software testing interview q&a – part 1

www.testing.com.vnAuthor: Khoa Bui

SOFTWARE TESTING INTERVIEW Q&A – PART 1

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SOFTWARE TESTING INTERVIEW Q&A – PART 1 (WWW.TESTING.COM.VN)

1.FIRST QUESTION IS ALWAYS: COULD YOU PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF?

‣ We try to introduce short summary in 3 minutes including education, working experience, strong point. Below is example:

I’m 30 years old, belongs to HCMC, the biggest city of Vietnam. I’m graduated in Software Engineering from Bach Khoa university with excellent grade.

I’m carrying 10 years of experience in QA industry. I worked as QA Engineer at ABC corporation in 4 years (from 2005-2009), then moving to DEF company as QA leader from 2009 – 20012. Currently, I’m working at XYZ corporation as QA Architecture / Application Support since 2012.

As a QA member and working on different kinds of projects types as Windows, Web, Mobile projects, I have experience in test cases writing, bug reporting, testing summary reporting. Take a QA leader role, I got some experience to create test plan, do estimation, communicate with global clients, manage and monitor testing progress of projects. I’ve experience to work on both manual and automation testing projects and applied by Scrum framework, so client communication is my daily task. That’s all about myself


2.COULD YOU PLEASE TELL YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES IN YOUR CURRENT PROJECTS?

‣ As QA Engineer:

Create and execute test cases

Verify bugs and update status of bugs (fixed or not fixed)

Create bug report and submit bug report on Bug Tracking tools if finding during execute test cases

Do ad-hoc testing, exploratory testing to find bugs of application

Implement automation test scripts

Run automation test scripts

Communicate with BA/Leader/Developer/Clients to clarify user story requirement and create test cases for next functions.

Report testing status everyday to test leader / manager…

Support leader to do others when requested



‣ As Leader or Manager

Create test plan at the beginning of project

Do estimation the testing tasks of team (estimate user stories each sprint)

Prepare test environment for testing team (if required)

Transfer requirement of project to members

Assign tasks to members of team

Manage and monitor the testing progress

Communicate to Manager/Product Owner/Stakeholders/other team to clarify all things related projects



‣ As Leader or Manager (Cont.)

Support UAT/Production team to clarify the issues, bugs

Collect testing results and report the final summary report of testing team

Motivate team to help them always happy in work

Working as QA engineer:

Create test cases and execute test cases

Do ad-hoc to find bugs of systems

Create bug reporting


3.COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME YOUR STRONG POINT AND WEAK POINT? ALMOST INTERVIEWER WILL ASK THIS QUESTION AND 80% INTERVIEWEE DON’T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THIS. IF WE DON’T KNOW ANSWER, WE SHOULD PREPARE AT HOME WITH SOME ANSWERS. BELOW IS GOOD SAMPLE:

Strong Point:

‣ The first strong point is good experience in software testing. I’ve 10 years experience to work on different kinds of projects with global clients.

‣ The second strong point is good communicate. As QA leader, I often communicate with clients to get requirement, clarify issues, support stakeholders in UAT testing.

‣ The last one is leadership skills. Although working as leader but I’m also the QA/QC member so that I understand mindset of one QC, I know the strong point/weak point of every member, and assign tasks to suitable member based on their strong point. Besides, I also support them to improve weak point by assigning difficult task and support that person to complete that tasks.


3.COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME YOUR STRONG POINT AND WEAK POINT? ALMOST INTERVIEWER WILL ASK THIS QUESTION AND 80% INTERVIEWEE DON’T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THIS. IF WE DON’T KNOW ANSWER, WE SHOULD PREPARE AT HOME WITH SOME ANSWERS. BELOW IS GOOD SAMPLE:

Weak Point: Try to give positive answer

‣ When there’s anything which I don’t understand, I always to raise questions to other members and request email confirmation as evidence. When working with some global customer, they’re very happy with this, but when working with internal team, some members do not happy with this.

‣ I always request members come meeting room before 10 mins to prepare documents/environment/microphone before starting meeting with customers. However, some members don’t want to do that. They said that’s waste time, and they only come in room on time (not early).

‣ I often try to handle many tasks without sharing to other members. Sometimes, I must do it overtime to complete all tasks.


4. WHY DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE JOB? THIS IS ALSO DIFFICULT QUESTION. THERE’S DIFFERENT ANSWER FOR THIS QUESTION. DO NOT ANSWER: I HATE JOB, HATE COMPANY, OR NEED HIGHER SALARY. ‣ Below is good sample:

Sample Answer: I would like to change job because I would like to have chance to do multiple tasks and learn different knowledge to improve my skills. Current project is good but that’s stability project, I must following routine tasks, do not have more opportunities to do other tasks.

