QA Phone Screen Questions

QA Candidate: ____________________________
Date of interview: __________________________
The following list of questions is to be use for a QA Phone Interview.
1.

How do you approach creating your test plans?

After review of functional and design documentation, my test plan will include some or all of the following.
1. Test plan identifier.
2. Introduction.
3. Test items.
4. Features to be tested.
5. Features not to be tested.
6. Approach.
7. Item pass/fail criteria.
8. Suspension criteria and resumption requirements.
9. Test deliverables.
10. Testing tasks.
11. Environmental needs.
12. Responsibilities.
13. Staffing and training needs.
14. Schedule.
15. Risks and contingencies.
16. Approvals.
These can be matched against the five characteristics of a basic plan, with a couple left over that form part of the plan
document itself.
Scope
Scope clauses define what features will be tested. An aid to doing this is to prioritise them using a technique such as.
Test Items: The items of software, hardware, and combinations of these that will be tested.
Features to Be Tested: The parts of the software specification to be tested.
Features Not to Be Tested: The parts of the software specification to be excluded from testing.
Resource
Resource clauses give the overall view of the resources to deliver the tasks.
Environmental Needs: What is needed in the way of testing software, hardware, offices etc.
Responsibilities: Who has responsibility for delivering the various parts of the plan.
Staffing And Training Needs: The people and skills needed to deliver the plan.
Time
Time clauses specify what tasks are to be undertaken to meet the quality objectives, and when they will occur.
Testing Tasks: The tasks themselves, their dependencies, the elapsed time they will take, and the resource required.
Schedule: When the tasks will take place.
Often these two clauses refer to an appendix or another document that contains the detail.
Quality
Quality clauses define the standard required from the testing activities.
Introduction: A high level view of the testing standard required, including what type of testing it is. Approach: The details of
how the testing process will be followed.
Item Pass/Fail Criteria: Defines the pass and failure criteria for an item being tested.
Test Deliverables: Which test documents and other deliverables will be produced.
Risk
Risk clauses define in advance what could go wrong with a plan and the measures that will be taken to deal with these
problems.
Suspension Criteria And Resumption Requirements: This is a particular risk clause to define under what circumstances
testing would stop and restart.
Risks And Contingencies: This defines all other risk events, their likelihood, impact and counter measures to over come
them.
Plan Clauses
These clauses are parts of the plan structure.
Test Plan Identifier: This is a unique name or code by which the plan can be identified in the project's documentation
including its version.
Approvals: The signatures of the various stakeholders in the plan, to show they agree in advance with what it says.

Summary
A test plan provides a good basic structure. It is not restrictive in that it can be adapted in the following ways:
Descriptions of each clause can be tailored to an organisation's needs,
More clauses can be added,
More content added to any clause,
Sub-sections can be defined in a clause,
Other planning documents can be referred to.
If a properly balanced test plan is created then a project stands a chance of delivering a system that will meet the
user's needs

Comments:_______________________________________________________
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2.

Basic Test Case what would it include?

Test Case #, steps to enter test case, Pass/Fail.

Comments:_______________________________________________________
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3.

What kinds of testing have you done? White Box, Black Box, Grey Box, Manual vs.
Automated.
White Box Design a suite of test cases to exhaustively test software by testing it in all meaningful
situations. The set of meaningful situations is determined from knowledge of the softwares internal
structure. A complete set of tests will exercise all the execution paths through the software.
Black Box a testing method where the application under test is viewed as a black box and the
internal behavior of the program is completely ignored. Testing occurs based upon the external
specifications. Also know as behavioral testing, since only the external behaviors of the program are
evaluated and analyzed.
Grey Box testing is a combination of black box and white box testing. It is usually done by the
developer during the coding phase to test whether a particular functionality works as per requirement
against the code coded by him using a combination of black box and white box testing techniques.

Comments:_______________________________________________________
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4.

What is your understanding of Software Life Cycle?

The software life cycle is a general model of the software development process, including all the
activities and work products required to develop a software system. (i.e. Project Management [Project
Initiation, Project Monitoring and Control, Software Quality Management], Pre-development [Concept
Exploration, System Allocation], Development [Requirements, Design, Implementation], Post
development [Installation, Operation and Support, Maintenance, Retirement], integral Processes
[Verification and Validation, Software Configuration Management, Documentation Development,
Training].

Comments:_______________________________________________________
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5.

Bug tracking system. What have you used, and what information do you include in
your bug?
Bugzillia, Lotus Notes, etc.
Bug contains bug #, date, time, title of bug, priorty, status, submitter, assignee(s), detailed step by step
description of bug, contact information, type of problem, environment, team, department, version,
database, release #, possible attachments, etc.

Comments:_______________________________________________________
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6.

Describe your favorite bug, or your most recent bug youve encountered.
Comments:_______________________________________________________
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7.

If candidate has SQL knowledge, ask them to give you a basic SQL statement.
SELECT "column_name" FROM "table_name"
Or,
SELECT store_name
FROM Store_Information
WHERE Sales > 1000
OR (Sales < 500 AND Sales > 275)

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8.

What databases have you used?

MS Access Database, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Server, Query Analyzer, T-SQL, XML, ADO, ADO.NET

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9.

How do you go about testing a web application? What would you do 1st?
Review documentation.

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10.

Do you have automation skills? If so, what tools have you used, and for what type of
testing?
LoadRunner
WinRunner
XML Spy

Toad

Segue
SilkPerformer

Performance Testing
Functional Testing
is an integrated development environment (IDE) for XML from Altova.
XMLSpy allows computer programmers to create XML-based and Web
services applications.
Toad is a powerful, low-overhead tool that makes database and
application development faster and easier and simplifies day-to-day
administration tasks. For the developer, application developer, DBA or
business analyst.
automated load and performance testing solution for optimizing the
performance, scalability and reliability of enterprise applications.

Comments:_______________________________________________________
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11.

Do you have any insurance background or knowledge?

(Auto, Home, Commercial, BOP, Life, Term, Bonds, Annuity, etc.)

Comments: ______________________________________________________
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