Testing Interview Questions

Here are some questions you might be asked on a job interview for a testing opening:

1. Why did you ever become involved in QA/testing?
2. What is the testing lifecycle and explain each of its phases?
3. What is the difference between testing and Quality Assurance?
4. What is Negative testing?
5. What was a problem you had in your previous assignment (testing if possible)? How did you resolve it?
6. What are two of your strengths that you will bring to our QA/testing team?
7. How would you define Quality Assurance?
8. What do you like most about Quality Assurance/Testing?
9. What do you like least about Quality Assurance/Testing?
10. What is the Waterfall Development Method and do you agree with all the steps?
11. What is the V-Model Development Method and do you agree with this model?
12. What is the Capability Maturity Model (CMM)? At what CMM level were the last few companies you worked?
13. What is a "Good Tester"?
14. Could you tell me two things you did in your previous assignment (QA/Testing related hopefully) that you are proud of?
15. List 5 words that best describe your strengths.
16. What are two of your weaknesses?
17. What methodologies have you used to develop test cases?
18. In an application currently in production, one module of code is being modified. Is it necessary to re- test the whole application or is it enough to just test functionality associated with that module?
19. Define each of the following and explain how each relates to the other: Unit, System, and Integration testing.
20. Define Verification and Validation. Explain the differences between the two.
21. Explain the differences between White-box, Gray-box, and Black-box testing.
22. How do you go about going into a new organization? How do you assimilate?
23. Define the following and explain their usefulness: Change Management, Configuration Management, Version Control, and Defect Tracking.
24. What is ISO 9000? Have you ever been in an ISO shop?
25. When are you done testing?
26. What is the difference between a test strategy and a test plan?
27. What is ISO 9003? Why is it important
28. What are ISO standards? Why are they important?
29. What is IEEE 829? (This standard is important for Software Test Documentation-Why?)
30. What is IEEE? Why is it important?
31. Do you support automated testing? Why?
32. We have a testing assignment that is time-driven. Do you think automated tests are the best solution?
33. What is your experience with change control? Our development team has only 10 members. Do you think managing change is such a big deal for us?
34. Are reusable test cases a big plus of automated testing and explain why.
35. Can you build a good audit trail using Compuware's QACenter products. Explain why.
36. How important is Change Management in today's computing environments?
37. Do you think tools are required for managing change. Explain and please list some tools/practices which can help you managing change.
38. We believe in ad-hoc software processes for projects. Do you agree with this? Please explain your answer.
39. When is a good time for system testing?
40. Are regression tests required or do you feel there is a better use for resources?
41. Our software designers use UML for modeling applications. Based on their use cases, we would like to plan a test strategy. Do you agree with this approach or would this mean more effort for the testers.
42. Tell me about a difficult time you had at work and how you worked through it.
43. Give me an example of something you tried at work but did not work out so you had to go at things another way.
44. How can one file compare future dated output files from a program which has change, against the baseline run which used current date for input. The client does not want to mask dates on the output files to allow compares. - Answer-Rerun baseline and future date input files same # of days as future dated run of program with change. Now run a file compare against the baseline future dated output and the changed programs' future dated output.

Interviewing Suggestions
1. If you do not recognize a term ask for further definition. You may know the methodology/term but you have used a different name for it.
2. Always keep in mind that the employer wants to know what you are going to do for them, with that you should always stay/be positive.

Preinterview Questions
1. What is the structure of the company?
2. Who is going to do the interview-possible background information of interviewer?
3. What is the employer's environment (platforms, tools, etc.)?
4. What are the employer's methods and processes used in software arena?
5. What is the employer's philosophy?
6. What is the project all about you are interviewing for-as much information as possible.
7. Any terminologies that the company may use.