Software Testing Interview Questions

A list of mostly asked software testing interview questions or QTP interview questions and answers are given below.

1) What is PDCA cycle and where testing fits in?

There are four steps in a normal software development process. In short, these steps are referred as PDCA.

PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act.

• Plan: It defines the goal and the plan for achieving that goal.
• Do/ Execute: It depends on the plan strategy decided during the plan stage. It is done according to this phase.
• Check: This is the testing part of the software development phase. It is used to ensure that we are moving according to plan and getting the desired result.
• Act: This step is used to solve if there any issue is occurred during the check cycle. It takes appropriate action accordingly and revises the plan again.

The developers do the "planning and building" of the project while testers do the "check" part of the project.

2) What is the difference among white box, black box and gray box testing?

Black box Testing: The strategy of black box testing is based on requirements and specification. It requires no need of knowledge of internal path, structure or implementation of the software being tested.

White box Testing: White box testing is based on internal paths, code structure, and implementation of the software being tested. It requires a full and detail programming skill.

Gray box Testing: This is another type of testing in which we look into the box which is being tested, It is done only to understand how it has been implemented. After that we close the box and use the black box testing.

3) What are the types of defects?

There are three types of defects: Wrong, missing and extra.

Wrong: These defects are occurred due to requirements have been implemented incorrectly.

Missing: It is used to specify the missing things i.e. a specification was not implemented, or the requirement of the customer was not noted properly.

Extra: This is an extra facility incorporated into the product that was not given by the end customer. It is always a variance from the specification but may be an attribute that was desired by the customer. However, it is considered as a defect because the variance from the user requirements.

4) What are the advantages of designing tests early in the life cycle?

It helps you to prevent defects into the code.

5) Tell me about the risk based testing.

Risk based testing is a testing strategy that is based on prioritizing tests by risks. It is based on a detailed risk analysis approach which categorizes the risks by their priority. Highest priority risks are resolved first.

6) What is the difference between preventative and reactive approaches to testing?

Preventative tests are designed earlier and reactive tests are designed after the software has been produced.

7) What is the purpose of exit criteria?

The exit criteria is used to define the completion of the test level.

8) Why the decision table testing is used?

A decision table consists of inputs in a column with the outputs in the same column but below the inputs.

The decision table testing is used for testing systems for which the specification takes the form of rules or cause-effect combination. The reminders you get in the table explore combinations of inputs to define the output produced.

9) What is alpha and beta testing?

These are the key differences between alpha and beta testing:

10) What is Random/Monkey Testing?

Random testing is also known as monkey testing. In this testing, data is generated randomly often using a tool. The data is generated either using a tool or some automated mechanism.

Random testing has some limitations:

• Most of the random tests are redundant and unrealistic.
• It needs more time to analyze results.
• It is not possible to recreate the test if you do not record what data was used for testing.

11) What is the negative and positive testing?

Negative Testing: When you put an invalid input and receive errors is known as negative testing.

Positive Testing: When you put in the valid input and expect some actions that are completed according the specification is known as positive testing.