Top 50 Interview Questions for Quality Assurance Specialist with Answers

While you are deciding a career you want, there be a lot of questions that will leave you puzzled. It could be any field of your choice but whatever it is, you have to be well-prepared with the basics of it. You should know what you should be known in order to face the interviews that will happen later on.

When it comes to being a QA Analyst, you must know that there are various things that he/she must be aware of.  The most frequently asked QA Analyst interview questions and answers included here will give you a clear idea of your interview preparation. This article will cover each and every aspect which is a must to be a QA Analyst.

1. What are the responsibilities of a QA Analyst?

Answer: A QA Analyst has to ensure that every possible measure has taken place before testing and the feature of software solution works in a proper manner both functionally and technically.

Basically, any QA Analyst has to take care of the following things:

• Execute and manage all the activities to meet the objectives of the test plan.
• They should know how to choose the processes which are of high quality in order to develop the product.
• Should be able to analyze the requirements before testing and also document the procedures.
• Document and re-verify all the defects found. Set the priority and the severity of the defects.
• They should be able to create, document and maintain test cases.
• Should know how to analyze test results.

2. What is your understanding regarding the test plan?

Answer: Anything can be understood clearly if we have got the foundations strong. Same if the case with testing. A QA analyst must know how to approach, how to get the right resources and make a proper outline of the testing process as well as tracking the progress of the testing project.

The test plan is a record of processes and they are:

• Testing tasks
• Testing environment
• Design techniques
• Entry and exit criteria
• Any risks, etc.

3. What are the challenges faced while performing software testing?

Answer:

• When the tester is not skilled, he/she might not have subject awareness as well as lack of good knowledge of customer’s business. This will ultimately hamper the end results in a huge way
• Time is definitely one of the most important aspects failing which you might compromise on quality testing. Testers must concentrate on test coverage rather than task coverage.
• You must prioritize test cases in the right order and this achieved only through experience
• It is extremely crucial to make a list of the right requirements or else all your testing efforts will fail
• Unavailability of the best tools that are required to complete the testing within less time and more effectiveness
• Handling the relationship between testers and developers with good communication and analyzing skills.

4. Define Use Case Testing.

Answer: You can define Use Case as the functional black box testing technique which captures the series of interactions that occurs between ‘actors’ and ‘system’. Here users and their interactions are referred to like the actors.

Following are the characteristics of use case testing:

• There is a need to record path or scenarios from start to finish.
• Functional requirements of the project should be organized.
• It should be able to record the main flows as well as the exceptional flow of the events.
• It should be able to cover integration defects such as the defects that occurred as a result of interaction between different components.
• If any pre-conditions are required for the use case to work, they should be specified earlier.

5. Define test strategy.

Answer: Test strategy can be defined as the set of guidelines or the testing approach that is generally carried out by the project manager in order to determine the test design. It is used by multiple projects and these are basically found as a small section of the test plan.

Different kinds of test approaches can be followed based on factors like:

• Nature
• Domain
• Product
• Risk of product failure
• Expertise in working with proposed tools

And many more.

These approaches can be further categorized as follows:

Reactive approach: In this approach, the testing approach is started after the completion of test coding and designing

Productive approach: This approach can be adopted where the test designs approach is started before the build is created. In this way, it helps in finding all the bugs and fixing it before the build.

6. What do you think should be the ideal time to start QA in the project?

Answer: According to SDLC i.e. Software Development Life Cycle, the testing phase has to be instigated only after the “Implementation and Coding” phase is completed. But if we consider today’s scenario, for best results, it would be a requirement to start the QA of the project or product at the beginning of the project.

7. Elucidate how destructive testing is beneficial.

Answer: One can define destructive testing as one of those forms of testing which are carried out by the testing team in order to determine the point of failure of the product under different kinds of loads i.e. to evaluate the structural performance of the application which is done to determine the toughness, hardness, and the strength.

You can go through the benefits of Destructive Testing:

• It helps to reduce the costs and failure
• It helps in determining the service life of the application.
• It helps in determining the weakness of the application design.

8. Describe the benefits of Agile Testing in detail.

Answer: When you are a tester, the focus must be in delivering quality rich products in less time span and that can be achieved by understanding end-user requirement and most importantly, no defects from the end-user side. This is where ‘Agile testing’ comes into picture which follows the principle of agile software development and it quickly validates all the requirements of the client.

