Common Questions for Testers

[kalyansantosh]

Concepts
 What is the testing process?
Verifying that an input data produce the expected output.
 What is the difference between testing and debugging?
Big difference is that debugging is conducted by a programmer and the programmer fixes the errors during debugging phase. Tester never fixes the errors, but rather find them and return to programmer.
 What is the difference between structural and functional testing?
Structural is a "white box" testing and based on the algorithm or code. Functional testing is a "black box" (behavioral) testing where the tester verifies the functional specification.
 What is a bug? What types of bugs do you know?
Bug is a error during execution of the program. There are two types of bugs: syntax and logical.
 What is the difference between testing and quality assurance (QA)?
This question is surprisingly popular. However, the answer is quite simple. The goals of both are different: The goal of testing is to find the errors. The goal of QA is to prevent the errors in the program.
 What kinds of testing do you know? What is it system testing? What is it integration testing? What is a unit testing? What is a regression testing?
You theoretical background and home work may shine in this question. System testing is a testing of the entire system as a whole. This is what user see and feels about the product you provide. Integration testing is the testing of integration of different modules of the system. Usually, the integration process is quite painful and this testing is the most serious one of all. Integration testing comes before system testing. Unit testing is a testing of a single unit (module) of within system. It's conducted before integration testing. Regression testing is a "backward check" testing. The idea to ensure that new functionality added to the system did not break old, checked, functionality of the system.
Automation Testing
 Have you used automatic testing tools? Which ones?
If you never have seen automation tools before, do not try to fool around the interviewer. You produce a bad impression when "caught" on lying to the interviewer. However, if you ever used the automation tools, it would be a huge advantage for us to mention them even if those tools were proprietary automation tools of your previous company. Be prepared then to answer general automation testing questions.

 How would you build a test with WinRunner? Rational Visual Test?
First of all, see the comments to the previous question. Then, all automation testing tools I ever heard of have a GUI recorder which allows you to record the basic user interactions with the software underneath. Then, you manually update your initial script to suit your needs. You must know scripting language of the automation tool for that.
General Questions
 Could you test a program 100%? 90%? Why?
Definitely not! The major problem with testing that you cannot calculate how many errors are in the code, functioning etc. There are many factors involved such as experience of programmer, complexity of the system etc.
 How would you test a mug (chair/table/gas station etc.)?
First of all you must demand requirements and functional specification and design document of the mug. There will find requirements like ability to hold hot water, waterproof, stability, break ability and so on. Then you should test the mug according to all documents.
 How would you conduct your test?
Each test is based on the technical requirements of the software product.
 What is considered a good test?
Good test is a test covering most of the object's functionality.
 What is considered a successful test?
A test that discovered more errors. The whole purpose of testing process is to discover as many bugs and errors as possible. Test that covers more functionality and discovers more errors in your software product, therefore considered more successful.
 How would you conduct a test: top-down or down-top? What is it? Which one is better?
Down-Top: unit -> interface -> system. Top-Down is a vice versa. You may use both, but down-top allows discovering malfunctioning at earlier phases of development and cheaper to fix than in the case of top-down.
 How to develop a test plan? How to develop a test case?
Test plan consists of test cases. Test cases you develop according to requirement and design documents of the unit, system etc. You may be asked what you would do if you are not provided with requirements documents. Then, you start creating your test cases based on functionality of the system. You should mention that this is a bad practice since there is no way to compare that what you got is what you planned to create.


