Software Testing Interview

Questions

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Contents

Software Testing Interview Questions For

Freshers
1. Explain the role of testing in software development?
2. What is the software testing life cycle?
3. What is functional testing?
4. What is non-functional testing?
5. What are the different types of testing?
6. What is black-box testing?
7. What is white-box testing?
8. What is manual testing?
9. What is cross-browser testing?
10. What is automated testing?
11. What is alpha testing?
12. What is beta testing?
13. What is regression testing?
14. What is exploratory testing?
15. What is end-to-end testing?
16. What is unit testing?
17. What is static software testing?
18. What is dynamic software testing?
19. What is Quality Assurance(QA)?
20. What is a software bug?

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Software Testing Interview Questions For

Experienced
21. How much testing is sufficient? Or, is it possible to do exhaustive
testing of the software?
22. Why developers shouldn’t test the software they wrote?
23. What qualities a software tester should have?
24. What is a bug report?
25. What are some important testing metrics?
26. What is Test-Driven-Development?
27. What is Selenium? What are its benefits?
28. What is boundary value analysis?
29. What are the differences between manual and automated testing?
30. What is a user story?
31. What is an API?
32. What are the different HTTP status codes that a server can return?
33. What is API testing?
34. What is a test environment?
35. What is test coverage?
36. What is meant by browser automation?
37. What is A/B testing?
38. What is meant by Code Coverage?
39. List some of the popular testing tools/frameworks, providing a brief
description of each.
40. What are the different types of severity you can assign to a bug?

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Conclusion
41. Conclusion

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Let's get Started

Software testing is an activity conducted in the software development

life-cycle to verify that the software is accurate and works according to
the requirements. Testing plays an integral part in any software
development project.
In its essence, software testing aims to answer the question: How does one
ensure that the software does what it is supposed to do and doesn’t
do what it is not supposed to do? The primary goal behind software
testing is to get enough confidence that the software under testing
produces the correct output for a given input.
An important thing to keep in mind when learning about software
testing is that testing does not improve software quality by itself. Or
that a high amount of testing doesn’t mean that the software is high
quality. Testing is an indicator of quality, providing crucial feedback to
the developers who created the software to take necessary action to
fix the problems found in testing.
This article provides the frequently asked interview questions by the
interviewer for a Software Tester or Quality Assurance (QA) position. It’s
divided into two sections based on the skill set of the applicant. The
fresher’s section includes software testing questions you might get
asked for a junior-level position if you are recently graduated from
college.
The experienced section assumes basic familiarity with the testing
process and explores the advanced topics in testing. This section is
suitable for someone with a few years of experience as a tester. In the
end, multiple-choice questions are provided to test your understanding
of testing.

Software Testing Interview Questions For

Freshers
1. Explain the role of testing in software development?

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Software testing comes into play at different times in different software

development methodologies. There are two main methodologies in
software development, namely Waterfall and Agile.
n a traditional waterfall software development model, requirements are
gathered first. Then a specification document is created based on the
document, which drives the design and development of the software.
Finally, the testers conduct the testing at the end of the software
development life cycle once the complete software system is built.

Waterfall Software Development Model

An agile software development model works in small iterations. You test the
software in parallel as it is getting built. The developers build a small
functionality according to the requirements. The testers test it and get
customer feedback, which drives future development.

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2. What is the software testing life cycle?

Similar to software development, testing has its life cycle. During the
testing, a tester goes through the following activities.

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1. Understand the requirements: Before testing software or a

feature, the tester must first understand what it is supposed to do.
If they don’t know how the software is supposed to work, they
can’t test it effectively.
2. Test Planning and Case Development: Once the tester has a clear
understanding of the requirements, they can create a test plan. It
includes the scope of testing, i.e., part of software under test and
objectives for testing. Various activities are involved in planning
the test, such as creating documentation, estimating the time and
efforts involved, deciding the tools and platforms, and the
individuals who will be conducting the tests.
3. Prepare a test environment: The development happens in a
development environment, i.e., on a developer’s computer that
might not represent the actual environment that the software will
run in production. A tester prepares an environment with the test
data that mimics the end user’s environment. It assists with
realistic testing of the software.
4. Generate the test data: Though it is impossible to do exhaustive
testing of the software, the tester tries to use realistic test data to
give them the confidence that the software will survive the real
world if it passes the tests.
5. Test Execution: Once the tester has a complete understanding
of the software and has a test environment set up with the test
data, they execute the test. Here, execution means that the tester
runs the software or the feature under test and verifies the output
with the expected outcome.
6. Test Closure: At the end of the test execution, there can be
two possible outcomes. First, the tester finds a bug in the part of
the software under test. In this case, they create a test
record/bug report. Second, the software works as expected. Both
these events indicate the end of the test cycle.

