Software Testing Interview Questions – 1-25:

1. What is Software Testing?

According to ANSI/IEEE 1059 standard – A process of analyzing a software item to detect the
differences between existing and required conditions (i.e., defects) and to evaluate the features of the
software item. Click here for more details.

2. What are Quality Assurance and Quality Control?

Quality Assurance: Quality Assurance involves in process-oriented activities. It ensures the
prevention of defects in the process used to make Software Application. So the defects don’t arise
when the Software Application is being developed.
Quality Control: Quality Control involves in product-oriented activities. It executes the program or
code to identify the defects in the Software Application.
Must Read: Software QA Interview Questions

3. What is Verification in software testing?

Verification is the process, to ensure that whether we are building the product right i.e., to verify the
requirements which we have and to verify whether we are developing the product accordingly or
not. Activities involved here are Inspections, Reviews, Walk-throughs. Click here for more details.

4. What is Validation in software testing?

Validation is the process, whether we are building the right product i.e., to validate the product which
we have developed is right or not. Activities involved in this is Testing the software application. Click
here for more details.

5. What is Static Testing?

Static Testing involves in reviewing the documents to identify the defects in the early stages of SDLC.

6. What is Dynamic Testing?

Dynamic testing involves in the execution of code. It validates the output with the expected outcome.

7. What is White Box Testing?

White Box Testing is also called as Glass Box, Clear Box, and Structural Testing. It is based on
applications internal code structure. In white-box testing, an internal perspective of the system, as
well as programming skills, are used to design test cases. This testing usually was done at the unit
level. Click here for more details.

8. What is Black Box Testing?

Black Box Testing is a software testing method in which testers evaluate the functionality of the
software under test without looking at the internal code structure. This can be applied to every level of
software testing such as Unit, Integration, System and Acceptance Testing. Click here for more
details.

9. What is Grey Box Testing?

Grey box is the combination of both White Box and Black Box Testing. The tester who works on this
type of testing needs to have access to design documents. This helps to create better test cases in
this process.

10. What is Positive and Negative Testing?

Positive Testing: It is to determine what system supposed to do. It helps to check whether the
application is justifying the requirements or not.
Negative Testing: It is to determine what system not supposed to do. It helps to find the defects from
the software.
11. What is Test Strategy?
Test Strategy is a high-level document (static document) and usually developed by project manager.
It is a document which captures the approach on how we go about testing the product and achieve
the goals. It is normally derived from the Business Requirement Specification (BRS). Documents like
Test Plan are prepared by keeping this document as a base. Click here for more details.

12. What is Test Plan and contents available in a Test Plan?

Test plan document is a document which contains the plan for all the testing activities to be done to
deliver a quality product. Test Plan document is derived from the Product Description, SRS, or Use
Case documents for all future activities of the project. It is usually prepared by the Test Lead or Test
Manager.
1. Test plan identifier 11. Test deliverables
2. References 12. Remaining test tasks
3. Introduction 13. Environmental needs
4. Test items (functions) 14. Staff and training needs
5. Software risk issues 15. Responsibility
6. Features to be tested 16. Schedule
7. Features not to be tested 17. Plan risks and contingencies
8. Approach 18. Approvals
9. Items pass/fail criteria 19. Glossaries
10. Suspension criteria and resolution
requirements
Click here for more details.
Learn Difference Between Test Plan vs Test Strategy
13. What is Test Suite?
Test Suite is a collection of test cases. The test cases which are intended to test an application.

14. What is Test Scenario?

Test Scenario gives the idea of what we have to test. Test Scenario is like a high-level test case.

15. What is Test Case?

Test cases are the set of positive and negative executable steps of a test scenario which has a set of
pre-conditions, test data, expected result, post-conditions and actual results. Click here for more
details.
Learn Difference Between Test Case vs Test Scenario

16. What is Test Bed?

An environment configured for testing. Test bed consists of hardware, software, network
configuration, an application under test, other related software.

