Basic questions asked in any Software Testing Interview

1. What is Testing ?
Testing is finding out how well something works. But the proper definition is "Testing is the process of executing a set of instructions or steps to know how well a Software application or any product adheres to the product specifications"

Testing is the process of finding defects in a software application , reporting it & making sure the defects or bugs are fixed by the development. Once the development does the fixes for the reported defects Testing team is again responsible to verfiy the fixes & making sure the new fix has not broken any previously working functionality of the product.

2. What is a Defect or a Bug or a Product issue ?
Any deviation from the specifications mentioned in the product functional specification document is a [b]Defect[/b]. A defect or a bug is a mistake in the software application or AUT[Application Under Test] considering the details mentioned in the detailed specification document.

So if some feature or functionality of a Software application is varying from what it is supposed to be[with regard to its expectations mentioned in the Specification documents] it is considered a bug or a Defect. Some companies use the term CR: Change Request for a bug.

3. What will you do when you find a Defect in the product that you are Testing ?
Different companies follow different processes or methods in this case but generally when we find a bug or defect we report it following the bug logging process or Defect Reporting . But it is also the job of a Testing Engineer to make sure it is a real product bug & not any setup or testcase issue before filing a defect report [Bug Logging]

4. How do you log a bug & what software you use for this process ?
We use Bugzilla which is an opensource software for logging bug. While logging a bug we need to give detailed information about the whole steps i've done when i encountered this bug or defect.

When we hit a defect i mean while executing some testcase if we encounter a bug , we need to inform the developers & also concerned like Program manager,Development Lead,Test Lead etc. Bug reporting is a process of such communication. The main aim of a bug report is to let the developers know the details of the failure & to help them to find a resolution for the issue . So it is very important to give detailed information so that whoever is reading the bug report or trying to reproduce the bug can do so easily . The bug report is a document that explains the gap between the expected result and the actual result and detailing on how to reproduce the scenario.

5. Describe in detail what you should do after Finding the Bug?

Write the bug report just when you are sure that you have found a bug, not after the end of test or at the end of the day. It might be possible that you might miss out on many crucial points if you are delaying the write up for bug filing . Worse, you might miss the bug itself.
Put necessary time to diagnose the defect you are reporting. Think of the possible causes. You might land up uncovering more defects if there are any . Mention your discoveries in your bug report. The programmers will only be happy seeing that you have made their job easier. Take some time off before reading your bug report. You might feel like re-writing it.

6. What are the factors you consider while writing Defect Summary or bug synopsis ?

The summary of the bug report is the readers first glance with your bug report. The fate of your bug heavily depends on how well you compress yet describe the summary of your bug report. The rule is that every bug should have a one line summary some reporting softwares call it as Bug Synopsis. A good summary will not be more than 50 to 60 characters.

Keep reading for more common Testing questions & their answers

Testing Interview Questions from Accenture Software Testing Engineer Interview

First round was HR round : HR person who took my interview also asked few technical related questions apart from the usual HR general questions :

1. Explain your present role & responsibility.

2. Why are you looking for a job change ?

3. If given a chance will you lead a team & do you have any prior experience in that ?

4. What importance you think "Testing Engineer" & Testing Team plays ?

5. Were you interacting directly with the clients ? Were you required to interact with other
teams & teams spread across different geos ?

6. How were your experience in all the companies you worked previously ? What are the
achivements you can mention & are there any excellence recognition you've got so far ?

7. Present Salary , Expected Salary, Notice period - can the notice period be shortened - can I join immediately within a week if required?

8. What are my hobbies & interests ?

9. What about my family background & Do I have any difficulty in relocating ?

10.What value addition will I bring If I was offered the job ? How can I prove that I will be associated with this company for a considerably longer period of time ?

11.What are the processes our company followed ? am I familiar with CMM or Six sigma or any other maturity model ?

What People are Searching for on this "Software Testing Jobs Blog" : This is very interesting

Below are the words people searched in Google & found my blog as answers & came to this blog by clicking the results in google search listing. I guess many of them have found their answers on the different pages of this blog. This is very intersting list to read & understand how people search on the google. I promise to write more to answer their search questions.Keep reading this blog daily.

