bookmark_borderHow to prepare for a QA interview – Tips for your next QA interview

How to prepare for a QA interview

Are you preparing for a QA interview? If so, you’ll want to make sure you’re as prepared as possible. After all, the better you do on the interview, the better your chances of getting the job. To help you out, we’ve put together a list of our top tips for how to prepare for a QA interview. By following these tips, you’ll be in a great position to impress your interviewer and land the job.

An overview of how to prepare for a QA interview

A QA interview is an opportunity for a company to assess your skills and knowledge in quality assurance. It is important to be prepared for a QA interview to demonstrate your abilities and stand out from the competition.

Some things to expect in a QA interview include questions about your experience with various testing tools, your approach to quality assurance, and your knowledge of software development processes. It is also common for interviewers to ask about problem-solving skills and how you would handle various testing scenarios.

To prepare for a QA interview, brush up on your knowledge of testing tools and software development processes. You should also be prepared to talk about your experience with quality assurance and your approach to problem-solving.

Research the company

It’s always a good idea to do your research on a company before you interview them. This is especially true for a Quality Assurance interview, as you’ll want to be able to speak to the company’s quality standards and how you would help them meet or exceed those standards.

Here are a few tips on how to research a company for your next QA interview:

  • Google

Google is a great resource for researching companies for a QA interview. Simply enter the company name into the search bar and you will be presented with a wealth of information, including the company’s website, recent news articles, and more.

This is a great way to get an overview of the company and learn more about its products and services. You can use Google to find specific information about the company’s hiring process, such as their interview questions and what to expect.

  • Review the company website

When researching a company for a QA interview, the first place to start is the company website. This will give you an overview of the company’s products and services, as well as its company culture.

  • Look for recent news articles

Another way to research a company is to read news articles about them. This can help you learn about any recent changes or developments at the company.

  • Browse the business’s social media

Checking out the company’s social media will give you a good sense of the company’s culture and values. It will also give you a good sense of their work environment and what they’re like as an employer.

  • Read the company’s reviews

A great way to learn more about a company is to read reviews from current and former employees. This can give you insight into the company culture, work/life balance, and what it’s like to work there overall.

Do a practice run

Doing a practice run for a QA interview can help you feel more prepared and confident going into the real thing. To do a practice run, start by finding a friend or family member who can ask you questions similar to what you might be asked in an interview.

Take your time answering each question, and pay attention to how you feel as you’re doing so. If you feel nervous or unsure of yourself, take a deep breath and relax. Remember that you’re just practicing and that there’s no need to be perfect. After you’ve answered all of the questions, take some time to reflect on how the practice run went.

Once you identified your strengths and weaknesses, work to improve on the things you did wrong while landing a QA job, and keep those lessons in mind going into the real interview.

Know your resume

No matter how much experience you have as a QA tester, it’s always important to be prepared for your next interview. After all, your resume is the first thing that potential employers will see, and it’s important to make sure that it accurately reflects your skills and experience.

To that end, here are two tips on how to prepare your resume for your next QA interview:

  1. Make sure your resume is up to date: Include any new skills or experience you may have gained since the last update.
  2. Highlight your experience with specific QA tools and technologies: Employers want to know what you’re familiar with and how you can use those tools to help them.
  3. Consider including a skills section at the end of your resume: While most QA professionals include this section before their work experience, there is no wrong place for it. Test yourself…did you include all of your relevant skills on your resume? If not, add them in a skills section. This can help the employer quickly identify that you have the right QA skills for the job.
  4. Make your employment history speak for you: While it’s important, to be honest about your work history, you don’t have to include every job you’ve had. Instead, focus on putting together a solid five to 10 years of work history that showcases your strongest attributes.

No matter what technology you use, always be sure to check your software’s documentation and online tutorials to get a sense of how the tool functions and what kinds of tests you can run with it. This insight will help you during your interview.

Testing concepts for your QA interview

To succeed in your QA interview, you will need to have a solid knowledge of several concepts. Those concepts include test design techniques, software development processes, tools, and attributes. Let’s go over some of the most common testing concepts that you will encounter in your QA interview:

  • Formal Testing and Informal Testing

Before we go further, we should define two testing terms: formal testing and informal testing.

Formal testing is the structured method of evaluating a software application by assuming the role of a software user. Informal testing is simply the same thing, but without any predefined requirements or scripts.