 How do you see a QA role in the product development life cycle?
QA should be involved in early stages of the development process in order to create an adequate test cases and better general understanding of the system. QA, however, must be separated from the development team to ensure that there is no influence of developers on QA engineers. As a last resort before shipping product to the customer, QA has great level of responsibility for the quality of the product and image of the company on the market.
 What is the size of your executable?
10MB. who cares? You should demonstrate that you can't be caught with unexpected questions. This question is one of the dumbest, but you must react accordingly. Tell any reasonable number you want, but be careful not to exaggerate!
 What version of Oracle database did you use?
Homework. Tell any version number you want - not many interviewers know the difference at version level. However, do not tell any numbers if you never worked with Oracle!
 How would you execute a SQL query in Oracle 8?
Again, if you ever worked with Oracle, this question should be trivial for you to answer (from command prompt, of course) If you never worked with Oracle, note politely that you did not touch an Oracle database on your career path.
 What version of OS were you using?
Tell whatever you want - you can't be caught here. Popular answers are Windows 95/98, Windows 2000 (make sure you know various flavors) and various Unix flavors (AIX, Solaris, SunOS, HPUX etc.)
 Have you tested front-end of back-end?
In other word you are asked if you tested GUI part of the application or server part of your application.
 What's the most important thing in testing?
You may bring your own arguments, or simply mention "accuracy", "knowledge of the system", etc.
 What was the most difficult problem you ever found while testing?
This is homework. Think about one and give it as an example.
 What's your favorite command in Unix?
Again, this is homework. You may mention any command you want: ls, ps, cat, etc. Be careful not to mention "complex" command unless you absolutely sure what you are talking about. For example, if you mention "vi" you may be asked how were you using vi editor?
 What were you responsible to test in your previous company?
This is homework for you. Actually, this question is a test of the knowledge of your own resume. You must know your real or fake resume as a bible. Practice in front of mirror or ask you
 Why do you like to test?
You enjoy bug hunting process, feel great being between developers and customers, your background and experience are targeting the testing techniques enhancements and you feel proud of your contribution to the whole development process.
 What role do you see yourself in 2-3 years from now? Would you want to become a developer?
You should not concentrate the attention of the interviewer on your wish to become a developer. You are being hired for testing role and you should demonstrate reliability. Team lead of QA team is OK, but do not answer yes when asked if you are willing to become a developer.
 What bug tracking system did you use?
Again and again, it does not matter what bug tracking system did you use if you made your homework and invented the name of such or mentioned a standard one. You may say you've used proprietary bug tracking system (works especially well if you previous company was this way or another dealing with databases) or you may say Test Director, Clarify, ClearCase, VisualTest etc.

[kalyansantosh]

1)How do u give the siverity and priority of a bug?
ANS: based on test plan and bug. Severity is based on fucntionality
and priority is based on test proceedings or business req.
2)One example for limitation bug?
ANS: When you open a webpage in 1024X768 resolution which was
designed in 800X600, you may see white border on both sides of a
webpage which can be considered as a bug. but because of design, it
will be a limitation.
3)How do u test the usability of an installer?
Ans: Short cuts, Default Folder Locations, ReStart of system etc..
4)What is the difference b/w unique key and primary key?
ANS: Uniqu allows single Null, Primary Key doesn't allwo Null.
Primary key only allwos Foreign Key mapping.
5)What r the five elements of a bug?
ANS: STEPS< EXP RE< ACT RES< STATUS< SEVEITY <PRIORITY
6)What is the process for implementing chnage recquests?
ANS: CR docs-> Impact Analysis->Design and develope-> Test->Release.
7)When do u go for automation?
ANS: Whenever more retesting is required or precise test results are
required. Re testing is seen for SANITY CHECKS, Critical
Fucntionality Checks, WrokFlow related req, data driven requirements
etc..

1.what type of testing u perform first while doing BLACK BOX
testing ?
ANS: It depends on the project and time availability. If it is a
normal project with comfortable time lines, we start the testing
with UI and validations. These are also called as UnitLevel checks.

2.what is soap,AIS,CAT testing ?
ANS: SOAP is Simple Object Access Protocol . It is a technique which
we generally observe while working with Webservices. Its a
lightweight messaging protocol with Envolop, Encoding Rules and
Conversion etc.
AIS - There are some software with this name, but I am not sure what
do you mean.
CAT - Computer Aided Test. It is generally the automation.