Let’s go through the benefits of agile testing:

• This type of testing saves a lot of your time and money.
• A cross-functional agile team is included in agile testing which delivers the results at frequent intervals.
• It includes less documentation and also less time feedback from the end user
• Not only the tester, but the entire team which comprises of the manager, the customer, and the developer is involved during face to face communication.
• Because of the daily meetings that are held, all the issues can be well-determined in advance.
• Understanding of the technical aspects of the project and the increase in team productivity can be achieved.

9. Explain the process of Project Tailoring.

Answer: Project tailoring can be described as a consistent and ongoing process wherein the performance of the project is accurate and fulfills the business requirements. The entire process would include reviewing and modifying the project data which is according to the current operational need of the organization. The review process is done at the organizational level whereas the implementation of the tailoring plans is done at the project level. The ultimate goal and the requirement of the organization, as well as the customer and user relationship, are the two major factors that should be considered in the process.

Few facets that are considered to be according to the organizational goals under the tailoring process are:

• Controls and processes involved
• Project approach
• Strategies
• Roles and responsibilities

10. Explain CMMI

Answer: CMMI stands for Capability Maturity Model Integration. This model was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). It is grounded on the norm that the processes involved in handling and evolving a product or system would determine its quality. It also delivers strategies for process improvement for the product or even the all-inclusive organization.

CMMI is classified into 5 levels as procured below:

• Level 1: Initial
• Level 2: Managed
• Level 3: Defined
• Level 4: Quantitatively Managed
• Level 5: Optimized

11. Enlist some of the Automation Testing Tools.

Answer: Following are few of the Automation Testing Tools:

• Selenium
• Watir
• Windmill
• SoapUI
• Tellurium

12. Elucidate the advantages of executing CMMI.

Answer: There are numerous advantages to executing CMMI.

They are listed as follows:

• It provides detailed coverage and reporting of the product lifecycle and hence helps in process improvements.
• The existing standards of the organization, their processes and procedures get improved as a part of CMMI implementation.
• As a result of CMMI implementation, there is an increase in on-time delivery as well as customer satisfaction.
• It also leads to effective management and increased cost savings as there is early detection of errors.

13. What do you understand by ‘Test effectiveness’ and ‘Test efficiency’?

Answer: Test Efficiency can be defined as calculating the number of resources and the amount of test code consumption needed to execute a particular function. It also governs the number of resources used in a Software product formation/creation.

This can be determined by the formula:

Test efficiency = (Number of defects resolved / the total number of defects submitted)* 100

Test Effectiveness can be defined as the amount of evaluation of the test environment and its effect on the software application. Here, customer response is assessed when the application requirement is satisfied.

This can be determined by the formula:

Test effectiveness: = (Number of defects found/ Number of test cases executed)

14. What do you mean by Traceability Matrix? Is it required for each and every project or not?

Answer: The tool to measure the progress of the project with respect to the execution of new functionalities, enhancement of existing functionalities, etc. can be called as the Traceability Matrix. The entire process has to be taken care of by this tool by keeping an eye on each and every step that takes place. In this way, each and every aspect is maintained as per the date.

Requirement traceability matrix basically consists of the points as mentioned below:

• Every section of requirement document is a point to be covered in RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix).
• The headline of each point is the headline of each section in the requirement specification.
• The most important point is, tracking of the feature is also maintained in which the build of the project and its feature has been implemented
• Corresponding test case IDs are mentioned which are written for that particular section.
• Another parameter includes whether the section is fully tested or is still under testing status.
• BUG/New Feature ID is also mentioned in each section.

15. What is the basic difference between build and release?

Answer: Build: It is the number given to the Installable software that is offered to the testing team by the development team.

Release: It is the number given to the Installable software that is handed over to the customer by the tester or the developer.

16. What are the automation challenges that SQA (Software Quality Assurance) team faces while testing?

Answer:

• Adaptability of test case for automation
• Mastering the automation tool
• Reusability of Automation script
• Automating complex test cases.

17. What are bug leakage and bug release?

Answer: Bug release happens when software or an application is handed over to the testing team knowing that the defect is present in a release. When this happens, the priority and harshness of the bug is low. This happens because the bug can be removed before the final handover.

Bug leakage is something that happens when the bug is discovered by the end users or by the customer, and it is not detected by the testing team while testing the software.

18. What is data driven testing?

Answer: Data-driven testing is basically an automation testing framework, which actually tests the different input values on the AUT. These values can be read directly from the data files. The data files may include CSV files, excel files, data pools, etc.