  • Test design techniques

You should be able to identify several test design techniques, such as black box testing, white box testing, integration testing, acceptance testing, and component testing.

  • Test objectives

You should also be able to identify the different objectives that tests can have, such as validation, acceptance, design, and equality criteria.

  • Testing strategies

Try and learn to identify several testing strategies, such as mutation testing, boundary-value analysis, design-based testing, and exploratory testing.

  • Tools of the testing trade

Try and familiarize yourself with several tools of the testing trade, such as debuggers, compilers, interpreters, simulators, profiling tools, bug trackers, and URL validators.

  • Test documentation

You should be able to document tests in various ways, such as using a test plan, an inspection report, a test summary, or a test report.

  • Test measurement

Prepare by being able to measure various test properties, such as complexity, completeness, accuracy, validity, stability, maintainability, and minimality.

  • Test optimization

You should be able to optimize the time spent on testing by identifying test-writing techniques that minimize the time spent testing and maximizes the cost savings.

What to anticipate on the interview day

On the day of your QA interview, expect to be asked questions about your experience with testing and quality assurance. Be prepared to discuss your approach to testing and how you would go about identifying and resolving issues. The interviewer will also want to know about your problem-solving skills and your ability to work in a team environment. Be sure to have examples of your work ready to share, as well as any questions you may have about the position or the company.

To help you prepare for your next QA interview, we’ve compiled a list of common questions that you may be asked. Read our article “How to choose the best QA tester interview questions” to find more.

bookmark_borderHow to choose the best QA tester interview questions

How to choose the best QA tester interview questions

Quality assurance (QA) testing is a crucial step in the software development process. QA testers help ensure that the software meets customer expectations and is free of defects. When interviewing candidates for a QA tester position, it’s important to ask questions that assess a candidate’s ability to perform the job. In this article, we’ll share how to choose the best QA tester interview questions to ask candidates.

In principle, software testing seeks to provide a solution to the problem of how to ensure that the program performs as intended and refrains from acting in an undesired manner. Gaining certainty that the software you test generates the proper result for a given input is the main objective of software testing.

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What stages of the software testing life cycle are there?

The many stages of the software testing life cycle are as follows:

  • Test Planning

The test approach is established during this step

  • Test Case Development

In this section, precise test cases are built and defined

  • Environment Setup

It refers to a software and hardware setup that the testing team uses to carry out test cases

  • Test Execution

It involves executing the code and contrasting the desired and obtained results

What different testing methods are there?

The following are the three different types of software testing:

  • Black-box testing

It is a testing approach that just takes requirements and specifications into account. This approach does not call for any understanding of the internal structures, routes, or implementation of the software under test.

  • White box testing

It is a testing approach focused on the internal logic, coding, and software implementation of the tested program. White box testing typically calls for in-depth programming abilities.

  • Gray box testing

It is a method of software debugging where the tester has little to no understanding of the inner workings of the program.

What are the multiple kinds of testing?

The four primary testing levels are as follows:

  • Unit Testing
  • Integration Testing
  • System Testing
  • Acceptance Testing

What does Bug life cycle or Defect life cycle mean?

A defect goes through many phases in a process known as a defect life cycle during its lifetime. It begins when you discover a flaw and concludes when you checked that it cannot be repeated.

Based on several variables such as organizational policy, software development, project timescales, team structure, etc., it might differ from company to company and also from project to project.

What is a test case?

A test case is nothing more than a set of circumstances or variables upon which a tester will assess if the system he tested complies with the specifications or performs as intended.

What is the distinction between functional and non-functional testing?

Functional Testing

  • Is carried out prior to non-functional testing.
  • It’s depending on what the customer’s requirements are
  • Explains the functions of the product

Non-Functional Testing

  • Is conducted after the functional testing
  • It’s depending on what the customer’s expectations are
  • Explains how the product works

What does software testing verification and validation involve?

  • Verification

It is a method of static analytics. In this case, you can do testing without running the code. Reviews, inspections, and walkthroughs are a few examples.

  • Validation

It is a method of dynamic analysis where you carry the testing out by running the code.Techniques used in testing that are functional and non-functional are examples.

You can carry the development and QA processes out simultaneously under the V model. Testing does not have a separate phase of its own; rather, it begins with the requirement phase. The actions of validation and verification are complementary.

What is Usability testing?

It is a testing process in which the final user of the program is requested to use it to determine whether the product is user-friendly and to determine how long each task takes.