If interviewer asked: If we don’t pay with your expectation, do you want to join our company? You should be careful when answer this question. Some interviewer don’t happy if you say “No” although we know salary is very important. You can answer as below:

I understand this question. If offer is not meet my expectation, I also consider this salary with job title, challenges, responsibilities of this job, working location, and other benefits of company.


5.WHEN DO YOU KNOW TESTING IS ENOUGH? (THIS IS DIFFICULT QUESTIONS FOR SOME NEW MEMBERS. ALMOST SOME NEW TESTER JUST RECEIVED TASK FROM LEADER AND COMPLETE ALL TASKS. HOWEVER, WE CAN TRY TO GIVE ANSWER AS BELOW)

‣ In SCRUM: QC created test cases for function based on acceptance criteria of each user story and created regression test cases based on impact analyst (provided by developer when changing code). That’s enough testing for new changes.

‣ Do Regression Test: Complete all test scenarios and there’s no critical bugs (P1, P2)

‣ Do E2E testing at the end of sprint before deploying new build on UAT environment.

‣ If do not enough testing time:

‣ Execute all test scenarios of top priority feature areas

‣ Do shakedown testing to test main function of system

‣ Verify all bugs and make sure all critical bugs are fixed

‣ Execute test random some areas which related new changes to make sure there’s no impact or blocking


6. WHEN SOFTWARE TESTING IS STOPPED?

‣ Beta and Alpha testing is passed

‣ The bugs found is meet exit criteria of test plan

‣ Complete all test scenarios which covered all feature without finding any critical issues/blocking issues

‣ Project budget is not enough for continue testing

‣ Manager confident application is working fine


7. HOW TO ESTIMATE TESTING TIME / HOW TO ESTIMATE TESTING TIME OF ONE USER STORY?

‣ First step: Request requirement from customer or product owner. Make sure requirement is enough for estimate (at least 80% is completed).

‣ Second step: Request acceptance criteria for one user story (if that user story is very complex)

‣ Third step: Based on requirement and acceptance criteria, we should do estimate as below

Break down total function to small feature

Divide feature to 3 level: difficult, medium, and easy

Estimate testing time of each feature based on different level. (If difficult level, it will take for long time than medium and easy level).

We can calculate average of total testing time (3 levels)

We buffer 10% for impediments as networking, test environment is slow, prepare data…


8. WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT SITUATION / CHALLENGES YOU FACED AT WORK? THINKING ABOUT DIFFICULT WHICH YOU FACED FROM PREVIOUS WORK AND YOU PASSED WELL.

‣ From previous company, I’m assigning as QA Leader when old QA Leader leaving job. I don’t understand application deeper than other members, but manager trust me and assign me leader role. That’s really challenge for me.

‣ At first two months, I must take long time to learn application, project process. Sometime, I also work overtime because I need to catchup and understand system deeply.

‣ I try to run all test cases as soon as possible to learn system. Read the latest document of project to understand the project process.

‣ Asking old members of team if there’s some misunderstand related system. Asking support from manager if don’t know project management process.

‣ After two months, I familiar with project and application. Although I don’t understand clearly as previous leader but I can do it independently and continue improve day by day.


9. WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS? TRY TO GIVE 2 ACHIEVEMENTS FROM PREVIOUS PROJECTS

‣ First achievement: I joined one project as QA member of one mobile testing project. I must do all tasks of one QC as writing/executing test cases, ad-hoc testing to find bug of application, do regression test to make sure application free bug on production. The result is the application is released successful on Google Play and Apple Store without UAT bugs, and that application is able to work find on more than 200 mobile devices. And I got the Top Award Tester from company, which only 10/500 testers receive that award.

‣ Second achievement: As working as QA Leader, I supported and mentor new members when they join my team. Now, they’re become senior testers and can work independently in other projects.


10. HOW DO WORK UNDER HIGH PRESSURE?

‣ Working with outsourcing projects, I often faced tight deadline and must complete all testing without bugs and meet deadline. That’s really high pressure. However, I’m experienced to work under high pressure because I always do tasks, track result, and review result everyday.

‣ Everyday, I always list out all tasks which I need to do in a day in OneNote application. I know priority task which I need to do in a day and able to complete or not. So that I can make a plan to do list. If there’s any urgent case, I will remove some not important task, and complete urgent case first. This way will help me to complete all high priority tasks and handle working time without pressure.

REFERENCE: THIS IS EDITED AND DESIGNED BASED ON RESEARCH ON INTERNET

Author: Khoa Bui Linkedin


https://www.linkedin.com/in/khoabui1912

software testing interview q&a – part 1

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