Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers

Prepare for your software testing interviews with these top 100 questions and clear, concise answers. This structured guide is divided for freshers, intermediate, and experienced candidates, covering manual testing, automation, Selenium, Agile, and real-time scenarios.

Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers

Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

1. What is software testing?
The process of evaluating software to ensure it meets requirements and is free of defects.

2. What are the types of software testing?
Manual Testing and Automation Testing.

3. What is the difference between verification and validation?
Verification checks if the product is built correctly; validation checks if the right product is built.

4. What is SDLC?
Software Development Life Cycle, a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying software.

5. What is STLC?
Software Testing Life Cycle, outlining the testing phases.

6. What is a test case?
A set of conditions or actions used to verify a particular feature or functionality.

7. What is a bug?
An error or flaw in the software that produces incorrect results.

8. What is defect life cycle?
The process a defect goes through from identification to closure.

9. What is black-box testing?
Testing without looking at the internal code structure, focusing on inputs and outputs.

10. What is white-box testing?
Testing based on knowledge of the internal code structure.

11. What is unit testing?
Testing individual units or components of a software.

12. What is integration testing?
Testing combined parts of an application to ensure they work together.

13. What is system testing?
Testing the complete system as a whole.

14. What is user acceptance testing (UAT)?
Testing performed by the end-user to validate the software against requirements.

15. What is regression testing?
Testing existing functionality after changes to ensure new updates don’t break it.

16. What is exploratory testing?
Testing without predefined test cases to find defects using exploration.

17. What is smoke testing?
Basic tests to check if the major functionalities are working.

18. What is sanity testing?
Checking specific functionalities after changes to ensure they work correctly.

19. What is alpha testing?
Testing performed by the development team before releasing to testers or customers.

20. What is beta testing?
Testing performed by a limited number of end-users before the final release.

Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers for Intermediate

21. What is test plan?
A document outlining the scope, objectives, resources, and schedule for testing activities.

22. What is test strategy?
A high-level approach describing how testing will be carried out.

23. What is test data?
Data used to execute tests.

24. What is test environment?
The setup of software, hardware, and network for testing.

25. What is severity and priority?
Severity indicates the impact of the defect; priority indicates the urgency of fixing it.

26. What is boundary value analysis?
A technique for testing edge values.

27. What is equivalence partitioning?
A technique dividing input data into valid and invalid partitions for testing.

28. What is compatibility testing?
Testing software on different hardware, operating systems, and browsers.

29. What is performance testing?
Testing to determine the speed and responsiveness under load.

30. What is load testing?
Testing the system’s performance under expected load conditions.

31. What is stress testing?
Testing the system under extreme load conditions.

32. What is recovery testing?
Testing how well the system recovers from crashes or failures.

33. What is security testing?
Testing for vulnerabilities and security weaknesses.

34. What is usability testing?
Testing the ease of use and user-friendliness.

35. What is defect density?
The number of defects per size of the software module.

36. What is traceability matrix?
A document mapping requirements to test cases.

37. What is the role of QA in Agile?
Ensuring continuous testing and quality at every sprint.

38. What is API testing?
Testing APIs for functionality, reliability, and security.

39. What is Selenium?
A popular automation testing tool for web applications.

40. What is the Page Object Model?
A design pattern in Selenium for better test maintenance and readability.

Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced

41. What are non-functional testing types?
Performance, load, stress, security, usability testing.

42. What is continuous testing?
Testing that is integrated into the CI/CD pipeline.

43. How do you handle flaky tests in automation?
By analyzing root causes, using waits, and stabilizing environments.

44. Explain defect cascading.
One defect leads to another due to unaddressed issues.

45. What is the difference between test case and test scenario?
Test case is a detailed procedure; test scenario is a high-level functionality to test.

46. What is mutation testing?
A method of software testing where mutants are introduced to evaluate the quality of tests.

