Quality Assurance (QA) Interview Questions

These Quality Assurance Interview Questions and Answers has been created by MindsMapped, especially to get you acquainted with the types of questions you would be asked during your Quality Assurance interview. This list of questions and answers are enough for you to face different levels of Quality Assurance interviews in a confident way. The list of Questions and Answers will be updated from time to time.

Frequently Asked Quality Assurance Interview Questions And Answers

Basic QA Interview Questions	SDLC Interview Questions
Manual Testing Interview Questions	Types of Testing Interview Questions
Test Planning & Risk Analysis Interview Questions	Test Estimation Interview Questions
White and Black Box Testing Interview Questions	Defect Life Cycle Interview Questions
JIRA Interview Questions	Basic SQL Interview Questions
HP LoadRunner Interview Questions	QTP Interview Questions
Agile Interview Questions

Basic QA Interview Questions

1. What is the MAIN benefit of designing tests early in the life cycle?

It helps prevent defects from being introduced into the code.

2. What is risk-based testing?

Risk-based testing is the term used for an approach to creating a test strategy that is based on prioritizing tests by risk. The basis of the approach is a detailed risk analysis and prioritizing of risks by risk level. Tests to address each risk are then specified, starting with the highest risk first.

3. A wholesaler sells printer cartridges. The minimum order quantity is 5. There is a 20% discount for orders of 100 or more printer cartridges. You have been asked to prepare test cases using various values for the number of printer cartridges ordered. Which of the following groups contain three test inputs that would be generated using Boundary Value Analysis?

4, 5, 99

4. What is the KEY difference between preventative and reactive approaches to testing?

In preventative approach, tests are designed at an early stage, i.e. before the commencement of software development and In Reactive approach, tests are designed after software development.

5. What is the purpose of exit criteria?

The purpose of exit criteria is to define when a test level is completed.

6. What determines the level of risk?

The likelihood of an adverse event and the impact of the event determine the level of risk.

7. What is Decision table testing?

Decision table testing is used for testing systems for which the specification takes the form of rules or cause-effect combinations. In a decision table the inputs are listed in a column, with the outputs in the same column but below the inputs. The remainder of the table explores combinations of inputs to define the outputs produced.

8. What is the MAIN objective when reviewing a software deliverable?

To identify defects in any software work product.

9. Which of the following defines the expected results of a test? Test case specification or test design specification.

Test case specification defines the expected results of a test.

10. What is the benefit of test independence?

It helps to avoid author bias and is often more effective at finding defects and failures.

11. As part of which test process do you determine the exit criteria?

The exit criteria is determined on the bases of ‘Test Planning’.

12. What is beta testing?

Testing performed by potential customers at their own locations.

13. Given the following fragment of code, how many tests are required for 100% decision coverage?

if width > length
thenbiggest_dimension = width
if height > width
thenbiggest_dimension = height
end_if
elsebiggest_dimension = length
if height > length
thenbiggest_dimension = height
end_if
end_if

4

14. You have designed test cases to provide 100% statement and 100% decision coverage for the following fragment of code. if width > length then biggest_dimension = width else biggest_dimension = length end_if The following has been added to the bottom of the code fragment above. print "Biggest dimension is " &biggest_dimensionprint "Width: " & width print "Length: " & length How many more test cases are required?

None, existing test cases can be used.

15. Rapid Application Development?

Rapid Application Development (RAD) is formally a parallel development of functions and subsequent integration. Components/functions are developed in parallel as if they were mini projects, the developments are time-boxed, delivered, and then assembled into a working prototype. This can very quickly give the customer something to see and use and to provide feedback regarding the delivery and their requirements. Rapid change and development of the product is possible using this methodology. However the product specification will need to be developed for the product at some point, and the project will need to be placed under more formal controls prior to going into production.

16. What is the difference between Testing Techniques and Testing Tools?

Testing technique: – Is a process for ensuring that some aspects of the application system or unit functions properly there may be few techniques but many tools.
Testing Tools: – Is a vehicle for performing a test process. The tool is a resource to the tester, but itself is insufficient to conduct testing.

17. We use the output of the requirement analysis, the requirement specification as the input for writing …

User Acceptance Test Cases

18. 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 component:

Regression Testing

19. What is component testing?

Component testing, also known as unit, module and program testing, searches for defects in, and verifies the functioning of software (e.g. modules, programs, objects, classes, etc.) that are separately testable. Component testing may be done in isolation from the rest of the system depending on the context of the development life cycle and the system. Most often stubs and drivers are used to replace the missing software and simulate the interface between the software components in a simple manner. A stub is called from the software component to be tested; a driver calls a component to be tested.

