QA Terms

Question 1

Quality Assurance

Answer 1

The process in place that plans what testing efforts to use and how to perform them. A method that sets the standards of your projects.

Question 2

Quality Control

Answer 2

Product oriented and all about maintaining the integrity of your product. Improving the quality of your product and ironing out any issues that are found. QC dependent on QA.

Question 3

Software Testing

Answer 3

The actual testing process. Finding bugs/defects and validating if the software meets customer requirements and the standards set by the organization.

Question 4

When should QA activities should start?

Answer 4

As soon as the project begins and the software is ready to be tested. The earlier the better to improve product quality.

Question 5

Test Plan

Answer 5

Overall testing approach for an entire project.

Question 6

Test Strategy

Answer 6

How testing should go for a specific feature or application.

Question 7

Software Testing Life Cycle

Answer 7

Requirements phase
Planning Phase
Analysis phase
Design Phase
Implementation Phase
Execution Phase
Conclusion Phase
Closure Phase

Question 8

Format of a Test Case

Answer 8

Test case ID
Test case description
Severity
Priority
Environment
Build version
Steps to execute
Expected results
Actual results

Question 9

What makes a good test case?

Answer 9

A good test case is one that will assist the tester in finding a bug or a defect. Also one that has a well thought out expected results section.

Question 10

What would you do if you have a large suite to execute in very less time?

Answer 10

Prioritize the items that have a higher priority assigned to them and move on to the lower priority ones afterwards. That way, the most important aspects of the software are tested first. Also, if it’s a possibility to receive customer input on which software functionalities they deem the most important, the test cases can be prioritized that way as well.

Question 11

Suppose you find a bug in production, how would you make sure that the same bug is not introduced again?

Answer 11

The best way is to immediately write a test case for the bug/defect and include it in the regression suite. We can also keep track of this test case for the next release and include it each time in our planned execution so that we ensure the issue does not appear again.

Question 12

Functional Testing

Answer 12

A type of testing which verifies that each function of the software application is meeting the set requirements and specifications.

Unit Testing
Integration Testing
System Testing
Sanity Testing
Smoke Testing
Interface Testing
Regression Testing
Beta/Acceptance Testing

Question 13

Non-functional testing

Answer 13

A type of testing to check non-functional aspects of a software application. Testing that might not be explicitly stated in the requirements.

Performance Testing
Load Testing
Stress Testing
Compatibility Testing
Usability Testing
Security Testing

Question 14

Negative Testing

Answer 14

A type of testing that validates whether the system is behaving correctly in case of any invalid inputs. The system should use error handling to display proper error messages rather than technical messages that the user won’t understand.

Question 15

Positive Testing

Answer 15

Validates that the system is able to handle proper requests and inputs.

Question 16

What are the different artifacts you refer when you write the test cases?

Answer 16

Functional requirement specification
Requirement understanding document
Use Cases
Wireframes
User Stories
Acceptance criteria
User Acceptance Tests (UAT)

Question 17

Verification

Answer 17

Helps to determine whether the software is of high quality and error free as well as if we are on the right track of creating the final product.

Question 18

Validation

Answer 18

The process of evaluating the final product to check whether the software meets the customer expectations and requirements. Testing the actual product, smoke testing, functional testing, regression testing, systems testing etc.

Question 19

Verification techniques

Answer 19

Review: Test cases are examined by someone other than the author

Inspection: Examine and correct the defects in the test system or code.

Walkthrough: Process in which the author of the document/code reads the content and gets the feedback.

Question 20

Load Testing

Answer 20

Validate the system behavior under the expected load. The load can be of concurrent user or resources accessing the system at the same time.

Question 21

Stress Testing

Answer 21

A technique which validates the behavior of the system when it executes under stress. First understand the upper limit of the system and gradually reduce the resources and check the system behavior.

Question 22

Black Box Testing

Answer 22

Testing the software without knowing the internal structure of code or program.

Question 23

White Box Testing

Answer 23

Internal structure is being known to tester who is going to test the software.

Question 24

Ad Hoc Testing

Answer 24

An informal or unstructured type of testing in order to find possible defects or errors at an early possible stage.Testing without planning and documentation. No testing structure or organization.