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Quality assurance is exactly what it sounds like: a company delivering on its promise for customer satisfaction across goods and services.
The purpose of this concept is to help fulfill front and back end processes in the most efficient manner to deliver a quality product or service to a customer in a reasonable time frame and budget. It can also mean going above and beyond the initial transaction and common interactions with the customer.
Quality assurance can go beyond satisfied customers, however. Companies with great quality assurance typically incorporate all areas of the business into this belief, including organizational structure, operations, and employee satisfaction. Companies with great quality assurance practices are a joy to work for.
Quality assurance can be found in a variety of industries including recruitment and employee training, management, customer service, branding and marketing, product design, regulations or compliance, and testing. In today’s day and age, quality assurance is quickly becoming increasingly important due to the instant gratification consumers expect.
Businesses are starting to take a deeper look into what makes consumers act, think, and purchase the way they do. Now that many advertisements compete with the digital landscape, being on target for your audience is increasingly important.
If you’re looking to get into the quality assurance field, you’re in a great spot. Whether you’re an experienced candidate or just entering the field, there’s a good chance you'll receive a few of the questions we’ve identified below in your interview.
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Below we’ve compiled some of the top interview questions and answers that you may be asked during your quality assurance interview.
What is the difference between QA and software testing?
The role of quality assurance (QA) is to help look through the process of producing software. We will monitor the quality and report back on the efficiency and intuitiveness of the process. Software testing is slightly different and involves the process of testing the functionality of the product so that it meets the user requirements.
What are the automation challenges that software quality assurance teams face when testing?
There are a few different challenges that can pop up in different areas. However, the four main ones I’ve identified as mastering the automation tool of choice, how reusable the automation script is, how easy it is to adapt test cases for automation, and automating complex test or use cases.
What are bug leakage and bug release?
Bug leakage is when an application is handed off to the testing team, knowing that there is a bug in the existing release. This typically happens if the severity and priority of the bug are low, knowing it will be removed before the final handoff. Bug leakage is when that bug is discovered by an end-user or client, not by the testing team.
What is data-driven testing?
Data-driven testing is when the testing framework is tested by automation that can look at the different input values on the AUT. These values will be read from the data files that can include CSV, Excel, data pools, among others.
Can you explain the various tasks of the software quality assurance engineer?
Based on the job description.I understand the job responsibilities to be configuring and integrating software as well as testing the programs with the team. Some other tasks I’ve handled at previous companies include software design, source code writing, and change management.
How would you handle a testing issue?
Depending on the issue, I would first rerun any tests to ensure the testing was implemented correctly. If the problem happened again, I would restart the program and testing environment to ensure everything is working properly. If the problem persists, I would discuss it with my manager.
When do you think QA activities should start?
They should start when the project begins. The more early QA activities, the better and easier it is to set the standard for achieving quality. The cost, time, and efforts can become more challenging if QA activities get delayed.
What is the difference between test plan and test strategy?
At a high level, a test strategy is mostly something that comes from the project manager. It demonstrates the overall approach of any given project. The test plan is a responsibility that falls to us, articulating how testing should be performed for a specific application. This typically falls under the test strategy.
Walk me through writing a good test case.
The formatting of a test case can be pretty straightforward. Start with a cast ID and a test case description. Then, you’ll want to identify how severe it is and give it a prioritization. Then, identify the environment in which it will be built. Next, build the version, define steps to execute, and write down your expected results. Finally, record the actual results.
What is a good test case?
For lack of more description, a good test case finds a defect. However, all test cases won’t always find defects, so a good test case includes all of the details and coverage of a specific scenario.
Do you think QA’s should participate to resolve production issues?
Absolutely. It’s a great learning opportunity for anyone in quality assurance to be involved in this process and they can provide great insight to the production team. For example, many production issues can be resolved by wiping the logs clean or making some registry settings. The QA team could be a really important asset to the production team.
If you find a bug in production, how do you ensure it’s not going to be introduced again?
The best way to ensure a bug is resolved and not introduced again is to write a test case for a defect. By including this in the regression suite, it will ensure the bug isn’t introduced again. Additionally, this allows us to think of any additional use cases we may not have thought of.
Walk me through the different types of software testing you have experience with.
I have experience with unit testing, integration testing and regression testing, smoke testing, white box, and black box testing, system testing, load testing, and stress testing, performance testing, and functional testing.
What is agile testing and why is it important?
Agile testing is software testing with Agile Methodology. Unlike normal testing procedures, this testing doesn’t wait for the development team to complete their coding first. The coding and testing happen at the same time and requires customer interaction.
What is a quality audit?
Quality audit is the systematic examination for determining the overall effectiveness of quality control procedures.