3.what is a incident logging system ?
ANS: It will be a tool like testDirector where observations can be
logged. This cna be used by developers or testers or end users
depending upon the application.

4.diff b\w UAT&CAT ?
ANS: UAT - User Acceptance Testing for highpriority business req.

5how is testing unique for Retek RMS modules ?
ANS: Probably its specific to your CV..





Fr carryin out peformance testing, you first need to decide if it is
single person or multi person testing.
If Single Person:
1. You can test one functionality at a time. so identify the
differnt functionality to be considered for performance testng.
idetify the testdata and also identify the what paramets you want to
identify like Time/Throughput etc.
2. The functional testcases can be used just by changing the checks
and expected results.

If Multi Person:
1. You can test a scenario i.e group of fnctionality tested
together.
2. Performance testcase should have the scenario info i.e
fun1+Fun3+.. etc . It should also have the parameters to be
monitored.

NOTE: If you are using Windows system, you can use perfmon.msc as a
tool of analysis.


1)What is the need of integration testing?
ANS: To test the interfaces or dependencies betweens dofferent
modules/ components of teh system. if they are not tested at
individual components, they can trouble many fucntionalities after
system integration or system testing.
2)What are the diff. types of joins in DB?
ANS: There are many classifications for this. But one common one is
A. SelfJoin
B.Inner Join
C. Outer Join
3)What is the i/p for automation?
ANS: Testcases or preferable test scenarios and AUT. (Application
Under test)
4)What types of testcases u will automate?
ANS: Sanity Checks, critical Functionality checks, data driven tests.
5)What are the few imp. bugs we found in the project?
ANS: What is your project?
6)How do you write the TCs and what are the i/p for writing TCs?
ANS: inputs are Req docs(SRS/Usecases) and Design docs (UI Design,
DB Design etc)





How can u identify by seeing the web page that it is a security


when we open the any security site , it automaticaly use the HTTPS protocal
(HYPER TEXT TRANSFER PROTOCAL secure)
HTTPS is an encrypted form of HTTP used for sending sensitive data like credit card numbers between the browser and the web server. This is also sometimes called Secure HTTP or SSL (which stands for Secure Sockets Layer).

7. What is the difference between QC and QA
QA QC
Prevents the introduction of issues or defects
Detects, reports and corrects defects

QA is the responsibility of the entire team.
QC is the responsibility of the tester.

An activity that establishes and evaluates the processes to produce the products An activity which verifies if the product meets pre-defined standards.

It Helps to establish processes.
It helps to Implements the process
QA improves the process that is applied to multiple products that will ever be produced by a process.
QC improves the development of a specific product or service
It is Preventive Technique It is Corrective technique
QA personnel should not perform quality control unless doing it to validate quality control is working.
QC personnel may perform quality assurance tasks if and when required
1.what is database integration?
ANS: having cnnection between Db and application of other DB. This
need to be tested as part of DB integration.
In general we see DB connection with Application Servers. But few
applications will have multiple databases involved. Then integration
is required b/w databases.

2.Test process of ur company?

ANS: Start from Req Analysis using Usecases/SRS- >Testcases prep-
>review-> test bed Setup including data->Diff testings based on
project->acceptance and Rel& maintenance.

This ia very imp question and just ans is not sufficient. You need to
maintain the flow and able to discuss one of your project as example.

Hope your job search is started...




You are correct but not complete. Architecure means how we are going
to maintain/distribute the application components.
It can be 1-Tier/ 2-Tier/ 3 tier.

A. Generally client server is seen as 2 tier like VB&oracle appl. It
is alos possible to have 3-tier in client server. Eg. SAP

B. Generalli Webbased are seen as 3 tier like ICICIBANK.com. But we
can also see them like 2 tier like news papers/ portals.