21. What are the benefits of Independent Testing?

Independent testers are unbiased and identify different defects at the same time.

22. In a REACTIVE approach to testing when would you expect the bulk of the test design work to be begun?

The bulk of the test design work begun after the software or system has been produced.

23. What are the different Methodologies in Agile Development Model?

There are currently seven different agile methodologies that I am aware of:

24. Which activity in the fundamental test process includes evaluation of the testability of the requirements and system?

A ‘Test Analysis’ and ‘Design’ includes evaluation of the testability of the requirements and system.

25. What is typically the MOST important reason to use risk to drive testing efforts?

Because testing everything is not feasible.

26. What is random/monkey testing? When it is used?

Random testing often known as monkey testing. In such type of testing data is generated randomly often using a tool or automated mechanism. With this randomly generated input the system is tested and results are analyzed accordingly. These testing are less reliable; hence it is normally used by the beginners and to see whether the system will hold up under adverse effects.

27. Which of the following are valid objectives for incident reports?

28. Consider the following techniques. Which are static and which are dynamic techniques?

Data Flow Analysis and Inspections are static; Equivalence Partitioning, Use Case Testing, Exploratory Testing and Decision Testing are dynamic.

29. Why are static testing and dynamic testing described as complementary?

Because they share the aim of identifying defects but differ in the types of defect they find.

30. What are the phases of a formal review?

In contrast to informal reviews, formal reviews follow a formal process. A typical formal review process consists of six main steps:

31. What is the role of moderator in review process?

The moderator (or review leader) leads the review process. He or she determines, in co-operation with the author, the type of review, approach and the composition of the review team. The moderator performs the entry check and the follow-up on the rework, in order to control the quality of the input and output of the review process. The moderator also schedules the meeting, disseminates documents before the meeting, coaches other team members, paces the meeting, leads possible discussions and stores the data that is collected.

32. What is an equivalence partition (also known as an equivalence class)?

Equivalence partitioning (also called Equivalence Class Partitioning or ECP) is a software testing technique that divides the input data of a software unit into partitions of equivalent data from which test cases can be derived. In principle, test cases are designed to cover each partition at least once.

33. When should configuration management procedures be implemented?

During test planning.

34. A Type of functional Testing, which investigates the functions relating to detection of threats, such as virus from malicious outsiders?

Security Testing

35. Testing wherein we subject the target of the test, to varying workloads to measure and evaluate the performance behaviors and ability of the target and of the test to continue to function properly under these different workloads?

Load Testing

36. Testing activity which is performed to expose defects in the interfaces and in the interaction between integrated components is?

Integration Level Testing

37. What are the Structure-based (white-box) testing techniques?

Structure-based testing techniques (which are also dynamic rather than static) use the internal structure of the software to derive test cases. They are commonly called ‘white-box’ or ‘glass-box’ techniques (implying you can see into the system) since they require knowledge of how the software is implemented, that is, how it works. For example, a structural technique may be concerned with exercising loops in the software. Different test cases may be derived to exercise the loop once, twice, and many times. This may be done regardless of the functionality of the software.

38. When "Regression Testing" should be performed?

After the software has changed or when the environment has changed Regression testing should be performed.

39. What is negative and positive testing?

Positive testing determines that your application works as expected. If an error is encountered during positive testing, the test fails. Negative testing ensures that your application can gracefully handle invalid input or unexpected user behavior.

40. What is the purpose of a test completion criterion?

The purpose of test completion criterion is to determine when to stop testing

41. What can static analysis NOT find?

For example memory leaks.

42. What is the difference between re-testing and regression testing?

Re-testing ensures the original fault has been removed; regression testing looks for unexpected side effects.

43. What are the Experience-based testing techniques?

In experience-based techniques, people’s knowledge, skills and background are a prime contributor to the test conditions and test cases. The experience of both technical and business people is important, as they bring different perspectives to the test analysis and design process. Due to previous experience with similar systems, they may have insights into what could go wrong, which is very useful for testing.

44. What type of review requires formal entry and exit criteria, including metrics?

Inspection

45. Could reviews or inspections be considered part of testing?

Yes, because both help detect faults and improve quality.

46. An input field takes the year of birth between 1900 and 2004 what are the boundary values for testing this field?

1899-1900 and 2004-2005

47. Which of the following tools would be involved in the automation of regression test?

a. Data tester
b. Boundary tester
c. Capture/Playback
d. Output comparator.

Capture/Playback

48. To test a function, what has to write a programmer, which calls the function to be tested and passes it test data.

Driver

49. What is the one Key reason why developers have difficulty testing their own work?

Lack of Objectivity

50."How much testing is enough?"