3. What is functional testing?

Functional testing is a form of black-box testing. As the name suggests,
it focuses on the software's functional requirements rather than its
internal implementation. A functional requirement refers to required
behavior in the system, in terms of its input and output.

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It validates the software against the functional requirements or the

specification, ignoring the non-functional attributes such as
performance, usability, and reliability.
Functional testing aims to answer the following questions, in particular:
Does the software fulfill its functional
requirements? Does it solve its intended
users' problems?

4. What is non-functional testing?

Non-functional testing tests the system's non-functional requirements,
which refer to an attribute or quality of the system explicitly
requested by the client. These include performance, security,
scalability, and usability.
Non-functional testing comes after functional testing. It tests the
general characteristics unrelated to the functional requirements of
the software. Non- functional testing ensures that the software is
secure, scalable, high-performance, and won't crash under heavy load.

5. What are the different types of testing?

You can test the software in many different ways. Some types of
testing are conducted by software developers and some by specialized
quality assurance staff. Here are a few different kinds of software
testing, along with a brief description of each.

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Type Description

A programmatic test that tests the

Unit Testing internal working of a unit of code,
such as a method or a function.

Ensures that multiple components of

Integratio
systems work as expected when they
n Testing
are combined to produce a result.

Ensures that existing

Regression
features/functionality that used to
Testing
work are not broken due to new code
changes.
Complete end-to-end testing is done on
Syste
the complete software to make sure the
m
whole system works as expected.
Testin
g
A quick test performed to ensure that
the software works at the most basic
Smoke level and doesn’t crash when it’s
Testing started. Its name originates from the
hardware testing where you just plug
the device and see if smoke comes
out.
Ensures that the software performs
Performan according to the user’s expectations
ce Testing by checking the response time and
throughput under specific load and
environment.
Ensures the software meets the
User-
requirements of the clients or users.
Acceptan
This is typically the last step before
ce
the software is live, i.e. it goes to
Testing
production.

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6. What is black-box testing?

In black-box testing, the tester views the software as a black box,
ignoring all the internal structure and behavior. Their only concern is
the input provided to the system and the generated output. Black-box
testing verifies the program’s behavior against the specified
requirements.
During black-box testing, the test conditions are created based upon the
software’s functionality but are unaware of how the software works
internally. The software is tested from the end user’s perspective and
gives a broader picture of the whole system.
Given that the users are only concerned with whether the software
works according to their needs and don’t care how it works, black-box
testing helps test software usability and anticipate how the customer
will use the product.

7. What is white-box testing?

White-box testing is an alternative strategy to black-box testing, in
which a tester views the system as a transparent box. They are allowed
to observe the internal implementation of the system, which guides the
test. Typically, the software developers perform the white-box testing
during the development phase.

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In white-box testing, we assume that the tester has some programming

knowledge. They try to test each possible branch a program could take
in a running system.
Knowing what’s inside the box, i.e., taking a look at the source code and
the implementation details, it’s possible to test the system more
thoroughly.

8. What is manual testing?

In manual testing, a tester manually verifies the functionality of the
software. The tester has a comprehensive list of all the test cases
they should test, along with the test data. They go through each
case, one by one. They launch the software as an end-user would,
enter the input, and manually verify the output.

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It may seem that manual testing is inefficient when compared to

automated testing. It is slow, not repeatable in a consistent manner,
and prone to human misjudgment.
However, manual testing allows the tester to realistically test the
software, using actual user data in a natural user environment, subject
to similar external conditions. Only a human, not a computer, can
evaluate the usability and accessibility of the application and how it
looks and feels to the end-user. It also gives a broader perspective of
the system. Finally, some test scenarios just can't be automated and
need to be manually tested.
You should always test the software manually before trying to automate the
testing.

9. What is cross-browser testing?

All web applications run in browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla
Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc. Though they all work primarily
the same in implementing the web standards, there are subtle
differences in all of them. When building the software, it’s not always
possible for the software developer to meticulously test the feature on
multiple browsers, noticing the subtle inconsistencies.

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In cross-browser testing, a software tester launches the web application

in all the supported browsers and tries to test the same functionality on
all of them. They note any unexpected behavior in a browser that
doesn’t work as expected or looks different; note the behavior and the
browser name and version in the test report.
This helps the programmer to fix the behavior in all the browsers where
it doesn't work as intended.