Can you explain stress testing?
Stress testing is when the load placed on the system is accelerated beyond the normal range, stressing the system to see how it will react.
How about load testing?
Load testing is testing your application under a heavy, but reasonably expected load. This can include a large volume of users at one time or a large volume of messages, requests, or data input.
What about volume testing?
Volume testing is when the system is checked to determine if it can handle the required or expected amounts of data, user requests, and more.
How do you work through software development issues?
I usually am drawn to five common solutions first. First, setting up the requirements criteria upfront and clearing them by all stakeholders involved. Then, setting a realistic schedule including time for planning, designing, testing, fixing, and re-testing.
Next, perform testing by starting immediately after the project begins. Then, using prototypes during the design phase to helping customers get early access so that they can know what to expect. Finally, and most important, is using a common communication team for the full group.
What is “CRUD” testing and how do you test for it?
CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete and can be done using SQL statements.
Talk me through thread testing.
Thread testing is top-down testing, where the components are gradually integrated after the implementation of the required subjects. This differs from integrating components by successively lower levels.
What is configuration management?
This is the process to document and maintain control over any changes that are made during the project lifespan. Release control, change control, and revision control are all components of configuration management.
What is negative testing and how does it differ from positive testing?
Negative testing is a technique used to validate the system’s behavior in case of any invalid inputs. Negative testing differs from positive testing because positive testing validates the system works as expected and compares results with expected results.
How would you ensure testing is complete and has good coverage?
I tend to use a traceability matrix and test coverage sheet to determine if our test cases have good coverage. The requirement traceability matrix helps teams determine if test conditions are satisfying all identified requirements, while coverage matrices help us determine that our test cases are satisfying all identified test conditions.
What are verification and validation?
Validation is evaluating the final product to check if the software meets the specific needs of the business. The test execution for day-to-day operations is the validation activity. Verification is when you evaluate the intermediary work products of a software development lifecycle to ensure the team is on track to create a quality final product.
What are the steps of an automation test plan?
For automation test plans, I would follow the company strategy and record each scenario while incorporating the error handler. Then, I’d debug the script and fix any issues, rerun the script and record the final performance.
Have you written test cases without documents?
Sometimes when there aren’t any documents, I’ve looked into past tests or done some research to get an idea of what’s being implemented. If the information is limited, I typically sync up with someone on the development team to get a better understanding of the changes.
What should be included in a quality assurance testing document?
Each QA job I’ve performed has had different things included in the resting document, so it depends on what’s required by my management team. In previous scenarios, I've included test plans, test cases, bug reports, user manuals, inspection reports, defects, and any requirements.
What is Ad Hoc testing?
Ad Hoc testing is a testing phase in which the tester does everything they can to break the system by randomly testing the functionality system.
What tools can and should be used to support testing while the software is being developed?
For test management, I’ve used JIRA and Quality Center. For defect management tools, we can use Test Director or Bugzilla. Project Management tools have included Sharepoint or Asana and automation tools include RFT, QTP, and WinRunner.
What is the difference between regression testing and retesting?
Retesting is something that’s carried out to check on the fixes for defects. Regression testing checks whether the defect fixes have an impact on any of the other functionalities.
What are other tools used by testers while testing?
These can include a variety of applications, but the most common ones are Selenium, Web Developer toolbar for Firefox, YSlow for Firebug, WinSCP, Firebug, and OpenSTA.
Have you worked with Software Quality Engineers? How do you envision their role?
A software quality assurance engineer might have many responsibilities including writing source code, software design, release management processes, program testing, integration of software, change management, reviewing code, and more.
What is bug triage?
Bug triage is a process that allows testers to ensure bug report completeness, assign the bug to its owner, adjust the severity, and set the appropriate priority for the bug to be dealt with. It can also include analyzing the bug and documenting their findings.
Explain “Test-Driven Development.”
Test-Driven Development is when you prepare test cases before writing the actual software code. This means you might be writing code for tests before the code is written for the application.
What kind of documents are in SQA?
There are a wide variety of documents in SQA including requirement documents, test metrics, test cases, and plans, user profiles, test logs, test incident reports, test summary reports, and more.
What does MR stand for?
MR is for Modification Request and can also be called a “Defect Report.”
What should the software QA document include?
Depending on the project it can include a variety of things, but typically they include specifications, designs, business rules, configurations, code changes, test plans, cases, bug reports, user manuals, and more.
How should validation activities be conducted?
This can be done in a few different ways, but I usually recommend hiring a third party to verify and validate, first. Then I ask internal staff to test, with a final test that I do myself.
What is branch testing?
Branch testing is when you test all branches of the code.