The answer depends on the risk for your industry, contract and special requirements.

51. When should testing be stopped?

It depends on the risks for the system being tested. There are some criteria bases on which you can stop testing.

52. Which of the following is the main purpose of the integration strategy for integration testing in the small?

The main purpose of the integration strategy is to specify which modules to combine when and how many at once.

53. What are semi-random test cases?

Semi-random test cases are nothing but when we perform random test cases and do equivalence partitioning to those test cases, it removes redundant test cases, thus giving us semi-random test cases.

54. Given the following code, which statement is true about the minimum number of test cases required for full statement and branch coverage?

Read p
Read q
IF p+q> 100
THEN Print "Large"
ENDIF
IF p > 50
THEN Print "p Large"
ENDIF

1 test for statement coverage, 2 for branch coverage

55. What is black box testing? What are the different black box testing techniques?

Black box testing is the software testing method which is used to test the software without knowing the internal structure of code or program. This testing is usually done to check the functionality of an application. The different black box testing techniques are

56. Which review is normally used to evaluate a product to determine its suitability for intended use and to identify discrepancies?

Technical Review.

57. Why we use decision tables?

The techniques of equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis are often applied to specific situations or inputs. However, if different combinations of inputs result in different actions being taken, this can be more difficult to show using equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis, which tend to be more focused on the user interface. The other two specification-based techniques, decision tables and state transition testing are more focused on business logic or business rules. A decision table is a good way to deal with combinations of things (e.g. inputs). This technique is sometimes also referred to as a ’cause-effect’ table. The reason for this is that there is an associated logic diagramming technique called ’cause-effect graphing’ which was sometimes used to help derive the decision table

58. Faults found should be originally documented by whom?

By testers.

59. Which is the current formal world-wide recognized documentation standard?

There isn’t one.

60. Which of the following is the review participant who has created the item to be reviewed?

Author

61. A number of critical bugs are fixed in software. All the bugs are in one module, related to reports. The test manager decides to do regression testing only on the reports module.

Regression testing should be done on other modules as well because fixing one module may affect other modules.

62. Why does the boundary value analysis provide good test cases?

Because errors are frequently made during programming of the different cases near the ‘edges’ of the range of values.

63. What makes an inspection different from other review types?

It is led by a trained leader, uses formal entry and exit criteria and checklists.

64. Why can be tester dependent on configuration management?

Because configuration management assures that we know the exact version of the testware and the test object.

65. What is a V-Model?

A software development model that illustrates how testing activities integrate with software development phases

66. What is maintenance testing?

Triggered by modifications, migration or retirement of existing software

67. What is test coverage?

Test coverage measures in some specific way the amount of testing performed by a set of tests (derived in some other way, e.g. using specification-based techniques). Wherever we can count things and can tell whether or not each of those things has been tested by some test, then we can measure coverage.

68. Why is incremental integration preferred over "big bang" integration?

Because incremental integration has better early defects screening and isolation ability

69. When do we prepare RTM (Requirement traceability matrix), is it before test case designing or after test case designing?

It would be before test case designing. Requirements should already be traceable from Review activities since you should have traceability in the Test Plan already. This question also would depend on the organization. If the organizations do test after development started then requirements must be already traceable to their source. To make life simpler use a tool to manage requirements.

70. What is called the process starting with the terminal modules?

Bottom-up integration

71. During which test activity could faults be found most cost effectively?

During test planning

72. The purpose of requirement phase is

To freeze requirements, to understand user needs, to define the scope of testing

73. Why we split testing into distinct stages?

74. What is DRE?

To measure test effectiveness a powerful metric is used to measure test effectiveness known as DRE (Defect Removal Efficiency). From this metric we would know how many bugs we have found from the set of test cases. Formula for calculating DRE is

DRE=Number of bugs while testing / number of bugs while testing + number of bugs found by user

75. Which of the following is likely to benefit most from the use of test tools providing test capture and replay facilities? a) Regression testing b) Integration testing c) System testing d) User acceptance testing

Regression testing

76. How would you estimate the amount of re-testing likely to be required?

Metrics from previous similar projects and discussions with the development team

77. What studies data flow analysis?

The use of data on paths through the code.

78. What is Alpha testing?

Pre-release testing by end user representatives at the developer’s site.

79. What is a failure?

Failure is a departure from specified behavior.

80. What are Test comparators?

Is it really a test if you put some inputs into some software, but never look to see whether the software produces the correct result? The essence of testing is to check whether the software produces the correct result, and to do that, we must compare what the software produces to what it should produce. A test comparator helps to automate aspects of that comparison.