Pls check the newly attached file on architecture info.
1. SQL

„« Name at least two of the system databases used by MSSQL
Server other than user added databases. (2)

„« Explain the meaning of the notation aztec.dbo.overnite. (1)

(Assume that the tables required for the following questions are in
the current database, Transact or ANSI format)

„« select all records with the string 'wilson' from the surname
field in the employee table. (1)

„« update the 'modified' field in the clockin table with the
current datetime where 'deleted' field has a NULL . (1)





« select the whole row of table1, where the name field doesn¡¦t
appear in table2.(2)

„« Write the SQL that selects the whole row of the sales table
where the 'end date' datetime field is between '1/1/2002 03:00'
and '31/10/2004 03:00', then order the results by the 'employeeID'
field.(2)

2. GENERAL

„« What would you setup on a drive/folder to allow mapping to
it? (1)

„« Name any command line program could you use to test
connectivity to another networked device? (assume using TCP/IP).(1)

„« Explain the client server model.(2)

WINRUNNER

„« What are the recording methods available in WinRunner?

Context Sensitive Mode & Analog Mode
(2)

„« What is the difference between wait statement and
synchronisation points?

(1)
„« What command would you use to connect to a SQL Server
database? (2)


„« How would you update the 'Expected Results' of a script?(1)

„« We have a form (Your Details) that pops up asking for user
input. There's a First name and Surname edit box, and a Button
labelled OK. From the point of the box popping up, write the TSL to
enter your First name into the First name box, your surname into the
Surname box, and click the OK button


1) what do you mean by process engineering related to QA?
ANS: Analysing the different activities invovled, identify the
existing process, identify the gaps in the process, define a new
process which would be smooth and complete.
> 2) Who can be called as a good tester?
ANS: A tester who tests all the cleints requirements when time is
permitting or a tester who tests the business critical requirements
when time constratints are there... A tester who has good enthu,
who is diplomatic, a team player .. A tester who has OUT OF BOX
thuinking, a tester who has good analytical skills..
> 3) what is the best test case that you have written in your
project till now?
ANS: Pls pick a testcases which has data dependency b/w two
different projects..
> 4) Do you use any tool for writing test cases?
ANS: MS-Excel or Test Director or any internal tool
> 5) who raises the CR's?
ANS: Client/enduser raises the CRs. But they will be assed by
Business/leads and a decission will be made on whether to accept it
or not. If accepting, the schedules etc will also be decided. This
tasks are carried using IMPACT ANALYSIS approach.


. what is wireless testing? how do we do it?
ANS: It will be embeded testign where the communication is through
wireless network. You will have to test the communication efficiency
and effectiveness. Ie. Data should be transfered in time and no data
should be lost. You will also need to test who is teh receiver and
any encrption of the data.

I would say, it purely depends on the Wireless device you test.

2. what are the concepts a test engineer should have knowledge
of?

ANS: Windows/Database/ Web/ManualTestin g(TestPlan, TestCases, diff
phases of testing, Bug)/One automation tool .

3. how do u classify testing of wireless products?
ANS: Not clear.






use case:
A use case is a set of scenarios that describing an interaction between a user and a system. A use case diagram displays the relationship among actors and use cases. The two main components of a use case diagram are use cases and actors. It is nothing but pictorial representatin.
Functinonal requirement- i it is written document represents the functionality of the application.

3.Why do we go for system testing if we are through with
integration testing?

In tegration testing is used when we combine the Low level componet to High level Unints

but after combined the hole system , we use system testing to test the hole system.(Application ).

what are the different testings we perform in system testing?
GUI Testing
Validation
Usability.
Performance
Regression testing
Retesting
compatability( for web applications) . etc..

4.Why it is necessary to get the apllication to base state
in WR or QTP at the time of execution?


When we run the script the wr checkS the GUI object in GUI MAP with application objects. THAT TIME IT FAILS . becasue of that we must plase application in base state.