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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Fresher's Interview Experiences shared by a blog reader

Reading below Interview experience one of my blog reader was very enthusiastic & requested me to publish his experience. This is an outline & wont go in detail as the previous posts. But this gives an idea what to expect.

[1] I had attended an interview , 3 yrs back at MSource.

The company had come to Mangalore to recruit freshers for their call centre –as they were just emerging into the market in Bangalore as well

The interview took place in 3 rounds.

1. was a written test. – General question, mathematics, analytic questions were given to be solve in a time span of 30 mins .
2. the shortlisted candidates were then taken as a group. Each one was to come up when called out talk for 3-5 min on any topic of their choice.
3. Further shortlisted candidates had a face to face interview with the HR.

In the personal round of interviews . the questions asked were basically general, for example

1. Tell me about your self- studies & family?
2. What is your ambition in life?
3. Is your family ok with you relocating.?
4. Do you have relatives in Bangalore?
5. Would you be able to cope to pressure.?

____________________________________________

[2] Cambridge integrated services - Campus interview.

2 rounds of interview:

1. Written test – General, Maths, Analytic

2. F2F with the HR Manager- Praveen Kamath & Poornima

As I had done my PUC in Bangalore, they concentrated more on my college.

Questions :

1. Tell me about your self?
2. Tell me how would you cope with stress ?
3. How confident are you living without your family?
4. Where do you see yourself 5 yrs from now?

[3] WIPRO Computers

I had gone for an HR opening at Wipro ( MG Road office ) , but it took a turn.
*Met the HR co-ordinator ( Shaziya) ,

1. she asked me a general question- tell me about yourself?
2. Tell me about your previous job?
3. Why are you looking for a change ?
4. How did you get the previous job?

Met Mr. Arun – Coordinator

1. tell Me about yourself
2. Briefly explain the process you were working
3. Why are you looking for a change & what made you take up the previous job

*met another lady who was Incharge of the payments ( no sure what’s her role)

1. Explain your work in the previous organisation ?

she explained about the work that has to be done here.

2. What is the salary your expecting?


[4] ThinkSmart Consultants limited

Met Ms Suzanne,

1. Tell me about your self
2. Previous work .?
3. What is HR according to you ?
4. Describe the process of recruitment.
5. What’s aim – careers wise?

Manager Round & Salary Negotiation Rounds at Symphony Services

This was for the position of "Senior Software Engineer" - QA (QualityAssurance) - To sayin a simple way it is a Testing Engineer job opening.

The Manager Round:



Final HR Round:




[Updates in progress will be updated in next 1 hour]

Testing Interview Questions & Interview experience in Symphony (contibued)

So if you read First article of Symphony Services Testing Interview this is the continuation article.

1st round of Technical discussion went for more than 20-25 minutes I was able to answer satisfactorily though I could not answer some of the questions related to Quality Metrics, Traceability matrix, Testing Unix processes/daemons

I was asked to wait after the second round & I waited for another 20-25 minutes.

2nd Technical Round
This was a more rigorous round .3 guys together interviewed me in this round - where they asked me to explain each of my projects, tools I used , way I handled my testing effort & things I learned.

Questions were like :
1. Did you write Test plan , Test cases for this project ?

2.How did you create test data & what methods you followed for that ?

3.Explain 5 challenging test cases from ur project tell me how you execute them starting from preparing the test setup for them ?

4.Write test cases to test "Winamp MP3 player" Write test cases to test "Norton Antivirus" Write test cases to test "Network Management Software"?

5.How do you give estimates for your testing efforts. What factors you will list out in the estimation document ?

6. What are these SRS,Func Specs - Explain how you translate Specs to Use cases to Test cases?

7. Which OS does your Software support ? Suppose it is supported in Windows only then you have so many configurations like :
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 20000 Server
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Pro
Windows XP Pro with Service Pack2
Windows 2003 Standard Edition Server
Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition Server
Windows Vista Ultimate

So above 8 OS if we consider on Intel & again on AMD processors we have nearly 16 configurations multiply this with Hardware Server differences like "Dell PowerEdge Servers", "Sun microsystems - Opteron V20z Servers" , "IBM eSeries Server" you have 16 X 3 = 48 configurations - support you join a new team where you have to test all these configurations for 100 test cases how will you manage. Do you have a process in your present team to solve such a complexity

8. Explain Entry Criteria & Exit Criteria in your Test plans & How your project Test plan guides your whole testing process ?

9. Explain in detail all the tasks you do in your whole test cycle ? how much time you need for different test cases & what are the kind of issues you might face regularly? How do resolve those issues ? Have you implemented any best practices to resolve these issues in future ?

10. What are the things you have in your Performance plan for this year & how are you improving your self in this present job in terms of Technical expertise & Product knowledge?

There were many many more interview questions which I may send later. This round was the lengthiest & went for nearly 30-40 minutes. Good answers were appreciated & many a times interviewer's answered few things which I could NOT answer. It was a very learning experience for me & refreshing one too.