19. What does the test strategy actually include?

Answer: The test strategy includes obviously an introduction, resource, schedule and scope for test activities, test tools, test priorities, test planning and all those types of tests which are required to be performed.

20. Enlist the few of the different types of software testing.

Answer:

Different types of software testing techniques are:

• Unit testing
• Smoke testing
• Shakeout testing
• Alpha testing
• Beta testing
• Functional testing
• White box testing
• Black box testing
• System testing
• Load testing
• Stress testing

21. What are branch and boundary testing?

Answer: Branch testing: Branch testing is tested once and it is tested by all the branches of the code.

Boundary testing: Boundary testing focuses on the limited conditions of the software.

22. Enlist the contents of test plans and test cases.

Answer:

• Testing objectives
• Testing the frame
• Testing scope
• Risk factors
• The environment
• Reason for testing
• The criteria for entry and exit

23. What do you mean by the quality audit?

Answer: The systematic and independent examination of determining the effectiveness of quality control procedures is known as Quality audit.

24. What are the tools which are used by tester while testing?

Answer:

• OpenSTA
• Firebug
• Selenium
• WinSCP
• YSlow for Firebug
• Web developer toolbar for the firebox

Usage of the tools depends on the project it is being used for.

25. What are the five common solutions for software development problems?

Answer:

• Usage of group communication tools
• Setting up the requirement criteria, the requirement of software should be complete, clear and must be agreed by all
• Adequate testing. The tester must start the testing immediately after one or more modules development.
• The next thing is the realistic schedule like time for planning, designing, fixing bugs, testing and re-testing.

26. What do you mean by ‘USE case’ and what does it include?

Answer: The document that describes the system response and the user action for a particular functionality is called a USE case.

It includes the table of contents, revision history, and flow of events, cover page, special requirements, pre- and post-conditions.

27. What does CRUD stand for and how do we test it?

Answer: CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update and Delete. We can perform CRUD testing by using SQL statements.

28. What do you mean by thread testing?

Answer: Thread testing is known as top-down testing, wherein the progressive integration of components follows the execution of subsets of its requirements. This is opposed by the integration of components by successively lower levels.

29. What is configuration management?

Answer: It is a process to control and document any changes which are made during the life of a project. The important aspects of configuration management are Release control, Change control and Revision control.

30. What do you mean by Ad Hoc testing?

Answer: Ad Hoc testing can be defined as one of those phases where the tester tries to break away the system by randomly trying the system’s functionality. It can include a negative type of testing as well.

31. Enlist the roles of Software Quality Assurance Engineer (SQA).

Answer: Following is the list of roles of an SQA Engineer:

• Release management process
• Program testing
• Reviewing code
• Change management
• Configuration management
• Control of source code
• Software design
• Writing source code
• Integration of software

32. Explain what Test stub is and Test driver and state the reason why it is required.

Answer: A stub is called from the software component to be tested. It is used in the top-down approach. The driver calls in a component to be tested which is used in the bottom-up approach. This is basically required whenever there is a need to test the interface between modules X and Y and only X module is developed. So, we see that we cannot just test module X. If there is a dummy module, we can use that dummy module to test that module X.

33. Elucidate what is Bug triage.

Answer: A Bug triage is that process which:

• Ensures bug report completeness
• Assigns and analyses the bug
• Assigns bug to proper bug owner
• Adjusts bug severity properly
• Sets appropriate bug priority

34. Explain what Cause effect graph is.

Answer: A Cause effect graph can be defined as a graphical representation of inputs and the associated outputs affect what can be used to design test cases.

35. Describe what is the Gantt chart?

Answer: A Gantt chart is basically used to represent a project schedule that includes the duration of individual tasks or phases, their ordering, and dependencies.

• This chart displays the start and end points of each task and also displays the completion of each and every task.
• It also allows the planner to assess the duration of a particular project, identifies the resources that are needed and finally lays out the order in which tasks are required to be performed.
• It also plays a useful task in managing the dependencies between different tasks.
• Members can view the product development schedule using this chart very easily.

36. What is the result of a QA in Project Development?

Answer: As you know QA stands for Quality Assurance. QA team assures the quality by monitoring the whole development process. The job of the QA is to track the outcomes and making appropriate adjustments in order to meet the desired output or the proper functioning of the project.

37. What are the main attributes of Test Automation?

Answer: Following are the main attributes of Test Automation:

• Reliability: Repeatability and accuracy of the test automation.
• Maintainability: For each new release, there is a need to update the test automation series. This is maintained by Test Automation.
• Flexibility: There is an ease of working with all the different kinds of automation test ware.
• Portability: Ability of automated tests to run on different kinds of environments.
• Usability: The extent to which automation can be utilized by different kinds of users.
• Robustness: The effectiveness of automation on an unstable or rapidly changing system.

