Top 10 Interview Questions & Answers for Software Testing

1. What is baseline testing?

Baseline testing is the process of running a set of tests to capture performance information. Baseline testing use the information collected to made the changes in the application to improve performance and capabilities of the application. Baseline compares present performance of application with its own previous performance.

2. What is verification and validation?

Verification: process of evaluating work-products of a development phase to determine whether they meet the specified requirements for that phase.

Validation: process of evaluating software during or at the end of the development process to determine whether it specified requirements.

3. What is Mutation testing & when can it be done?

Mutation testing is a performed to find out the defect in the program. It is performed to find put bugs in specific module or component of the application. Mutation testing is based on two assumptions:

Competent programmer hypothesis: according this hypothesis we suppose that program write the correct code of the program.

Coupling effect: according to this effect collection of different set of test data can also find large and complex bugs.
In this testing we insert few bugs into program to examine the optimal test inputs.

4. Explain bug leakage and bug release.

Bug Leakage: When customer or end user discovered a bug which can be detected by the testing team. Or when a bug is detected which can be detected in pervious build then this is called as Bug Leakage.

Bug release: is when a build is handed to testing team with knowing that defect is present in the release. The priority and severity of bug is low. It is done when customer want the application on the time. Customer can tolerate the bug in the released then the delay in getting the application and the cost involved in removing that bug. These bugs are mentioned in the Release Notes handed to client for the future improvement chances.

5. What is test driver and test stub?

- The Stub is called from the Software Testing component to be tested. It is used in top down approach.
- The driver calls a component to be tested. It is used in bottom up approach.
- Both test stub and test driver are dummy software components.

We need test stub and test driver because of following reason:

- Suppose we want to test the interface between modules A and B and we have developed only module A. So we cannot test module A but if a dummy module is prepare, using that we can test module A.

- Now module B cannot send or receive data from module A directly so, in these cases we have to transfer data from one module to another module by some external features. This external feature used is called Driver.

6. What is Agile Testing?

Agile Testing means to quickly validation of the client requirements and make the application of good quality user interface. When the build is released to the testing team, Software Testing of the application is started to find the bugs. As a Tester, we need to focus on the customer or end user requirements. We put the efforts to deliver the quality product in spite of short time frame which will further help in reducing the cost of development and test feedbacks will be implemented in the code which will avoid the defects coming from the end user.

7. What is the purpose of test strategy?

We need Test Strategy for the following reasons:

1. To have a signed, sealed, and delivered document, where the document contains details about the testing methodology, test plan, and test cases.

2. Test strategy document tells us how the software product will be tested.

3. Test strategy document helps to review the test plan with the project team members.

4. It describes the roles, responsibilities and the resources required for the test and schedule. 

5. When we create a test strategy document, we have to put into writing any testing issues requiring resolution.

8. What is Error guessing and Error seeding?

Error Guessing is a test case design technique where the tester has to guess what faults might occur and to design the tests to represent them.

Error Seeding is the process of adding known faults intentionally in a program for the reason of monitoring the rate of detection & removal and also to estimate the number of faults remaining in the program.

9. What are the types of testing?

There are two types of Software Testing:

- Static testing: Static testing is a technique used in the earlier phase of the development life cycle. The code error detection and execution of program is not concern in this type of testing. Also known as non-execution technique. The Verification of the product is performed in this testing technique like Code Reviews, Inspections, Walkthroughs are mostly done in this stage of testing.

- Dynamic testing: Dynamic Testing is concern with the execution of the software. This technique is used to test the dynamic behavior of the code. Most of the bugs are identified using this technique. These are the Validation activities. It uses different methodologies to perform testing like Unit Tests, Integration Tests, System Tests and Acceptance Testing, etc.

10. What is an inspection in software testing?

An inspection is more formalized than a walkt hrough. Inspection technique involves 3 to 8 team member consisting of a moderator, reader, and a recorder to take notes. The subject of the inspection is typically a document such as a requirements or a test plan, and the purpose is to find problems and see what is missing, most problems will be found during this preparation. The result of the inspection meeting should be a written report. It is one of the most cost effective methods of ensuring quality.