17. What is Test Environment?

Test Environment is the combination of hardware and software on which Test Team performs testing.
Example:

 Application Type: Web Application

 OS: Windows
 Web Server: IIS
 Web Page Design: Dot Net
 Client Side Validation: JavaScript
 Server Side Scripting: ASP Dot Net
 Database: MS SQL Server
 Browser: IE/FireFox/Chrome
18. What is Test Data?
Test data is the data that is used by the testers to run the test cases. Whilst running the test cases,
testers need to enter some input data. To do so, testers prepare test data. It can be prepared
manually and also by using tools.
For example, To test a basic login functionality having a user id, password fields. We need to enter
some data in the user id and password fields. So we need to collect some test data.

19. What is Test Harness?

A test harness is the collection of software and test data configured to test a program unit by running
it under varying conditions which involves monitoring the output with expected output.

20. What is Test Closure?

Test Closure is the note prepared before test team formally completes the testing process. This note
contains the total no. of test cases, total no. of test cases executed, total no. of defects found, total
no. of defects fixed, total no. of bugs not fixed, total no of bugs rejected etc.,

21. What are the tasks of Test Closure activities in Software Testing?
Test Closure activities fall into four major groups.
Test Completion Check: To ensure all tests should be either run or deliberately skipped and all known
defects should be either fixed, deferred for a future release or accepted as a permanent restriction.
Test Artifacts handover: Tests and test environments should be handed over to those responsible for
maintenance testing. Known defects accepted or deferred should be documented and communicated
to those who will use and support the use of the system.
Lessons learned: Analyzing lessons learned to determine changes needed for future releases and
projects. In retrospective meetings, plans are established to ensure that good
practices can be repeated and poor practices are not repeated
Archiving results, logs, reports, and other documents and work products in the CMS (configuration
management system).

22. What is test coverage?

Test coverage helps in measuring the amount of testing performed by a set of tests.
Test coverage can be done on both functional and non-functional activities. It assists testers to create
tests that cover areas which are missing.

23. What is Code coverage?

Code coverage is different from Test coverage. Code coverage is about unit testing practices that
must target all areas of the code at least once. It is usually done by developers or unit testers.
Refer Test Metrics.

24. List out Test Deliverables?

1. Test Strategy 11. Test summary report
2. Test Plan 12. Test incident report
3. Effort Estimation Report 13. Test closure report
4. Test Scenarios 14. Release Note
5. Test Cases/Scripts 15. Installation/configuration guide
6. Test Data 16. User guide
7. Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) 17. Test status report
8. Defect Report/Bug Report 18. Weekly status report (Project manager to
9. Test Execution Report client)
10. Graphs and Metrics
Click here for more details.
25. What is Unit Testing?
Unit Testing is also called as Module Testing or Component Testing. It is done to check whether the
individual unit or module of the source code is working properly. It is done by the developers in the
developer’s environment.

26. What is Integration Testing?

Integration Testing is the process of testing the interface between the two software units. Integration
testing is done by three ways. Big Bang Approach, Top-Down Approach, Bottom-Up Approach
Click here for more details.

27. What is System Testing?

Testing the fully integrated application to evaluate the system’s compliance with its specified
requirements is called System Testing AKA End to End testing. Verifying the completed system
to ensure that the application works as intended or not.

28. What is Big Bang Approach?

Combining all the modules once and verifying the functionality after completion of individual module
testing.
Top down and bottom up are carried out by using dummy modules known as Stubs and Drivers.
These Stubs and Drivers are used to stand-in for missing components to simulate data
communication between modules.

29. What is Top-Down Approach?

Testing takes place from top to bottom. High-level modules are tested first and then low-level
modules and finally integrating the low-level modules to a high level to ensure the system is working
as intended. Stubs are used as a temporary module if a module is not ready for integration testing.

30. What is Bottom-Up Approach?

It is a reciprocate of the Top-Down Approach. Testing takes place from bottom to up. Lowest level
modules are tested first and then high-level modules and finally integrating the high-level modules to
a low level to ensure the system is working as intended. Drivers are used as a temporary module for
integration testing.
Manual Testing Interview Questions – 31-50:
31. What is End-To-End Testing?
Refer System Testing.

