Top 25+ Software Testing Interview Questions To Know In 2024

In this Software Testing Interview Questions guide, we have compiled a list of the most often asked questions by interviewers. These questions were compiled after speaking with leading industry experts in manual and automated testing. If you want to brush up on the basics of software testing, I recommend you do before proceeding with these Software Testing Interview Questions.

If you encounter any more questions during your interviews or have questions that may be useful to others, please share them in the comments section of this article.

Let’s begin this software testing interview question with beginners level questions first.


1. What are the phases involved in Software Testing Life Cycle?
Answer: The different phases involved in the software testing life cycle are:
Here, the QA team understands the requirements and identify the testable requirements

2. What are the different methods of testing?

Answer:There are three methods of software testing and they are as follows:

• Black-box testing: It is a testing strategy based solely on requirements and specifications. In this strategy, it requires no knowledge of internal paths, structures, or implementation of the software being tested.
• White box testing: It is a testing strategy based on internal paths, code structures, and implementation of the software being tested. White box testing generally requires detailed programming skills.
• Gray box testing: It is a strategy for software debugging in which the tester has limited knowledge of the internal details of the program.

3. What are the different levels of testing?

Answer: There are mainly four testing levels and they are:

• Unit Testing
• Integration Testing
• System Testing
• Acceptance Testing

Basically, it starts with the Unit Testing phase and ends with Acceptance Testing.

4. What are the principles of software testing?

Software testing is governed by seven principles:

• Absence of errors fallacy: Even if the software is 99% bug-free, it is unusable if it does not conform to the user’s requirements. Software needs to be bug-free 99% of the time, and it must also meet all customer requirements.
• Testing shows the presence of errors: Testing can verify the presence of defects in software, but it cannot guarantee that the software is defect-free. Testing can minimize the number of defects, but it can’t remove them all.
• Exhaustive testing is not possible: The software cannot be tested exhaustively, which means all possible test cases cannot be covered. Testing can only be done with a select few test cases, and it’s assumed that the software will produce the right output in all cases. Taking the software through every test case will cost more, take more effort, etc., which makes it impractical.
• Defect clustering: The majority of defects are typically found in a small number of modules in a project. According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of software defects arise from 20% of modules.
• Pesticide Paradox: It is impossible to find new bugs by re-running the same test cases over and over again. Thus, updating or adding new test cases is necessary to find new bugs.
• Early testing: Early testing is crucial to finding the defect in the software. In the early stages of SDLC, defects will be detected more easily and at a lower cost.
• Testing is context-dependent: The testing approach varies depending on the software development context. Software needs to be tested differently depending on its type. For instance, an ed-tech site is tested differently than an Android app.
  

1. Explain Bug Life Cycle or Defect life cycle.

• A defect life cycle is a process in which a defect goes through various phases during its entire lifetime. It starts when a defect is found and ends when a defect is closed, after ensuring it’s not reproduced.
• Bug or defect life cycle includes the steps as illustrated in the below figure. If you wish to learn in depth about Bug Life Cycle then you can refer my article on Software Testing Tutorial.
  
  It can vary from organization to organization and also from project to project based on several factors like organization policy, software development model used (like Agile, Iterative), project timelines, team structure etc.

6. What is a test case?

A test case is nothing but a set of conditions or variables under which a tester will determine whether a system under test satisfies requirements or works correctly. 

1. 
   What is the difference between functional and non-functional testing?

 

Functional Testing	Non Functional Testing
Performed before non-functional testing	Performed after functional testing
Based on customer requirements	Based on customers expectations
Describes what the product does	Describes how the product works

 

8. What is Verification and Validation in Software Testing?

Verification: It is a static analysis technique. Here, testing is done without executing the code. Examples include – Reviews, Inspection, and walkthrough.

Validation: It is a dynamic analysis technique where testing is done by executing the code. Examples include functional and non-functional testing techniques.

In the V model, the development and QA activities are done simultaneously. There is no discrete phase called Testing, rather testing starts right from the requirement phase.  The verification and validation activities go hand in hand.

9 . What is exploratory testing?

Exploratory testing means testers explore a computer program like an adventurer. They don’t follow a strict plan but try different things, like a curious detective looking for problems. This helps find mistakes that regular testing might miss, especially in tricky or new parts of the program. Testers take notes while they explore to remember what they did and what they found. It’s like exploring a new place without a map to find interesting things you wouldn’t expect! It also provides a high-level overview of the system that helps evaluate and quickly learn the software.

10. What is end-to-end testing?

End to End testing is the process of testing a software system from start to finish. The tester tests the software just like an end-user would. For example, to test a desktop software, the tester would install the software as the user would, open it, use the application as intended, and verify the behavior. Same for a web application.

There is an important difference between end-to-end testing vs. other forms of testing that are more isolated, such as unit testing. In end-to-end testing, the software is tested along with all its dependencies and integrations, such as databases, networks, file systems, and other external services.

1. What is unit testing?

Unit testing is the process of testing a single unit of code in an isolated manner. The unit of code can be a method, a class, or a module. Unit testing aims to focus on the smallest building blocks of code to get confidence to combine them later to produce fully functioning software.

A unit test invokes the code and verifies the result with the expected result. If the expected and actual outcomes match, then the unit test passes. Otherwise, it fails.

1. What is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a means of communication between two software components. An API abstracts the internal workings and complexity of a software program and allows the user of that API to solely focus on the inputs and outputs required to use it.