81. Who is responsible for document all the issues, problems and open point that were identified during the review meeting

Scribe

82. What is the main purpose of Informal review?

Inexpensive way to get some benefit

83. What is the purpose of test design technique?

Identifying test conditions and Identifying test cases

84. When testing a grade calculation system, a tester determines that all scores from 90 to 100 will yield a grade of A, but scores below 90 will not. This analysis is known as:

Equivalence partitioning

85. A test manager wants to use the resources available for the automated testing of a web application.

The best choice is Tester, test automaker, web specialist, DBA

86. During the testing of a module tester ‘X’ finds a bug and assigned it to developer. But developer rejects the same, saying that it’s not a bug. What ‘X’ should do?

Send to the detailed information of the bug encountered and check the reproducibility

87. A type of integration testing in which software elements, hardware elements, or both are combined all at once into a component or an overall system, rather than in stages.

Big-Bang Testing

88. In practice, which Life Cycle model may have more, fewer or different levels of development and testing, depending on the project and the software product? For example, there may be component integration testing after component testing, and system integration testing after system testing.

V-Model

89. Which technique can be used to achieve input and output coverage? It can be applied to human input, input via interfaces to a system, or interface parameters in integration testing.

Equivalence partitioning

90. "This life cycle model is basically driven by schedule and budget risks" This statement is best suited for…

V-Model

91. In which order should tests be run?

The most important one must tests first

92. The later in the development life cycle a fault is discovered, the more expensive it is to fix. Why?

The fault has been built into more documentation, code, tests, etc.

93. What is Coverage measurement?

It is a partial measure of test thoroughness.

94. What is Boundary value testing?

Test boundary conditions on, below and above the edges of input and output equivalence classes. For instance, let say a bank application where you can withdraw maximum $ 20,000 and a minimum of $ 100, so in boundary value testing we test only the exact boundaries, rather than hitting in the middle. That means we test above the maximum limit and below the minimum limit.

95. What is Fault Masking?

Error condition hiding another error condition.

96. What does COTS represent?

Commercial off The Shelf.

97.The purpose of which is allow specific tests to be carried out on a system or network that resembles as closely as possible the environment where the item under test will be used upon release?

Test Environment

98. What can be thought of as being based on the project plan, but with greater amounts of detail?

Phase Test Plan

99. What is exploratory testing?

Exploratory testing is a hands-on approach in which testers are involved in minimum planning and maximum test execution. The planning involves the creation of a test charter, a short declaration of the scope of a short (1 to 2 hour) time-boxed test effort, the objectives and possible approaches to be used. The test design and test execution activities are performed in parallel typically without formally documenting the test conditions, test cases or test scripts. This does not mean that other, more formal testing techniques will not be used. For example, the tester may decide to use boundary value analysis but will think through and test the most important boundary values without necessarily writing them down. Some notes will be written during the exploratory-testing session, so that a report can be produced afterwards.

100. What is "use case testing"?

In order to identify and execute the functional requirement of an application from start to finish "use case" is used and the techniques used to do this is known as "Use Case Testing"

101. What is the difference between STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle) and SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)?

The complete Verification and Validation of software is done in SDLC, while STLC only does Validation of the system. SDLC is a part of STLC.

102. What is traceability matrix?

The relationship between test cases and requirements is shown with the help of a document. This document is known as traceability matrix.

103. What is Equivalence partitioning testing?

Equivalence partitioning testing is a software testing technique which divides the application input test data into each partition at least once of equivalent data from which test cases can be derived. By this testing method it reduces the time required for software testing.

104. What is white box testing and list the types of white box testing?

White box testing technique involves selection of test cases based on an analysis of the internal structure (Code coverage, branches coverage, paths coverage, condition coverage etc.) of a component or system. It is also known as Code-Based testing or Structural testing. Different types of white box testing are

105. In white box testing what do you verify?

In white box testing following steps are verified.

106. What is the difference between static and dynamic testing?

Static testing: During Static testing method, the code is not executed and it is performed using the software documentation.

Dynamic testing: To perform this testing the code is required to be in an executable form.

107. What is verification and validation?

Verification is a process of evaluating software at development phase and to decide whether the product of a given application satisfies the specified requirements. Validation is the process of evaluating software at the end of the development process and to check whether it meets the customer requirements.

108. What are different test levels?

There are four test levels

109. What is Integration testing?

Integration testing is a level of software testing process, where individual units of an application are combined and tested. It is usually performed after unit and functional testing.