32. What is Functional Testing?

In simple words, what the system actually does is functional testing. To verify that each function of the
software application behaves as specified in the requirement document. Testing all the functionalities
by providing appropriate input to verify whether the actual output is matching the expected output or
not. It falls within the scope of black box testing and the testers need not concern about the source
code of the application.

33. What is Non-Functional Testing?

In simple words, how well the system performs is non-functionality testing. Non-functional testing
refers to various aspects of the software such as performance, load, stress, scalability, security,
compatibility etc., Main focus is to improve the user experience on how fast the system responds to a
request.
34. What is Acceptance Testing?
It is also known as pre-production testing. This is done by the end users along with the testers to
validate the functionality of the application. After successful acceptance testing. Formal testing
conducted to determine whether an application is developed as per the requirement. It allows the
customer to accept or reject the application. Types of acceptance testing are Alpha, Beta & Gamma.

35. What is Alpha Testing?

Alpha testing is done by the in-house developers (who developed the software) and testers.
Sometimes alpha testing is done by the client or outsourcing team with the presence of developers or
testers.

36. What is Beta Testing?

Beta testing is done by a limited number of end users before delivery. Usually, it is done in the client
place.

37. What is Gamma Testing?

Gamma testing is done when the software is ready for release with specified requirements. It is done
at the client place. It is done directly by skipping all the in-house testing activities.

38. What is Smoke Testing?

Smoke Testing is done to make sure if the build we received from the development team is testable
or not. It is also called as “Day 0” check. It is done at the “build level”. It helps not to waste the testing
time to simply testing the whole application when the key features don’t work or the key bugs have
not been fixed yet.

39. What is Sanity Testing?

Sanity Testing is done during the release phase to check for the main functionalities of the application
without going deeper. It is also called as a subset of Regression testing. It is done at the “release
level”. At times due to release time constraints rigorous regression testing can’t be done to the build,
sanity testing does that part by checking main functionalities.

40. What is Retesting?

To ensure that the defects which were found and posted in the earlier build were fixed or not in the
current build. Say, Build 1.0 was released. Test team found some defects (Defect Id 1.0.1, 1.0.2) and
posted. Build 1.1 was released, now testing the defects 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 in this build is retesting.
Complete Guide: Retesting

41. What is Regression Testing?

Repeated testing of an already tested program, after modification, to discover any defects introduced
or uncovered as a result of the changes in the software being tested or in another related or unrelated
software components.
Usually, we do regression testing in the following cases:

1. New functionalities are added to the application

2. Change Requirement (In organizations, we call it as CR)
3. Defect Fixing
4. Performance Issue Fix
5. Environment change (E.g., Updating the DB from MySQL to Oracle)
Complete Guide: Regression Testing

42. What is GUI Testing?

Graphical User Interface Testing is to test the interface between the application and the end user.
43. What is Recovery Testing?
Recovery testing is performed in order to determine how quickly the system can recover after the
system crash or hardware failure. It comes under the type of non-functional testing.

44. What is Globalization Testing?

Globalization is a process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various
languages and regions without any changes.

45. What is Internationalization Testing (I18N Testing)?

Refer Globalization Testing.

46. What is Localization Testing (L10N Testing)?

Localization is a process of adapting globalization software for a specific region or language by
adding local specific components.

47. What is Installation Testing?

It is to check whether the application is successfully installed and it is working as expected after
installation.

48. What is Formal Testing?

It is a process where the testers test the application by having pre-planned procedures and proper
documentation.

49. What is Risk Based Testing?

Identify the modules or functionalities which are most likely cause failures and then testing those
functionalities.

50. What is Compatibility Testing?

It is to deploy and check whether the application is working as expected in a different combination of
environmental components.
Manual Testing Interview Questions – 51-75:
51. What is Exploratory Testing?
Usually, this process will be carried out by domain experts. They perform testing just by exploring the
functionalities of the application without having the knowledge of the requirements.