Utilizing prototype or mock-up software in the early phases is an accurate technique to complete the customer’s perspective for usability.

What different types of defects are there?

Defects are classified into three types:

  • Wrong

It suggests that requirements were not correctly implemented. It deviates from the specified requirements.

  • Missing

This is a deviation from the specifications, a sign that a requirement was not followed, or a sign that client demand was not correctly stated.

  • Extra

It is a necessity that you can include in the product but which is not requested by the final user. It is always a deviation from the specification, although it could be a feature the product’s user wants.

What foundation does the acceptance plan have?

Usually, you can use the following inputs to prepare the acceptance document:

  • Requirement document

It outlines the precise requirements for the projects from the viewpoint of the client

  • Input from the customer

These can be conversations, informal talks, emails, etc.

  • Project Plan

The project manager’s project plan is a valuable resource as you conclude your acceptance testing

What is coverage, and what kinds of coverage approaches are there?

We use Coverage as term to define how thoroughly the source code we test during software testing. Three fundamental categories of covering approaches are as follows:

  1. Statement coverage

It guarantees that every line of source code has been run via testing

  1. Decision coverage

It guarantees that each true/false decision in the source code has been tested and performed

  1. Path coverage

In this phase, we make sure that every path through a certain section of code gets tested and run

What are automation testing benefits?

  1. It makes testing a large test matrix easier.
  2. Facilitates running several repeated test cases
  3. Supports the execution of unattended
  4. Allows for simultaneous processing
  5. Reduces costs and time
  6. Increases accuracy and decreases human-made errors

What are the benefits of using Selenium for automation testing?

We employ open-source software called Selenium to automate web browser testing. Being open-source, Selenium has a significant benefit over other testing tools in that there are no licensing fees. Other factors contributing to selenium’s rising fame include:

  • We can use any of the following programming languages to create test scripts:

Java, Python, C#, PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Net.

  • Any of the following OS can be used for testing: Linux, Windows, or Mac
  • Any browser, including Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, or Opera, may be used to conduct tests.
  • It can be integrated to manage test cases and produce reports with tools like TestNG and JUnit
  • For Continuous Testing, it may be coupled with Maven, Jenkins, and Docker

What are the varied Selenium components?

Selenium’s various components include:

  • Selenium Grid
  • Selenium WebDriver
  • Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
  • Selenium Remote Control (RC)

What are the various kinds of locators in Selenium?

The locator is an address that identifies a specific web component inside the webpage component. To efficiently and precisely recognize web elements, we have various types of locators in Selenium, which are as follows:

  • ID
  • Name
  • ClassName
  • TagName
  • Xpath
  • CSS Selector
  • DOM
  • linkText
  • PartialLinkText

What is XPath?

XPath, also known as XML Path, is a query language for XML documents. It is a significant component for locating elements in selenium. It consists of a path expression and a number of requirements. You can easily write an XPath script/query here to find any element on the page. Its purpose is to enable XML document navigation to select particular aspects, attributes, or other parts of an XML document for processing. It also generates dependable locators.

Explain the distinction between an Absolute Path and a Relative Path

  • Absolute XPath

It is the most straightforward method for locating the element, but the drawback of absolute XPath is that if you change the element’s path, the XPath fails.

  • Relative XPath

The path for Relative XPath begins in the middle of the HTML DOM structure. It starts with a double forward slash (//), indicating that it can search for the element anywhere on the page.

When do I need to use Selenium Grid?

You can use Selenium Grid can to run the same or different test scripts on various platforms and browsers at the same time. It achieves distributed test execution, testing in various environments, and significantly reducing execution time.

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Is testing necessary only after you complete the build and execution phases?

Testing is always performed after following the build and execution phases. The sooner we detect a flaw, the less expensive it is.

What is the connection between environmental reality and test phases?

As the testing phases progress, the importance of environmental reality grows. For example, while unit testing, the environment must be partially real, but during the acceptance phase, the environment must be completely real, or it must be the actual real environment.

A defect that could have been excluded during the first stage is removed later. How does this affect the costs?

If a defect is discovered during the initial phase, it should be excluded during that phase/phase instead of later. Delaying a defect for later phases indeed increases the cost.

When you identify a fault and remove it during the design phase, it is the least expensive.

But if you remove it during maintenance, it is twenty times more expensive.

What do regression and confirmation testing mean?

  • Regression Testing

You can describe it as a method of software testing used to ensure that a recent code change did not negatively impact existing features.