110. What are the tables in test plans?

Test design, scope, test strategies, approach are various details that Test plan document consists of.

111. What is the difference between UAT (User Acceptance Testing) and System testing?

System Testing: System testing is finding defects when the system under goes testing as a whole, it is also known as end to end testing. In such type of testing, the application undergoes from beginning till the end.
UAT: User Acceptance Testing (UAT) involves running a product through a series of specific tests which determines whether the product will meet the needs of its users.

112. Mention the difference between Data Driven Testing and Retesting?

Retesting: It is a process of checking bugs that are actioned by development team to verify that they are actually fixed.
Data Driven Testing (DDT): In data driven testing process, application is tested with multiple test data. Application is tested with different set of values.

113. What are the valuable steps to resolve issues while testing?

114. What is the difference between test scenarios, test cases and test script?

Difference between test scenarios and test cases is that

Test Scenarios: Test scenario is prepared before the actual testing starts, it includes plans for testing product, number of team members, environmental condition, making test cases, making test plans and all the features that are to be tested for the product.
Test Cases: It is a document that contains the steps that has to be executed, it has been planned earlier.
Test Script: It is written in a programming language and its a short program used to test part of functionality of the software system. In other words a written set of steps that should be performed manually.

115. What is Latent defect?

Latent defect: This defect is an existing defect in the system which does not cause any failure as the exact set of conditions has never been met

116. What are the two parameters which can be useful to know the quality of test execution?

To know the quality of test execution we can use two parameters

117. What is the function of software testing tool "phantom"?

Phantom is a freeware, and is used for windows GUI automation scripting language. It allows to take control of windows and functions automatically. It can simulate any combination of key strokes and mouse clicks as well as menus, lists and more.

118. Explain what is Test Deliverables?

Test Deliverables are set of documents, tools and other components that has to be developed and maintained in support of testing.
There are different test deliverables at every phase of the software development lifecycle

119. What is mutation testing?

Mutation testing is a technique to identify if a set of test data or test case is useful by intentionally introducing various code changes (bugs) and retesting with original test data/ cases to determine if the bugs are detected.

120. What all things you should consider before selecting automation tools for the AUT?

121. How will you conduct Risk Analysis?

For the risk analysis following steps need to be implemented
a) Finding the score of the risk
b) Making a profile for the risk
c) Changing the risk properties
d) Deploy the resources of that test risk
e) Making a database of risk

122. What are the categories of debugging?

Categories for debugging
a) Brute force debugging
b) Backtracking
c) Cause elimination
d) Program slicing
e) Fault tree analysis

123. What is fault masking explain with example?

When presence of one defect hides the presence of another defect in the system is known as fault masking.
Example: If the "Negative Value" cause a firing of unhandled system exception, the developer will prevent the negative values input. This will resolve the issue and hide the defect of unhandled exception firing.

124. Explain what is Test Plan? What are the information that should be covered in Test Plan?

A test plan can be defined as a document describing the scope, approach, resources and schedule of testing activities and a test plan should cover the following details.

125. How you can eliminate the product risk in your project?

To eliminate product risk in your project, there is simple yet crucial step that can reduce the product risk in your project.

126. What are the common risk that leads to the project failure?

The common risk that leads to a project failure are

127. On what basis you can arrive to an estimation for your project?

To estimate your project, you have to consider following points

128. Explain how you would allocate task to team members?

129. Explain what is testing type and what are the commonly used testing type?

To get an expected test outcome a standard procedure is followed which is referred as Testing Type.
Commonly used testing types are

130. While monitoring your project what all things you have to consider?

The things that has to be taken in considerations are

131. What are the common mistakes which creates issues?

132. What does a typical test report contains? What are the benefits of test reports?

A test report contains following things:

The benefits of test reports are:

133. What is test management review and why it is important?

Management review is also referred as Software Quality Assurance or SQA. SQA focusses more on the software process rather than the software work products. It is a set of activities designed to make sure that the project manager follows the standard process. SQA helps test manager to benchmark the project against the set standards.

134. What are the best practices for software quality assurance?

The best practices for an effective SQA implementation is

135. When is RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix) prepared?

RTM is prepared before test case designing. Requirements should be traceable from review activities.

136. What is difference between Test matrix and Traceability matrix?

Test Matrix: Test matrix is used to capture actual quality, effort, the plan, resources and time required to capture all phases of software testing

Traceability Matrix: Mapping between test cases and customer requirements is known as Traceability Matrix

137. In manual testing what are stubs and drivers?

Both stubs and drivers are part of incremental testing. In incremental testing there are two approaches namely bottom up and top down approach. Drivers are used in bottom up testing and stub is used for top down approach. In order to test the main module, stub is used, which is a dummy code or program.