52. What is Monkey Testing?

Perform abnormal action on the application deliberately in order to verify the stability of the
application.

53. What is Usability Testing?

To verify whether the application is user-friendly or not and was comfortably used by an end user or
not. The main focus in this testing is to check whether the end user can understand and operate the
application easily or not. An application should be self-exploratory and must not require training to
operate it.

54. What is Security Testing?

Security testing is a process to determine whether the system protects data and maintains
functionality as intended.

55. What is Soak Testing?

Running a system at high load for a prolonged period of time to identify the performance problems is
called Soak Testing.
56. What is Endurance Testing?
Endurance testing is a non-functional testing type. It is also known as Soak Testing. Refer Soak
testing.

57. What is Performance Testing?

This type of testing determines or validates the speed, scalability, and/or stability characteristics of
the system or application under test. Performance is concerned with achieving response times,
throughput, and resource-utilization levels that meet the performance objectives for the project or
product.
Complete Tutorial: Performance Testing

58. What is Load Testing?

It is to verify that the system/application can handle the expected number of transactions and to verify
the system/application behavior under both normal and peak load conditions.

59. What is Volume Testing?

It is to verify that the system/application can handle a large amount of data

60. What is Stress Testing?

It is to verify the behavior of the system once the load increases more than its design expectations.

61. What is Scalability Testing?

Scalability testing is a type of non-functional testing. It is to determine how the application under test
scales with increasing workload.

62. What is Concurrency Testing?

Concurrency testing means accessing the application at the same time by multiple users to ensure
the stability of the system. This is mainly used to identify deadlock issues.

63. What is Fuzz Testing?

Fuzz testing is used to identify coding errors and security loopholes in an application. By inputting
massive amount of random data to the system in an attempt to make it crash to identify if anything
breaks in the application.

64. What is Adhoc Testing?

Ad-hoc testing is quite opposite to the formal testing. It is an informal testing type. In Adhoc testing,
testers randomly test the application without following any documents and test design techniques.
This testing is primarily performed if the knowledge of testers in the application under test is very
high. Testers randomly test the application without any test cases or any business requirement
document.

65. What is Interface Testing?

Interface testing is performed to evaluate whether two intended modules pass data and communicate
correctly to one another.

66. What is Reliability Testing?

Perform testing on the application continuously for long period of time in order to verify the stability of
the application

67. What is Bucket Testing?

Bucket testing is a method to compare two versions of an application against each other to determine
which one performs better.
68. What is A/B Testing?
Refer Bucket Testing.
69. What is Split Testing?
Refer Bucket Testing.

70. What are the principles of Software Testing?

1. Testing shows presence of defects

2. Exhaustive testing is impossible
3. Early testing
4. Defect clustering
5. Pesticide Paradox
6. Testing is context depending
7. Absence of error fallacy
Click here for more details.

71. What is Exhaustive Testing?

Testing all the functionalities using all valid and invalid inputs and preconditions is known as
Exhaustive testing.

72. What is Early Testing?

Defects detected in early phases of SDLC are less expensive to fix. So conducting early testing
reduces the cost of fixing defects.

73. What is Defect clustering?

Defect clustering in software testing means that a small module or functionality contains most of the
bugs or it has the most operational failures.

74. What is Pesticide Paradox?

Pesticide Paradox in software testing is the process of repeating the same test cases, again and
again, eventually, the same test cases will no longer find new bugs. So to overcome this Pesticide
Paradox, it is necessary to review the test cases regularly and add or update them to find more
defects.

75. What is Defect Cascading in Software Testing?

Defect cascading in Software testing means triggering of other defects in an application. When a
defect is not identified or goes unnoticed while testing, it invokes other defects. It leads to multiple
defects in the later stages and results in an increase in a number of defects in the application.
For example, if there is a defect in an accounting system related to negative taxation then the
negative taxation defect affects the ledger which in turn affects other reports such as Balance Sheet,
Profit & Loss etc.,
Software Testing Interview Questions – 76-100:
76. What is Walk Through?
A walkthrough is an informal meeting conducts to learn, gain understanding, and find defects. The
author leads the meeting and clarifies the queries raised by the peers in the meeting.