38. What is configuration management?

Answer: Configuration management is a process to control and document any changes which is made during the life of a project. Release control, Change control and Revision Control are few of the most important aspects of Configuration management.

39. What is Monkey testing?

Answer: Monkey testing is a type of Black Box Testing which is used mostly at the unit level. In this tester, add the data in any format and check whether the software is crashing or not. It should not.

In this testing, we use Smart monkey and dumb monkey.

• Smart monkeys are used for loading and stress testing. These help in finding the bugs and they are also very expensive to develop.
• Dumb monkeys are important for basic testing. They help in finding those bags which possess high severity. Dumb monkeys are generally less expensive as compared to Smart monkeys.

40. When is Test Automation not desirable?

Answer: There are many advantages of test automation and test cases should be automated whenever it is possible and appropriate. However, there are certain scenarios when test automation is not desirable and manual testing is a better option:

• When the validation depends on the person performing the test (UI/UX, usability, look-and-feel)
• When the feature is being developed with constant changes and automating the test cases would mean a waste of resources
• When the test cases have extreme complexity and automating them would be a waste of resources
• When the requirement is for testers to perform manual sessions in order to gain deeper insight into the system.

41. When do you think QA activities should start?

Answer: QA activity has to start from the beginning of the project. The earlier it starts, the better it is as far as quality assurance is considered.

The cost, time and efforts are extremely challenging in case the QA activities gets delayed.

42. What is a good test case?

Answer: A good test case is simply the one who finds a defect. But is not mandatory that all test cases will find defects, so a good test case can also be the one which has all the prescribed details and coverage.

43. In case you find a bug in production, how would you make sure that the same bug is not introduced again?

Answer: The best way is to immediately write a test case for the production defect and include it in the regression suite. In this way, we ensure that the bug does not get introduced ever again.

Also, many times, we can also think of alternate test cases or similar kind of test cases and include them in your planned execution.

44. What are the different types of artifacts you can refer to when you write the test cases?

Answer: The main artifacts used are:

• Functional requirement specification
• Requirement understanding document
• Use Cases
• Wireframes
• User Stories
• Acceptance criteria
• Many a time, UAT test cases also

45. What are the different verification techniques that you’re aware of?

Answer: Verification techniques are absolutely static in nature.

There are 3 verification techniques that are prevalent namely Review, Inspection, and Walkthrough.

1) Review – Is a method with the help of which the code/test cases are examined by an individual other than the author who has produced it.

It is one of the easiest and best ways to ensure coverage and quality.

2) Inspection – Is a technical and disciplined way to examine and correct the defects in the test artifact or the code. As it is disciplined, it has various roles to play, which are as follows:

• Moderator – Who facilitates the entire inspection meeting
• Recorder – Who records the minutes of the meeting, defects occurred, and other points discussed.
• Reader – The one who will read out the document/code. The leader also leads to the entire inspection meeting.
• Producer – The author. They are ultimately responsible to update their document/code as per the comments.
• Reviewer – All the team can be considered as a reviewer. This role can also be played by some group of experts if and when the project demands.

3) Walkthrough – It is a process in which the author of the document/code reads the content and gets the feedback.

Most of the time, it is called as a kind of FYI (For your information) session.

46. What are the things the tests ensure?

Answer: The test must ensure that:

• The number of parameters that are sent in a message must agree with the number of parameters that are expected be received.
• The parameter order in the message must match the expected order
• The field size should match with the data type
• When a message is generated from stored data before it is sent, the message truly reflects the stored data.

47. How can one handle ambiguity?

Answer: Test cases are not generally straight-forward and the QA Engineers will be required to act on their personal judgment. They need to feel comfortable with ambiguity.

48. What is your mentality towards automating tests that are currently being done manually?

Answer: Automating test cases brings several benefits. Automation saves time and reduces human error. QA engineers must recognize this value in automation.

49. Explain how we distinguish a symptom vs. a cause while testing.

Answer: Various times within the QA process, the test case fails. But why are they failing? This can be problematic. A great QA engineer is able to provide exact reasons to the developer, rather than simply saying that a test case has “failed”.

50. Do you think it is a good idea to cut corners to save time?

Answer: NO. All the test cases need to be run and making guesses frequently leads to issues down the road.