138. What are the step you would follow once you find the defect?

Once defect is found you would follow the step
a) Recreate the defect
b) Attach the screen shot
c) Log the defect

139. Explain what is "Test Plan Driven" or "Key Word Driven" method of testing?

This technique uses the actual test case document developed by testers using a spread sheet containing special "key Words". The key words control the processing.

140. What is DFD (Data Flow Diagram)?

When a "flow of data" through an information system is graphically represented then it is known as Data Flow Diagram. It is also used for the visualization of data processing.

141. Explain what is LCSAJ?

LCSAJ stands for ‘linear code sequence and jump’. It consists of the following three items
a) Start of the linear sequence of executable statements
b) End of the linear sequence
c) The target line to which control flow is transferred at the end of the linear sequence

142. Explain what is N+1 testing?

The variation of regression testing is represented as N+1. In this technique the testing is performed in multiple cycles in which errors found in test cycle ‘N’ are resolved and re-tested in test cycle N+1. The cycle is repeated unless there are no errors found.

143. What is Fuzz testing and when it is used?

Fuzz testing is used to detect security loopholes and coding errors in software. In this technique random data is added to the system in attempt to crash the system. If vulnerability persists, a tool called fuzz tester is used to determine potential causes. This technique is more useful for bigger projects but only detects major fault.

144. Mention what are the main advantages of statement coverage metric of software testing?

The benefit of statement coverage metric is that

a) It does not require processing source code and can be applied directly to object code
b) Bugs are distributed evenly through code, due to which percentage of executable statements covered reflects the percentage of faults discovered

145. How to generate test cases for replace string method?

a) If characters in new string > characters in previous string. None of the characters should get truncated
b) If characters in new string< characters in previous string. Junk characters should not be added
c) Spaces after and before the string should not be deleted
d) String should be replaced only for the first occurrence of the string

146. How will you handle a conflict amongst your team members?

147. Mention what are the categories of defects?

Mainly there are three defect categories

Wrong: When requirement is implemented incorrectly

Missing: It is a variance from the specification, an indication that a specification was not implemented or a requirement of the customer is not met

Extra: A requirement incorporated into the product that was not given by the end customer. It is considered as a defect because it is a variance from the existing requirements

148. Explain how does a test coverage tool works?

The code coverage testing tool runs parallel while performing testing on the actual product. The code coverage tool monitors the executed statements of the source code. When the final testing is done we get a complete report of the pending statements and also get the coverage percentage.

149. Mention what is the difference between a "defect" and a "failure" in software testing?

In simple terms when a defect reaches the end customer it is called a failure while the defect is identified internally and resolved then it is referred as defect.

150. Explain how to test documents in a project that span across the software development lifecycle?

The project span across the software development lifecycle in following manner

Central/Project test plan: It is the main test plan that outlines the complete test strategy of the project. This plan is used till the end of the software development lifecycle

Acceptance test plan: This document begins during the requirement phase and is completed at final delivery

System test plan: This plan starts during the design plan and proceeds until the end of the project

Integration and Unit test plan: Both these test plans start during the execution phase and last until the final delivery

151. Explain which test cases are written first black boxes or white boxes?

Black box test cases are written first as to write black box test cases; it requires project plan and requirement document all these documents are easily available at the beginning of the project. While writing white box test cases requires more architectural understanding and is not available at the start of the project.

152. Explain what is the difference between latent and masked defects?

Latent defect: A latent defect is an existing defect that has not caused a failure because the sets of conditions were never met

Masked defect: It is an existing defect that has not caused a failure because another defect has prevented that part of the code from being executed

153. Mention what is bottom up testing?

Bottom up testing is an approach to integration testing, where the lowest level components are tested first, then used to facilitate the testing of higher level components. The process is repeated until the component at the top of the hierarchy is tested.

154. Mention what are the different types of test coverage techniques?

Different types of test coverage techniques include

155. Mention what is the meaning of breadth testing?

Breadth testing is a test suite that exercises the full functionality of a product but does not test features in detail

156. Mention what is the difference between Pilot and Beta testing?

The difference between pilot and beta testing is that pilot testing is actually done using the product by the group of user before the final deployment and in beta testing we do not input real data, but it is installed at the end customer to validate if the product can be used in production.

157. Explain what is the meaning of Code Walk Through?

Code Walk Through is the informal analysis of the program source code to find defects and verify coding techniques

158. Mention what are the basic components of defect report format?

The basic components of defect report format includes

159. Mention what is the purpose behind doing end-to-end testing?

End-to end testing is done after functional testing. The purpose behind doing end-to-end testing is that

160. Explain what it means by test harness?

A test harness is configuring a set of tools and test data to test an application in various conditions, it involves monitoring the output with expected output for correctness.