77. What is Inspection?

Inspection is a formal meeting lead by a trained moderator, certainly not by the author. The document
under inspection is prepared and checked thoroughly by the reviewers before the meeting. In the
inspection meeting, the defects found are logged and shared with the author for appropriate actions.
Post inspection, a formal follow-up process is used to ensure a timely and corrective action.
78. Who are all involved in an inspection meeting?
Author, Moderator, Reviewer(s), Scribe/Recorder and Manager.

79. What is a Defect?

The variation between the actual results and expected results is known as a defect. If a developer
finds an issue and corrects it by himself in the development phase then it’s called a defect. Click here
for more details.

80. What is a Bug?

If testers find any mismatch in the application/system in testing phase then they call it as Bug. Click
here for more details.

81. What is an Error?

We can’t compile or run a program due to a coding mistake in a program. If a developer unable to
successfully compile or run a program then they call it as an error. Click here for more details.

82. What is a Failure?

Once the product is deployed and customers find any issues then they call the product as a failure
product. After release, if an end user finds an issue then that particular issue is called as a
failure. Click here for more details.

83. What is Bug Severity?

Bug/Defect severity can be defined as the impact of the bug on customer’s business. It can be
Critical, Major or Minor. In simple words, how much effect will be there on the system because of a
particular defect. Click here for more details.

84. What is Bug Priority?

Defect priority can be defined as how soon the defect should be fixed. It gives the order in which a
defect should be resolved. Developers decide which defect they should take up next based on the
priority. It can be High, Medium or Low. Most of the times the priority status is set based on the
customer requirement. Click here for more details.

85. Tell some examples of Bug Severity and Bug Priority?

High Priority & High Severity: Submit button is not working on a login page and customers are
unable to login to the application
Low Priority & High Severity: Crash in some functionality which is going to deliver after couple of
releases
High Priority & Low Severity: Spelling mistake of a company name on the homepage
Low Priority & Low Severity: FAQ page takes a long time to load
Click here for more details.

86. What is a Critical Bug?

A critical bug is a show stopper which means a large piece of functionality or major system
component is completely broken and there is no workaround to move further.
For example, Due to a bug in one module, we cannot test the other modules because that blocker
bug has blocked other modules. Bugs which affects the customers business are considered as
critical.
Example:
1. “Sign In” button is not working on Gmail App and Gmail users are blocked to login to their
accounts.
2. An error message pops up when a customer clicks on transfer money button in a Banking website.
87. What is the difference between a Standalone application, Client-Server application and
Web application?
Standalone application:
Standalone applications follow one-tier architecture. Presentation, Business, and Database layer are
in one system for a single user.
Client-Server Application:
Client-server applications follow two-tier architecture. Presentation and Business layer are in a client
system and Database layer on another server. It works majorly in Intranet.
Web Application:
Web server applications follow three-tier or n-tier architecture. The presentation layer is in a client
system, a Business layer is in an application server and Database layer is in a Database server. It
works both in Intranet and Internet.

88. What is Bug Life Cycle?

Bug life cycle is also known as Defect life cycle. In Software Development process, the bug has a
life cycle. The bug should go through the life cycle to be closed. Bug life cycle varies depends upon
the tools (QC, JIRA etc.,) used and the process followed in the organization. Click here for more
details.

89. What is Bug Leakage?

A bug which is actually missed by the testing team while testing and the build was released to the
Production. If now that bug (which was missed by the testing team) was found by the end user or
customer then we call it as Bug Leakage.

90. What is Bug Release?

Releasing the software to the Production with the known bugs then we call it as Bug Release. These
known bugs should be included in the release note.