[Next round of Interview will be published online within next 1 hour so please Visit again. Everyday a new article with New Company Interview experiences & many Interview questions will be published so Keep reading]

For answers email roger.smithson@gmail.com - it will be a fee based service

Symphony Services Interview Questions on Software Testing Engineer Job description

Symphony Services hires lots of Testing Engineer's frequently.One of the blog reader attended its interview last week & find below his QA job interview experience.

Rounds : 5
1. HR Interview
2. Technical Brief
3.Technical Detailed
4.Manager Discussion
5.HR Discussion including salary & joining date/notice period

HR Interview
This initial HR round was mainly to filter out NOT-So-Good candidates. They asked asked
1.Company details : Website,Contact No.s & References (May be for further background verification - not sure)
2.Organization structure & company employee strength
3.My experience details of all previous companies
4.My roles & responsibilities , Skillset/Expertise

This was about 10 to 15 minutes & the person wrote down many details in another sheet & took for records.

I had to wait another 20 minutes to go for next round ( I was glad to know they were interested to take me to next round - which I considered as the actual starting of the interview process)

1st Technical Round
The tech lead who took my interview was very serious & looked like tired of taking many interviews. Still i appreciate his patience of asking quality interview questions like
1.Explain the tasks you are responsible for in this Testing project

2.How do you manage growing features & how you keep track that testcases are also increasing to have proper coverage

3.Explain your test scenarios & what bugs you found in which scenarios

4.How were you involved in Integration testing & how were your testing efforts contributing interms of improving the quality of the product under test.

5.Explain some of the component areas you have worked till now in this company/project. Which one was most challenging & why?

6.What is regression testing? How is Regression testing done in your team ? Tell me some what is a regression bug & name 3 regression bugs you filed & what was their priority

7. When you file a bug what happens till it gets fixed? Explain all the phases & people involved in this bug detection till resolution process

8. Apart from Testing an application or Product what else you did in your whole experience ?

9. Do you know about Performance Testing can you explain how would you approach it if you had to start doing it even though you may not have much prior experience ?

10. What is End 2 End testing ? What are these FCS,RTM,GA,RC ?

[Next rounds of interview with all the questions will be posted within next 1 hour - plz keep reading for the update] If you want the answers for these email roger.smithson@gmail.com

Software Testing Tutorial for Beginners : Even people working in Testing may find this interesting

I take personalised online training on Testing Concepts & few topics I cover are

Testing life cycle :
How testing proceeds & what are the different phases involved
what are the deliverables in each phase of testing life cycle
Is what we learn in theory same as what we do practically when we are working on a Testing project
What changes & what remains as per the theory

Bug life cycle:
This is a complex thing for those who do not know & those who've worked it may seem trivial. Still Bug life cycle is the most important thing in Testing projects & many questions come which are difficult for newbies to handle. Questions like:
Explain how u file bug
What are the fields in your bug tracking software
How do you make sure your test failure is not already reported
How do you make sure you are not filing a duplicate bug
How do search for previous bugs
What are the things you learnt from your team's Bug logging guideline's

Testing types:
There are more than 25 types of Testing & most important ones are
System Testing
Integration Testing
Regression Testing
Functionality Testing
Performance Testing
End-2-End Testing
Security Testing

Terminologies in Testing:
Test plan, Test Components, Test Cases, Test Data, Entry Criteria , Ecit Criteria , Test Suite, Testbed , Test Setup etc

Performance testing:
Load Testing, Stress Testing , Tools used for these & what you Stress with these

System Testing:

Testing approach & methodologies:

The above mentioned are few of the important things which I cover in my Online Software Testing training if you are interested to get this training email roger.smithson@gmail.com

How to get job in Software Testing

Many ask this question & answers vary but some outline remains the same.

1. Software Application Testing is the easiest route. But it is not too easy be prepared to put enough study.

2.Start learning Testing Concepts like : What is Testing, Testing Process, Testing Life Cycle, Testing terminologies.

3. Do not forget SDLC(Software Development Life Cycle) and SDLC models - they are also very essential

4. Learn How a Bug Life Cycle is managed in an Enterprise ( Defect Tracking Process)

5.Start learning a project in detail - if you get a chance to work on any Software Application Testing project that will be a big advantage.

6.Know about the technical domain like : Networking, Operating Systems, Programming like J2EE and Application Server.

7. Know how a Development team interacts with a Testing team within a company & know all the essential things about Servers, Installation & Configuration of Hardware servers as well as Software Servers like : Web Server, Application Server, proxy Server, Calendar Server, Portal Server

8. Know a Linux based Operating System well - Preferable RHEL5(Red Hat Enterprise Linux) or Solaris 10 or SLES10(Suse Linux Enterprise Server)

9.Know how you can test your application in MS-Windows environment & how to test in Linux environment.

10. Know how will be a Release Engineering , Product Release Cycle , Product Development process & where QA Team (Testing team) comes into picture.