161. Explain in a testing project what testing activities would you automate?

In a testing project testing activities you would automate are

HP LoadRunner Interview Questions

162. What is load testing?

Load testing is one of the techniques of software testing which allows a software or website tester to check that if the application functions well when large number of users or transaction is happening on the application.

163. What is HP LoadRunner?

HP LoadRunner is a performance testing tool from HP. Load Runner supports all aspects including Load, Endurance, data volume, Stress, and spike testing.

164. What are all the components of LoadRunner?

The components of LoadRunner are:

165. Which Component of LoadRunner is utilized for recording a script?

Virtual User Generator (VuGen) is utilized to record a script. It enables programmer to develop Virtual user scripts for a different types of application and communication protocols.

166. What is a rendezvous point?

Rendezvous points are introduced into Vuser scripts to simulate more end-user on the server. It instruct Vusers to wait during test execution in order to perform various tasks at the same time. For example, in a banking applications, rendezvous points are injected for multiple users to save money simultaneously.

167. What is a scenario?

An event that occurs for each testing session, is called scenario. For an example, a scenario defines

168. How can you debug a LoadRunner script?

VuGen consists of two options to run Vuser scripts

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.

169. How can you perform functional testing under LoadRunner?

Functionality under LoadRunner can be tested by running several Vusers simultaneously. By growing the Vusers, it is important to define how much load server can withstand.

170. What is the relationship between Throughput and Response Time?

Throughput displays the amount of data in bytes which the Vusers received from server within a second. When throughput is equated to transaction response time, response time and throughput get decreased. Peak throughput and peak response time occur at the same time.

171. What does vuser_init and vuser_end action contain?

Vuser_init action consists of procedures to login to a server and Vuser_end section consists of procedure to log off from server.

172. What is the difference between standard log and extended log?

Extended log sends a descriptive script execution messages to output log. It is mainly used while debugging when user requires information about parameter substitution. Standard log sends a subset of messages and functions to the output log and subset of functions depend on the Virtual user type.

173. What are all the types of Goals in Goal-Oriented Scenario of LoadRunner?

LoadRunner offers five different types of goals:

174. What is a function to capture dynamic values in the web Vuser script?

In the web Vuser script, Web_reg_save_param saves dynamic data information within the parameter.

175. What are the Load Runner testing process?

Following are the testing process in LoadRunner:

176. What do you know about remote command launcher?

Remote command launcher allows the controller to run applications in the host machine.

177. How can we create the database Vuser script?

Vuser scripts can be created either by recording with the load Vuser script generator or by utilizing LoadRunner Vuser script template.

178. How do you load a LoadRunner Agent?

While running the scenario, LoadRunner controller commands the remote agent dispatcher to run the LoadRunner agent. The controller commands the loadrunner agent to initiate, run, pause and stop the Vusers.

179. What is the difference between hits/second and requests/second?

Number of hits the server receives within 1 second from the Vuser is called hit per second.
Number of requests, Vuser requests from the server is called requests per second.

180. What are the advantages of load runner?

Following are the advantages of Load Runner:
1-loadrunner automatically records the performance of the client/server during test.
2-loadrunner checks where performance delays occur network/client delays.
3-loadrunner monitor the network and server resource to help the improve performance

181. What is the Vuser in the scenario?

Vuser is Virtual user who can simulate the real user. Virtual users that take place of real users operating client tool, including IE sending requests utilizing the HTTP protocol to Apache web servers or IIS.

182. How do we write a user defined function in LoadRunner?

User should first create the external library that consists the function. This library should then be added to bin directory of VuGen. And then, user-defined function can be assigned as a parameter.

183. What are the changes that can be made to run-time settings?

There are four run-time settings that can be made:

184. How can we find database related issues?

Monitors and Data Resource Graph can be utilized to find issues related to database. LoadRunner permit the tester to pinpoint the resource that requires to be measured before the controller is executed.

185. How many types of graphs are available in LoadRunner?

There are 5 types of graphs:

186. How can performance bottlenecks can be identified?

Monitors can be used to detect performance bottlenecks. These include network, web server, application server, and database server monitors. These monitors can be used to locate trouble spots in scenarios that cause increase in response time and throughput, network delays, performance response time, hits/second, etc.

187. What is ramp up and how it can be set?

Ramp up is progressively increases the load on server and can be simulated by slowly increasing the number of Vusers. Within Scenario Scheduling Options you can find Ramp up feature.