91. What is Defect Age?

Defect age can be defined as the time interval between date of defect detection and date of defect
closure.
Defect Age = Date of defect closure – Date of defect detection
Assume, a tester found a bug and reported it on 1 Jan 2016 and it was successfully fixed on 5 Jan
2016. So the defect age is 5 days.

92. What is Error Seeding?

Error seeding is a process of adding known errors intendedly in a program to identify the rate of error
detection. It helps in the process of estimating the tester skills of finding bugs and also to know the
ability of the application (how well the application is working when it has errors.)

93. What is Showstopper Defect?

A showstopper defect is a defect which won’t allow a user to move further in the application. It’s
almost like a crash.
Assume that login button is not working. Even though you have a valid username and valid password,
you could not move further because the login button is not functioning.

94. What is HotFix?

A bug which needs to handle as a high priority bug and fix it immediately.
95. What is Boundary Value Analysis?
Boundary value analysis (BVA) is based on testing the boundary values of valid and invalid
partitions. The Behavior at the edge of each equivalence partition is more likely to be incorrect than
the behavior within the partition, so boundaries are an area where testing is likely to yield
defects. Every partition has its maximum and minimum values and these maximum and minimum
values are the boundary values of a partition. A boundary value for a valid partition is a valid
boundary value. Similarly, a boundary value for an invalid partition is an invalid boundary value

96. What is Equivalence Class Partition?

Equivalence Partitioning is also known as Equivalence Class Partitioning. In equivalence partitioning,
inputs to the software or system are divided into groups that are expected to exhibit similar behavior,
so they are likely to be proposed in the same way. Hence selecting one input from each group to
design the test cases. Click here for more details.

97. What is Decision Table testing?

Decision Table is aka Cause-Effect Table. This test technique is appropriate for functionalities which
has logical relationships between inputs (if-else logic). In Decision table technique, we deal with
combinations of inputs. To identify the test cases with decision table, we consider conditions and
actions. We take conditions as inputs and actions as outputs. Click here for more details.

98. What is State Transition?

Using state transition testing, we pick test cases from an application where we need to test different
system transitions. We can apply this when an application gives a different output for the same input,
depending on what has happened in the earlier state. Click here for more details.

99. What is an entry criteria?

The prerequisites that must be achieved before commencing the testing process.

100. What is an exit criteria?

The conditions that must be met before testing should be concluded. Click here for more details.

101. What is SDLC?

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) aims to produce a high-quality system that meets or
exceeds customer expectations, works effectively and efficiently in the current and planned
information technology infrastructure, and is inexpensive to maintain and cost-effective to enhance.
102. What are the different available models of SDLC?
1. Waterfall 4. Prototype
2. Spiral 5. Agile
3. V Model
103. Can you do System testing at any stage of SDLC?
We can do System Testing only when all the units are in place and working properly. It can only be
done before User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

104. What is the procedure of manual testing?

Manual testing is crucial for testing software applications more thoroughly. The procedure of manual
testing comprises of the following.

1. Planning and Control 4. Evaluating and Reporting

2. Analysis and Design 5. Test Closure activitie
3. Implementation and Execution

Refer Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) & Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)
105. What is STLC?
STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle) identifies what test activities to carry out and when to accomplish
those test activities. Even though testing differs between Organizations, there is a testing life
cycle. Click here for more details.

106. What is RTM?

Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) is used to trace the requirements to the tests that are
needed to verify whether the requirements are fulfilled. Requirement Traceability Matrix
AKA Traceability Matrix or Cross Reference Matrix. Click here for more details.

107. What is Test Metrics?

Software test metrics is to monitor and control process and product. It helps to drive the project
towards our planned goals without deviation. Metrics answer different questions. It’s important to
decide what questions you want answers to. Click here for more details.

108. When to stop testing? (Or) How do you decide when you have tested enough?
There are many factors involved in the real-time projects to decide when to stop testing.

1. Testing deadlines or release deadlines

2. By reaching the decided pass percentage of test cases
3. The risk in the project is under acceptable limit
4. All the high priority bugs, blockers are fixed
5. When acceptance criteria is met