  • Confirmation Testing

When a test fails due to a flaw, you have to report it. Then you can forward a new version of the software with the defect fixed. We refer to it as a confirmation or re-testing.

What is Random Testing?

Typically, in Random Testing, data is created at random using a tool. This data is generated by a tool or an automated mechanism. The system is then tested with this randomly generated input, and the results are recorded.

Which is written first, white boxes or black boxes?

Black box test cases are usually written initially, followed by white box test cases. We need the documentation and the design or project plan to write black box test cases. These documents are easily accessible at the beginning of the project. White box test cases cannot be initiated in the early stages of a project because they require more architectural clarity, which is not accessible at the outset. As a result, white box test cases are typically written after black box test cases.

What are the fundamental elements of the defect report format?

The following are the basic components of a defect report format:

  • Project Name
  • Module Name
  • Defect detected on
  • Defect detected by
  • Defect ID and Name
  • Snapshot of the defect
  • Priority and Severity status
  • Defect resolved by
  • Defect resolved on

Is automation testing helpful in agile methodology?

Automation testing is very helpful in agile methodology because it allows for maximum test coverage in a shorter sprint time.

In what test cases you can use automated testing?

  • Non-functional test cases
  • Complex calculation test cases
  • Data-driven test cases
  • Smoke test cases
  • Regression test cases

How does Load Testing on websites function?

To access a website, a user submits a “request” to the server of that website. Then the server responds with the website you want to access. To load test a website, quality assurance and automation engineers simply multiply the number of responses sent by the traffic load.

The response of the webserver to the influx of virtual users will then be evaluated to decide server capacity and performance problems.

What is the difference between Selenium and Sikuli?

Selenium

  • It cannot automate flash objects such as video players, audio players, and so on.
  • It has a complex API
  • It can only automate web applications

Sikuli

  • It offers extensive support for automate flash objects
  • It has a simple API
  • It can automate both the web and a Windows application

What is TestNG?

It is a sophisticated framework that is designed to maximize the benefits for both developers and testers. It also includes an exception-handling mechanism that allows the program to run without stopping unexpectedly.

How to choose advanced-level QA tester interview questions + answers

What kind of feedback from the end user is required to start proper testing?

The end user is the most important character because he is the individual who must use the product and is more invested in the project than anyone else.

What does the term workbench concept mean?

At its core, a workbench is a method of documenting how a specific activity must be conducted. It is also known as phases, steps, and tasks.

Every workbench has the following five tasks:

  1. Input
  2. Execute
  3. Check
  4. Production output
  5. Rework

What does Defect Cascading mean?

A defect cascading is induced by another defect. One defect sets off the other. When a defect exists in any phase but is not recognized, it can move to the next stage without being recognized. As a consequence, the number of errors will rise.

What are the various end-user rollout methods?

The following are the rollout methods to be used:

  • Pilot
  • Gradual Implementation
  • Phased Implementation
  • Parallel Implementation

This is a tricky question that the interviewer may ask you. He can present a scenario in which there are 20 links on a web page and we must determine which of those 20 links are operational and which aren’t.

Because you must test the functionality of each link, the workaround is to send HTTP requests to each of the links on the web page and examine the responses. When you employ the driver.get() method to navigate to a URL, it returns a condition of 200 – OK. This suggests that the link is operational and that it was acquired. Any other status indicates that the link has been broken.

To begin, we must use the anchor tags a> to identify the various hyperlinks on the web page. We can achieve hyperlinks for each a> tag by using the attribute ‘href’ value and then analyzing the response received when using the driver.get() method.

In TestNG, how do you skip a method or a code block?

To skip a specific test method or code, set the ‘enabled’ parameter in the test annotation to false.

@Test(enabled = false)

Explain briefly what the code snippet below indicates.

WebElement sample = driver.findElement(By.xpath(“//*[contains(text(), ‘data’)]”));

It declares a variable of type WebElement and uses an XPath search to activate it with a reference to an element with the text value “data.”


And, this conclusez the suect on how to choose the best QA tester interview questions.

If you want to make on how to choose the best QA tester interview questions, make sure that you’re focusing on the core skills and qualities that are essential for the role. A good QA tester will have strong attention to detail, be able to think creatively to solve problems, and have excellent communication skills.

They will also be able to work well under pressure and meet deadlines. Choose your interview questions based on these qualities, and you’ll be sure to find the right candidate for the job.

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