188. How correlation can be performed?

In two ways correlation can be performed:

Utilize scan function to examine correlations and choose a value from the result.

Record a pair of scripts and then compare them to each other.

189. Where are automatic correlation options set?

The automatic correlation option is set in recording options area within the correlation tab. It can be enabled for the full script and correlation rules can be defined.
Automatic correlation can be done on a database by seeing the output window, finding for correlation, and choosing the value that will be used.

190. What is the benefit of running a Vuser script as a thread?

The benefit of running a Vuser script as a thread that permits more Vusers to be utilized for one load generator. Executing Vuser scripts as processes uses a lot of memory because all the loaded scripts use same driver.

191. What is the difference between Overlay graph and Correlate graph?

Overlay Graph:
Within overlay graph there is one X axis and two Y-axis. The Left Y-axis on the merged graph displays the current graph’s data & the right Y-axis displays the data of Y-axis of the merged graph.
Correlate Graph:
In correlate graph there are two graphs and the axis that is active becomes x-axis or vice versa.

192. What are the three sections of a Vuser script and what is the purpose of each one?

The three sections of Vuser script are Vuser_init, Actions, and Vuser_end.

193. What are the four selection methods when choosing data from a data file?

Following are the four selection methods:

194. What should be done to view parameter substitution in the Execution Log?

Parameter substitution can be seen in the extended log in the Run time settings.

195. What tools are required to analyze Vuser run results?

Execution Log, Run-Time Viewer and Mercury Test Results window are required to analyze Vuser run results.

196. What is difference between Manual scenario and Goal oriented scenario?

Following are the differences between Manual and Goal Oriented scenario:

Manual Scenario: Key purpose is to know how many Vusers can run at the same time. It also gives you manual control over how many Vusers run and at exactly time

Goal Scenario: Goal may be response time, throughput, or number of simultaneous Vusers. Load Runner manages Vusers automatically.

197. What are all the reasons to use the Server Resources Monitor?

Server resources monitor is utilized to find out how much data is coming from Cache and helps to track what are bottlenecks in the systems.

198. What is the purpose of selecting ‘Show browser’ during replay in the General Options settings?

‘Show Browser’ setting is utilized to see pages that appear during playback. It is very useful for debugging Vuser during the starting stages of Web Vuser creation.

199. For what purpose, User will be using ‘continue on’ error?

Continue on error should be set, when creating execution logs more detailed or adding some logic to the Vuser.

200. What is the purpose of a LoadRunner transaction?

The main purpose of Load Runner transaction is to find one or more steps or user actions of a business process.

201. Why do you create parameters?

Parameters are just like script variables and they are utilized to change input to the server to emulate end-users.
Different sets of inputs are sent to server every time a script is run.
Better simulate the utilization of model for more precise testing from the Controller & one script can emulate several different users on system.

202. What is lr_output_message?

lr_output_message is a function which sends notifications to Controller Output window and also to the Vuser log file.

203. In a web server, database and network are all working fine and now, where could be the issue?

The issue could be in the system itself or in the application server or in the code written for the application.

204. What is VuGen Recording and Scripting?

LoadRunner script code is acquired by recording in ANSI C language and it can be displayed in the script view.

205. What is Performance testing in LoadRunner?

Performance testing can be achieved by calculating the duration for both read and update transactions and find whether system functions are being performed within acceptable timeframe. Within a multi user environment, it is important to find the effect of numerous transactions on the same time of a single transaction.

206. What is the Configuration of systems when using Load Runner?

The configuration of systems refers to that of the client machines in which we will run Vusers. The configuration of client machine includes its hardware settings, memory, operating system, software applications, development tools, etc. This system component configuration should match with the overall system configuration so as to achieve the load testing objectives.

207. What is the use lr_abort function?

The lr_abort function is used to abort the execution of a Vuser script. It instructs the Vuser to stop executing the Actions section, execute the vuser_end section and end the execution.

208. What is think time?

Think time is the time where a real user waits between actions.
When a user receives data from a server or other applications, the user may wait several seconds to review the data before responding. This time delay is called as think time.

209. How Load Runner interacts with the application?

Protocol is used in Load Runner to interact with the application.

210. What is the latest version and language used in Load Runner?

As of 20-Feb-2013 Load Runner 11.5 is the latest version and VUser script is used like a C Language.

Following languages are supported by LoadRunner:
1. C Language
2. Visual Basic Scripting
3. Visual Basic For Applications
4. Java Scripting

211. What are all the important protocols that Load Runner supports?

Following are the protocols that Load Runner can support are: