of Scheduler?
Ans:
We can use the LoadRunner Scheduler to set up a scenario to run automatically.
47) What are the reasons why parameterization is necessary when load testing
the Web server and the database server?
Ans:
Parameterization is useful for performance scripts for varous reasosn: 1. We can use different data in scripts dynamically.
2. When URLs of AUT are parameterized, it becomes easy for the script to point to
different application environments, i.e. Dev, QA or Prod depending upon the
requirements.
3. Parameterizing helps in emulation real scenario as it avoids caching effect, if we
send same data again and again while running scripts in iteration, then the data could
be used from cache or from the temporary table from the database. Now if we send
different data in each iteration the real performnace transaction timers can be
measured.
48) What is the difference between hits/second and requests/second?
Ans:
Hits per second means the number of hits the vserver receives in one second from the
vuser and the request per second is the no. of request the vuser will request from the
server.
49) What is the advantage of using LoadRunner?
Ans:
Advantages are:
1. With help of vusers reduces the human users
2. Reduces the reqirement of the systems
3. Helps in the better usage of time and money

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

4. Effective utilization of automation

5. Everything done from a single point.
50) How do you identify the performance bottlenecks?
Ans:
Performance Bottlenecks can be detected by using monitors. These monitors might be
application server monitors, web server monitors, database server monitors and
network monitors. They help in finding out the troubled area in our scenario which
causes increased response time. The measurements made are usually performance
response time, throughput, hits/sec, network delay graphs, etc.

51) What are the tools available in the industry for Load Testing?
Ans:
HP-LoadRunner
IBM - RPT (Rational Performance Tester)
Micro Focus - Silk Performer
JMeter (Open source Tool)
QA WebLoad (RadView)
Etc...
52) What are the considerable factors in Performance Result Analysis using
LoadRunner?
Ans:
Performance Bench Marks
Local System Configuration
Network communicators
Server response
53) How to identify the memory leakage using Loadrunner?

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

Ans:
In Load runner, every application has a processor running in the system. The
processor needs to be identified. Using the performance tab we can check the memory
consumption of the processor. Continuous tracking needs to be done while load
testing. However, if the memory keeps increasing even on stopping the test, a memory
may have occurred. Also, if the memory is not released on stopping the test, a
memory may have occurred.

54) How do we debug a LoadRunner script?

Ans:
Debugging a LoadRunner script:
VuGen contains two options to help debug Vuser scripts-the Run Step by Step
command and breakpoints. The Debug settings in the Options dialog box allow us to
determine the extent of the trace to be performed during scenario execution. The
debug information is written to the Output window. We can manually set the message
class within your script using the lr_set_debug_message function. This is useful if we
want to receive debug information about a small section of the script only.
55) What are the performance tester roles and responsibilities using loadrunner?
Ans:
There won't be load runner roles and responsibilities. It is the roles of performance
engineer and there won't be difference between the roles what ever tool you use for
performance testing.
56) When do you do load and performance Testing?
Ans:
We perform load testing once we are done with interface (GUI) testing. Modern
system architectures are large and complex. Whereas single user testing primarily on
functionality and user interface of a system component, application testing focuses on
performance and reliability of an entire system. For example, a typical applicationtesting scenario might depict 1000 users logging in simultaneously to a system. This
gives rise to issues such as what is the response time of the system, does it crash, will
it go with different software applications and platforms, can it hold so many hundreds
and thousands of users, etc. This is when we set do load and performance testing.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

57) Do you feel like performance testing is an accepted critical part of the
development life cycle?
Ans:
It is getting that way yes, with more and more crashes getting exposure on the news
here and with it happening more and more it has become a critical part of testing.

58) What are the key KPIs you track for performance testing and tuning?
Ans:
The key KPIs that we track for performance testing are transaction response time,
memory usage, disk space, and CPU time.
Tuning: Network delay and stored procedure times.
59) What is Throughput?
Ans:
Basically, Throughput is the amount of transactions produced over time during a
test. Its also expressed as the amount of capacity that a website or application can
handle. Also before starting a performance test it is common to have a throughput
goal that the application needs to be able to handle a specific number of requests per
hour.
60) What is peak load testing?
Ans:
Peak load is the maximum amount of concurrent users that are on a website within a
certain time period. For example, if you own a retail website, your peak load during
any given week is most likely to be on the weekend. It would also follow that the
Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season is your busiest overall.
61) What is the focus of Performance testing?
Ans:
The focus of Performance testing is checking a software programs
Speed Determines whether the application responds quickly.
Scalability Determines maximum user load the software application can handle.
Stability Determines if the application is stable under varying loads.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

62) What is the goal of performance testing?