Keep reading this blog & u will find more articles being written everyday.
Anyone interested in personalised training on Software Testing Concepts email roger.smithson@gmail.com

Monday, July 30, 2007

Software Testing Interview Questions : Top 10 Questions asked in many interviews

Below 10 Questions are frequently asked in any Testing Job Interviews :
1. How did you Test your Project "Customer Records Management"(Example project)?

2. How is your Testing process ?

3.How is your Test cycle schedule & what are the components you have been testing ?

4. If you find a bug/defect what will you do ? How is your defect management process ?

5. How does the Testing Team Interact with Development team in your Company ? When & how do you communicate with Product Development or Engineering team with regards to your Testing issues ?

6. What is a Product defect/issue and what is a Test setup defect or Test issue ?

7. How many bugs you have filed till now & mention 3 challenging bugs you filed ? Mention 2 high priority or critical bugs you filed & how were they resolved ? How did you do the root cause analysis for them (RCA) ?

8.You file a bug & developer marks it as "Not a bug" or "User Error" or "Not reproducible" & closes the bug - what will you do ?

9. How do you make sure you are giving maximum information in your bug report ? Which bug management tool do you use ? what are the different fields in your bug tracking software ?

10. How is your Testing project's configuration managent ? Which Versioning system you use ?

Answers for the above questions costs only $5 payable thru paypal email roger.smithson@gmail.com

Software Testing Interview Questions for Testing Jobs

Below are some basic concepts you need to know about Software Testing.

1.What is Software Testing?
Software testing is the process of executing a software application or program to find defects,report them & get them resolved .This is to mainly remove more defects from the product & improve quality.

2.What is the difference between QA & QC , Quality Assurance & Quality Control ?

QA is focussed on removing defects in the first place
QC is focussed on finding more defects which are already in the developed product

QA is process oriented
QC is product oriented

QA tries to put in place lots of process improvements at the initial phases of development to make sure product quality is better & there are fewer bugs/defects.(Example : Code reviews,walkthroughs,inspections)

QC is at the later stages of development where QC team has a executable build to test & QC tests with the intent of finding more bugs

3.What is a defect or a bug ?

A bug or a defect is a deviation from what is expected in the functional specifications . These are problems or issues which decreases the quality of the product. A company which develops a product (Hardware or Software) wants to remove as many defects as possible (Improving the quality) before the product is released to the Customer/End User.

4.What is AUT or PUT ?
Application Under Test
Product Under Test

More to come if you want 200 Software Interview Questions with answers it will cost just $24 email roger.smithson@gmail.com if you are interested in this.

How to prepare for Software Testing Job Interviews

One of my friend emailed me asking how should he prepare for his Interviews for Software testing jobs. This is what I replied him:

His email:
Hi Ray,

Find below the requirement from Accenture, can you please suggest me something
about the below, that what would help me to attend the same.

Roles & Responsiblities:
Key role and responsibilities: Candidate will be handling the role of a
performance tester and client interaction in Manual testing. Should have
worked on projects. Act as Client interface for resolving all test
related issues Working knowledge of testing methodologies for System and
Regression Testing (RUP is preferred) defect analysis and participating
defect meetings with clients.
Skills,Job Requirements:
Skills: Manual Testing , Manual Testing
Job Requirements : Wipro Technologies is looking for candidates with the
below mentioned skills: Experience in Functionality (System) testing and
Regression Testing Analyzing Business Requirements for creating and
reviewing test ware - Test Strategy, Test Plans, Test Scenarios and Test
Cases Experience in Executing test cases, Domain and Working knowledge
in Securities, Banking and Insurance (highly preferred) Excellent
Communication and Documentation Skills About 3 years of experience

Regards
-Sean


My reply:
First Perfect the below if you are very new to Testing & then proceed perfecting the domain specific topics

Testing life cycle
Bug life cycle
Testing types
Terminologies in Testing
Performance testing
System Testing
Testing approach & methodologies

i think u have started studying , let me know what topics u covered already. I would be hapy if u email atleast everyonce in 2 days or if posible everyday . I can help u if u email ur daily progress.

My Friend's reply back to me :
Hi Ray,

Thanks for the support, further to below, i have not really started anything
particularly, as i was mentionining that i am confused with the order of
studying,( i will list the docs which i have with me to study), am just
going through with some or other docs which i get in the google, mainly i
would like to concentrate about the system testing, hence am surfing and
collecting the docs related to the system testing. wrt below today soon
after i have completed few things which you have mentioned below am writing
you this, i have studied and understood about Bug life cycle, in which i
have understood, what a bug is, different stages of a bug, how to define the
bug and deciding the severity of a bug etc. and still looking for the
testing life cycle, i found an article but i did not find its directly
related to the testing life cycle, i will update you again as i proceed and
understand the same.

can you just mention what exactly that i search in google to get the docs
related to system testing, so that am not lost in looking something else...

I expect a lot of support from you , please help me...

Regards
-Sean
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