47. What is parallel testing?
Executing tests simultaneously on different environments or browsers.

48. What are mocks and stubs?
Used in unit testing to simulate the behavior of real objects.

49. What is code coverage?
A metric that shows the percentage of code tested by tests.

50. What is test automation framework?
A set of guidelines and tools for creating and maintaining test scripts.

51. What is test harness?
A collection of software and test data to test a program unit by running it under varying conditions.

52. What is configuration management in testing?
Managing and controlling changes in software, hardware, and documentation during testing.

53. What is test closure?
Activities completed at the end of testing, including test results analysis and reporting.

54. What is risk-based testing?
Prioritizing testing of features and functionalities based on risk.

55. What is A/B testing?
Comparing two versions of a product to determine which performs better.

56. What is monkey testing?
Random testing without test cases to find defects.

57. What is ad-hoc testing?
Informal testing without any planning or documentation.

58. What is pair testing?
Two testers working together to test the software.

59. What is exploratory testing?
Simultaneous learning, test design, and execution.

60. What is end-to-end testing?
Testing the complete flow of the application from start to finish.

61. What is a test oracle?
A mechanism to determine whether a test has passed or failed.

62. What is soak testing?
Testing a system under a significant load for an extended period.

63. What is the difference between smoke and sanity testing?
Smoke checks critical functionalities; sanity checks specific functionalities after changes.

64. What is volume testing?
Testing with a large volume of data.

65. What is test execution?
Running test cases and comparing expected and actual results.

66. What is bug leakage?
A defect missed in testing but found by the end-user.

67. What is bug release?
Releasing software with known low-priority bugs.

68. What is grey-box testing?
Testing with partial knowledge of the internal structure.

69. What is static testing?
Testing without executing the code.

70. What is dynamic testing?
Testing by executing the code.

71. What is agile testing?
Continuous testing aligned with agile development principles.

72. What is test automation ROI?
Calculating the return on investment for automation testing efforts.

73. What is test coverage?
The extent to which testing covers the application’s code and functionalities.

74. What is a test summary report?
A document summarizing testing activities and results.

75. What is defect triage?
The process of prioritizing defects based on severity and impact.

76. What is test data management?
Managing test data required for testing.

77. What are entry and exit criteria?
Conditions to start and end testing activities.

78. What is backward compatibility testing?
Testing to ensure new updates work with older versions.

79. What is a test suite?
A collection of test cases.

80. What is a test script?
Instructions for automated test execution.

81. What is fault masking?
When one defect hides another defect.

82. What is test environment setup?
Preparing hardware and software for testing.

83. What is failover testing?
Testing the system’s ability to handle failure and switch to backup systems.

84. What is interoperability testing?
Testing if software works with other systems.

85. What is a test deliverable?
Artifacts delivered during and after testing, like test plans, cases, and reports.

86. What is test maintenance?
Updating tests to match application changes.

87. What is code review?
Examining source code to find defects and improvements.

88. What is the V-Model?
A development model where testing activities run parallel to development activities.

89. What is the waterfall model?
A sequential software development process.

90. What is error guessing?
Using tester’s experience to guess error-prone areas.

91. What is a severity level in defects?
Indicates the impact of the defect on the system.

92. What is orthogonal array testing?
A statistical testing technique to reduce test cases while increasing coverage.

93. What is an inspection in testing?
A formal review process to find defects in documents and code.

94. What is cause-effect graphing?
A technique to derive test cases based on cause-effect relationships.

95. What is the difference between test driver and test stub?
Test drivers call the module being tested; test stubs simulate modules called by the module under test.

96. What is random testing?
Testing using random inputs.

97. What is an automated regression suite?
A set of automated tests to verify existing functionality.

98. What is continuous integration testing?
Testing performed during continuous integration to detect issues early.

99. What is usability testing?
Checking the user-friendliness and effectiveness of the application.

100. Why choose a career in software testing?
High demand, growth opportunities, and essential role in ensuring product quality.

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