Ans:
The goal of performance testing is not to find bugs but to eliminate performance
bottlenecks.
63) Can anybody give me example for load testing?
Ans:
Load testing will simulate a real time user load on the application and testing.
For example: Searching functionality in a website.
If a website needs to accommodate a certain number of simultaneous users, for
instance 1000 people using the search engine at the same time, then the site should be
tested for that load before putting the website into production. Each of these 1000
visitors can access this website with different browsers, different versions of the same
browser, different machines in different platforms. Their connections can range from
high-bandwidth data lines to dial-up. Load testing is designed to verify that the
website can handle the expected load.
64) What is Endurance Testing?
Ans:
Endurance Testing means testing is done with expected user load sustained over
longer period of time with normal ramp up and ramp down time and to identify
Memory Leaks.
65) What is Volume Testing?
Ans:
Volume testing is a typical load testing except that a large volume of data is populated
on the database to study its impact on the application response time and database
overall health ; Behavior at various DB volumes.
E.g. Checks for Accumulated counts, logs, and data files.
66) What is Scalability Testing?
Ans:
Scalability testing is a process of evaluating the systems behaviour when the number
of simultaneous users is increasing, and the hardware and software resources are

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

fixed. This testing will be conducted for comparing the response times and system
resource utilization of AUT when the number of users are increased.

67) What are the results reported after capacity Testing?

Ans:
Results Reported after capacity Testing are:
The hardware resource related bottlenecks will be reported.
Recommendation on new hardware.
Up-gradation of existing hardware.
Change in the existing application deployment architecture to support the future
growth.
Introducing new servers in the application deployment architecture.
68) What are the results reported after Stress Testing?
Ans:
Results Reported after Stress Testing are:
1. The maximum number of users supported by AUT.
2. Let us assume that, the system resources are utilized beyond the expected limits.
After the stress test, when the normal amount of users are running, the status of the
application in terms of the resources utilization will be reported.
3. Assume that there are many errors are coming when the stress testing is been
conducted. After the stress test, when the normal amount of users are running the
status of the application in terms of the errors will be reported.
69) What are the disadvantages of using commercial performance / load testing
tools?
Ans:
Disadvantages of using commercial performance/load testing:
We need to understand the need for any commercial tool with respect to the kind of
technologies we use in your organisation. A tool that do not support the technologies
is waste of time and money. If it can fit into our requirements, there is a considerable
ROI.
70) How do you test an application if it is going production for the first time?
Ans:
For testing the application, you need to have the basic scenarios done first.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

Second step will be to do the End to End testing with E2E scenarios.
Third test will be to do the rigorous testing.
Final step will be to do the load testing.
71) Why should we automate the performance testing?
Ans:
Its a discipline that leverages products, people and processes to reduce the risk of
application, upgrade or patch deployment. It is about applying production work loads
to pre-deployment systems while simultaneously measuring system performance and
end-user experience.
72) What are the results reported after the Endurance/Longevity/Soak Testing?
Ans:
Results Reported after the Endurance / Longevity / Soak Testing Test:
When the endurance test is conducted on a multi tier web based enterprise level
applications the following kind of results will be reported.
Memory leaks on the application servers
JVM Heap size utilization on the application servers
Connection leaks on the database server
Cursor leaks on the data base servers
Response time (consistency or degradation) comparison for start of the load test to
end of the load test
Systems Resource (Memory, CPU, Network and Disk usage etc) comparison for
beginning of the load test to end of the load test
Application errors occurrence over the period of time.
73) What are all the things will be considered while doing performance testing?
Ans:
Does the application respond quickly enough for the intended users?
Will the application handle the expected user load and beyond?
Will the application handle the number of transactions required by the business?
Is the application stable under expected and unexpected user loads?
Are we sure that users will have a positive experience on go-live day?

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

74) What are the results reported after the load Testing?
Ans:
Results Reported after the load Test:
The system will be validated to ensure whether the service level agreements or
performance objectives are met.
Average, max, min and standard deviation of response times for each scenario will
be measure and reported.
Resource utilization of each of the systems which are part of AUT will be monitored
and reported.
If there is any application break point below the peak load condition, it need to be
identified and reported.
75) What are the results reported after Spike Testing?
Ans:
Results Reported after Spike Testing:
The systems resources are utilization comparison for, with and without spikes.
The response times comparison for, with and without spikes.
Observation on errors for, with and without spikes.
76) What is remote command launcher?
Ans:
The remote command launcher enables the controller to start applications on the host
machine.
77) How to determine the Stress Point?
Ans:
Determining the Stress Point:
Transaction response times are exponentially increased
The application started throwing the errors for many users
The system stopped responding
At least one of the server in AUT architecture got crashed
The system resource utilization went beyond the acceptable limits.
78) What are the results reported after Scalability Testing?
Ans:
Results Reported after Scalability Testing:

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615

Job Oriented Instructor Led Face2Face True Live Online I.T. Training for Everyone Worldwide
www.H2kinfosys.com|| [email protected]

The comparison charts of different number of users and their response times.
The comparison charts of system resource utilization for different amount of users.
Scalability issues when the number of users are incremented.
Identification of scalable point of the application.

USA: 770-777-1269

UK: 020-33717615