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Read Below/Previos blog posts to get answers for all above questions

Software Testing Interview Questions & Salary details of Accenture

Accenture pays the best & hires the best . That was clear to me when I gave the interview in that company for the position of "Software Testing Engineer" [Manual Testing in Unix environment for a Telecom domain project].

Some of the easiest & very basic questions i am listing out here.

1. How is the testing process start in your company? what are the deliverables you as a Testing team got from the development/product engineering team based on which the test planning was done ?

2. How do you work on giving estimates for the test efforts so as to help the lead or manager come up with a Testing Schedule ? Do you have any experience working on effort estimation?

3. If you are a Test lead & you want to hire Testing Engineers to work in your team what are the factors you will look in them so as to hire the quality guys who contribute largely to the project success ?

4. Explain all types of testing you know & go in depth on the testing types you have worked rigorously in your project? Explain in detail how you have been involved in Functionality Testing,Regression Testing & System Testing in your previous company?

5. What are the processes you would like to improve in your current "Software Testing Project" what value addition your recommendations do for the team & the project ?

6. How is your Testing process ? What are the Test methodologies & Models you use?

7. Explain 5 challening test scenarios you worked in your project ? Tell me how you setup the test environment to test these scenarios & how many of them gave you real product bugs.

8. If you have to Test on different versions or releases or trains at the same time how would you manage the complexity since the different versions of the product behaves very differently though the test cases may be same for them? Have you worked in a similar situation in your previous testing experience ?

9. Who is the best contributor in your team , it may be your team mate/peer, your lead , your manager or a developer who supports your testing team a lot - why do you feel he is the best contributor for the success of the whole testing projects?

10. If you are made the lead or manager of this project how would you approach the whole project so that you improve the quality of the product heavily?

[If you blog reader has noticed these are not "One line answer" kind of questions which you will see in hundreds of other websites. These are simple yet powerful questions which forces the interviewee/candidate to answer in length explain lot of dependencies & brings out the managerial aspects of any individual Testing Professional.
Only people with real experience can answer these questions satisfactorily.
Keep reading this blog as I will update with new Interview questions every hour. You will also find some "Software Testing Tutorial" coming on this blog within a day.

You want answers for above questions email roger.smithson@gmail.com [ They are not free ]

Testing Interview Questions & Interview experience in Accenture

Accenture is one of the biggest & best paying companies. It has lots of projects worth millions & even billions & best part is it hires lots of Software testing professionals.

Here is one of the interview experience of Accenture.
There will be nearly 4 to 8 rounds depending on the years of experience you have & level of designation you are applying for.

Do Not attend their interview without proper preparation. They take very challenging & aggressive interview & the whole hiring process is very streamlined . So sometimes they may take a month before giving you a Job Offer. Have patience & do your best in Interview.

Some of the questions asked in Accenture Software Testing Interview are :

1. Explain Traceability matrix & how is it used in your project? Who is responsible in your team to manage it & if you were assigned that task how will you be able to manage it?

2. How was the regression testing done in your project what was the contribution of the regression test effort for the whole quality improvement?

3. Write or explain 15 testcases you executed recently with detailed descriptions ,steps to reproduce & explain what results they gave when you executed on a recent build?

4. Mention 5 testcases or a test component area which gave lots of bugs & had lots of difficulties in testing it ?

5. How is the Release Engineering process in your team? When codefreeze happens when you get a QA build & what are the factors considered before you start testing this build?

6. What are the SLA's(Service Level Agreements) Testing team has with Development team ?

7. How is the sustaining or Customer escalations team interacting with testing team ? How do you transition your projects to Sustaining team once you move to new release or new version testing?

8. What is Cyclomatic complexity ? Did you ever use it in your testing efforts ?

9. What are some of the tasks that you are handling which are transitioned to you by your lead?(Mean to ask what tasks of a lead are you performing , if any) [Intention of the question is whether you will be able to rise above your limits & take bigger initiatives when required]

10. How will you manage a critical projects when
- Experienced Senior people are leaving
- There is limited time to test a lot of scenarios & configurations
- There are many hardware/infrastructure issues
- The knowledge transfer from development team is not enough
- The documentation is very minimal & the test plans are not very precise

There were more than 50 questions which I will post by tomorrow keep reading this as I update it everyhour.

[I will update more "Software testing interview questions"

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