Here are 50 introductory questions and answers on Software Engineering:

General Concepts
1. What is Software Engineering?
• Software engineering is the application of engineering principles to software
development to create reliable, efficient, and maintainable software systems.
2. Why is Software Engineering important?
• It ensures software is developed systematically, with high quality, within budget, and on
time.
3. What are the characteristics of good software?
• Reliability, maintainability, efficiency, usability, portability, and scalability.
4. What is the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?
• A process followed for software development, including planning, analysis, design,
implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
5. What are the different software process models?
• Waterfall, Agile, Spiral, V-Model, and Iterative models.

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

6. What is the Waterfall model?
• A sequential development approach where each phase must be completed before moving
to the next.
7. What is Agile development?
• A flexible, iterative approach that delivers software in small, incremental releases.
8. What is the Spiral model?
• A risk-driven process that combines iterative development with elements of the Waterfall
model.
9. What is the V-Model in SDLC?
• A development model where each stage has a corresponding testing phase.
10. What is Rapid Application Development (RAD)?

• A development methodology that prioritizes rapid prototyping and user feedback.

Software Requirements & Design

11. What are functional requirements?

• Requirements that define what a system should do, such as features and functionality.

12. What are non-functional requirements?

• Requirements related to system performance, security, usability, and reliability.

13. What is Software Requirements Specification (SRS)?

 • A document that describes functional and non-functional requirements in detail.

14. What is system design in software engineering?

• The process of defining the architecture, components, and interfaces of a system.

15. What are the types of software design?

• High-level design (HLD) and Low-level design (LLD).

Programming & Development

16. What is coding in software engineering?

• Writing source code to implement the software design.

17. What are programming paradigms?

• Approaches to programming, including procedural, object-oriented, functional, and logic

programming.

18. What is Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)?

• A programming paradigm based on objects, classes, inheritance, polymorphism, and

encapsulation.

19. What is a software framework?

• A pre-built structure that provides reusable components to simplify development.

20. What is the difference between a programming language and a scripting language?

• Programming languages (e.g., Java, C++) compile to machine code, while scripting
languages (e.g., Python, JavaScript) are interpreted.

Software Testing
21. What is software testing?

• The process of evaluating software to ensure it meets requirements and is free of defects.

22. What are the different levels of testing?

• Unit Testing, Integration Testing, System Testing, and Acceptance Testing.

 23. What is Unit Testing?

• Testing individual components or modules of a software system.

24. What is Integration Testing?

• Testing the interaction between integrated modules.

25. What is Regression Testing?

• Re-testing to ensure new changes haven’t introduced new defects.

26. What is User Acceptance Testing (UAT)?

• The final testing phase where end-users validate if the software meets business
requirements.

27. What is Black-box testing?

• Testing without knowledge of the internal code structure, focusing only on inputs and
outputs.

28. What is White-box testing?

• Testing with knowledge of the internal code to examine logic and structure.

29. What is the difference between manual testing and automated testing?

• Manual testing is performed by humans, while automated testing uses software tools.

30. What are some popular testing tools?

• Selenium, JUnit, TestNG, JMeter, and Postman.

Software Maintenance & Quality Assurance

31. What are the types of software maintenance?

• Corrective, Adaptive, Perfective, and Preventive maintenance.

32. What is software quality assurance (SQA)?

• The process of ensuring that software meets quality standards and works as expected.

33. What are software metrics?

 • Measurements used to evaluate software quality, performance, and efficiency.

34. What is configuration management in software engineering?

• Managing software changes systematically using version control tools like Git.

35. What is refactoring?

• Improving existing code without changing its functionality.

Software Project Management

36. What is project management in software engineering?

• Planning, executing, and monitoring software development projects to ensure timely

delivery.

37. What is the role of a software project manager?

• Overseeing project planning, resource allocation, risk management, and communication.

38. What is risk management in software projects?

• Identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential project risks.

39. What is scope creep?

• Uncontrolled expansion of project requirements, leading to delays and increased costs.

40. What is effort estimation in software engineering?

• Predicting the time and resources required for software development.

Software Engineering Tools & Trends

41. What is DevOps?

• A set of practices combining software development and IT operations to improve

deployment speed and efficiency.

42. What is Continuous Integration (CI)?

• Frequently merging code changes into a shared repository and running automated tests.

43. What is Continuous Deployment (CD)?

 • Automatically deploying validated code changes to production.

44. What is a microservices architecture?

• A design approach where applications are built as a collection of small, independent

services.

45. What is cloud computing in software engineering?

• The delivery of computing services (storage, processing, databases) over the internet.

46. What is containerization?

• Packaging software and its dependencies into containers (e.g., Docker) for consistent
deployment.

47. What is Agile vs. DevOps?

• Agile focuses on development processes, while DevOps integrates development and

operations for faster deployment.

48. What are some popular software development tools?

• Git, JIRA, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and Visual Studio Code.

49. What is software reusability?

• Using existing software components to reduce development time and cost.

50. What are emerging trends in software engineering?

• AI-driven development, blockchain, quantum computing, low-code/no-code platforms,

and cybersecurity advancements.