1. What is a test environment?

A test environment consists of a server/computer on which a tester runs their tests. It is different from a development machine and tries to represent the actual hardware on which the software will run; once it’s in production.

Whenever a new build of the software is released, the tester updates the test environment with the latest build and runs the regression tests suite. Once it passes, the tester moves on to testing new functionality.

1. Explain test scenarios, test scripts, and test cases in software testing.

• Test Case: Test Cases are a series of actions executed during software development to verify a particular feature or function. A test case consists of test steps, test data, preconditions, and postconditions designed to verify a specific requirement.
• Test Scenario: Usually, a test scenario consists of a set of test cases covering the end-to-end functionality of a software application. A test scenario provides a high-level overview of what needs to be tested.
• Test Scripts: When it comes to software testing, a test script refers to the set of instructions that will be followed in order to verify that the system under test performs as expected. The document outlines each step to be taken and the expected results.

 

1. What is a bug in software testing?

A bug in software testing is like a mistake in a computer program. It’s something that the program does that it’s not supposed to do, or it doesn’t do something that it should do. Just like a spelling mistake in a book, bugs can cause the program to act weird or not work correctly. Testers find these bugs so that the programmers can fix them and make the program better.

16. State the difference between bugs and errors
Bugs and errors differ in the following ways:

Bugs	Erors
A bug is a problem in a computer program that causes it to behave in an unintended way.	An error is a mistake made by a human, such as a programmer, while writing the code.
It’s a flaw or a mistake in the code that leads to incorrect behavior, unexpected results, or crashes.	It’s the root cause of a bug. If a programmer makes a mistake when writing code, it can lead to a bug in the software.
Bugs can be the result of coding mistakes, logic errors, or design flaws.	Errors can include syntax mistakes, logic errors, incorrect calculations, and more.

 

17. What is a Test Plan? What does it include?
A test plan is basically a dynamic document monitored and controlled by the testing manager. The success of a testing project totally depends upon a well-written test plan document that describes software testing scope and activities. It basically serves as a blueprint that outlines the what, when, how, and more of the entire test process.

18. What is a Test Report? What does it include?

Test report is basically a document that includes a total summary of testing objectives, activities, and results. It is very much required to reflect testing results and gives an opportunity to estimate testing results quickly. It helps us to decide whether the product is ready for release or not. It also helps us determine the current status of the project and the quality of the product. A test report must include the following details:

• Test Objective

• Project Information

• Defect

• Test Summary

 

19. What do you mean by Test Deliverables?

Test deliverables, also known as test artifacts, are basically a list of all of the documents, tools, and other components that are given to the stakeholders of a software project during the SDLC. Test deliverables are maintained and developed in support of the test. At every phase of SDLC, there are different deliverables as given below:

Before Testing Phase

• Test plans document.
• Test cases documents
• Test Design specifications.

 

During Testing Phase

• Test Scripts
• Simulators.
• Test Data
• Test Traceability Matrix
• Error logs and execution logs

 

After testing Phase

• Test Results/reports
• Defect Report
• Installation/ Test procedures guidelines
• Release notes

20. What are different categories of debugging?

Different categories of debugging include:

• Brute force debugging
• Backtracking
• Cause elimination
• Program slicing
• Fault tree analysis

 

21. Write some common mistakes that lead to major issues.

Some common mistakes include:

• Poor Scheduling
• Underestimating
• Ignoring small issues
• Not following the exact process
• Improper resource allocation

 

22. What is a user story?

A user story describes the user’s motivations and what they are trying to accomplish by using the software. Finally, it shows how the user uses the application. It ignores the design and implementation details. A user story aims to focus on the value provided to the end-user instead of the exact inputs they might enter and the expected output.

23. List some of the popular software testing tools/frameworks, providing a brief description of each.

1. Selenium: a web browser automation tool that automates the test suites you need to run on a web browser.
2. Protractor: An end-to-end test framework for Angular and AngularJS applications. Protractor runs tests against your application running in a real browser, interacting with it as a user would.
3. Cypress: A modern front-end testing tool built for the modern web. Though it’s similar to Selenium and Protractor, it’s architecturally different from them.
4. Jasmine: This is an open-source JavaScript testing framework that allows you to write behaviour-driven tests.
5. JUnit and NUnit: These are unit testing frameworks for Java and C# programming languages, respectively.

24. What is usability testing?

It is a testing methodology where the end customer is asked to use the software to see if the product is easy to use, to see the customer’s perception and task time. An accurate way to finalize the customer point of view for usability is by using prototype or mock-up software during the initial stages.

25. What are the categories of defects?

There are three main categories of defects as shown in the below figure:

 

• Wrong: It implies that requirements have been implemented incorrectly. It is a variance from the given specification.
• Missing: This is a variance from the specifications, an indication that a specification was not implemented, or a requirement of the customer was not noted properly.
• Extra: It is a requirement 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 desired by the user of the product.

 

Conclusion:

In this guide on Software Testing Interview Questions for 2024, we addressed key topics to help you prepare for interviews in the software testing field. We’ve provided a comprehensive overview, covering everything from testing phases and techniques to advanced concepts such as API and debugging.

 

Understanding principles such as early testing and context-based techniques is critical. Practical factors such as bug lifecycles and test scenarios were also investigated. We introduced popular testing tools and frameworks, talked about usability testing, and identified defect categories.