10. What is automated testing?

As the name suggests, automated testing, which is also called test
automation, is the programmatic execution of the tests. The tester uses
an automation tool or software like Selenium to write code that
performs the following tasks.
1. Automatically run the software.
2. Feed the input data to the system.
3. Examine the output with the expected outcome.
4. Fail the test if the results don’t match. Otherwise, pass the test.
Once a test is automated, you can run it as often as you want, to check
if any new code has broken it. It enables you to spend your time on
other high-value tests, such as exploratory testing that help find bugs
that an automated test would miss.

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Automated testing is beneficial for repetitive testing with inputs that

don’t change frequently. Humans get tired and bored from conducting
the same tests repeatedly and seeing the same results. It’s easy to
make mistakes when you are testing a feature for the twentieth time.
Software is much better at doing repetitive tasks without getting tired
or making mistakes than a human operator would.

11. What is alpha testing?

Before you ship the software to the customers, the internal testing
team performs alpha testing. Alpha testing is part of the user
acceptance testing. Its goal is to identify bugs before the customers
start using the software.

12. What is beta testing?

Once you ship the software to the customers after alpha testing, the
software's actual users perform the beta testing in a real production
environment. It is one of the final components of user acceptance
testing. Beta testing is helpful to get feedback from real people using
your software in real environments.

13. What is regression testing?

The dictionary definition of regression is the act of going back to a
previous place or state. In software, regression implies that a feature
that used to work suddenly stopped working after a developer added a
new code or functionality to the software.
Regression problems are pervasive in the software industry, as new
features are getting added all the time. Developers don't build these
features in isolation, separate from the existing code. Instead, the new
code interacts with the legacy code and modifies it in various ways,
introducing side effects, whether intended or not.
As a result, there is always a chance that introducing new changes
may negatively impact a working feature. It's important to keep in
mind that even a small change has the potential to cause
regression.
Regression testing helps ensure that the new code or modifications to
the existing code don't break the present behavior. It allows the tester
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to verify that the new code plays well with the legacy code.

14. What is exploratory testing?

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magine a tourist in a foreign city. There are two ways in which they can
explore the city.
Follow a map, itinerary, or a list of places they should visit
Explore randomly, following the streets as they lead them to
new places With the first approach, the tourist follows a
predetermined plan and executes it.
Though they may visit famous spots, they might miss out on hidden, more
exciting
places in the city. With the second approach, the tourist wanders around the
city and might encounter strange and exotic places that the itinerary
would have missed.
Both approaches have their pros and cons.
A tester is similar to a tourist when they are testing software. They can
follow a strict set of test cases and test the software according to
them, with the provided inputs and outputs, or they can explore the
software.
When a tester doesn't use the test scripts or a predefined test plan and
randomly tests the software, it is called exploratory testing. As the
name suggests, the tester is exploring the software as an end-user
would. It's a form of black-box testing.
n exploratory testing, the tester interacts with the software in whatever
manner they want and follows the software's instructions to navigate
various paths and functionality. They don't have a strict plan at hand.
Exploratory testing primarily focuses on behavioral testing. It is effective for
getting familiar with new software features. It also provides a high-level
overview of the system that helps evaluate and quickly learn the
software.
Though it seems random, exploratory testing can be powerful in an experienced
and skilled tester's hands. As it's performed without any preconceived
notions of what software should and shouldn't do, it allows greater
flexibility to the tester to discover hidden paths and problems along those
paths.

15. What is end-to-end testing?

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End to End testing is the process of testing a software system from start to
finish. The tester tests the software just like an end-user would. For
example, to test a desktop software, the tester would install the
software as the user would, open it, use the application as intended,
and verify the behavior. Same for a web application.
There is an important difference between end-to-end testing vs. other forms
of testing that are more isolated, such as unit testing. In end-to-end
testing, the software is tested along with all its dependencies and
integrations, such as databases, networks, file systems, and other
external services.

16. What is unit testing?

Unit testing is the process of testing a single unit of code in an isolated
manner. The unit of code can be a method, a class, or a module. Unit
testing aims to focus on the smallest building blocks of code to get
confidence to combine them later to produce fully functioning
software.
A unit test invokes the code and verifies the result with the expected
result. If the expected and actual outcomes match, then the unit test
passes. Otherwise, it fails.
A good unit test has the following characteristics:
1. It should test a single piece of functionality.
2. It is fully automated and repeatable.
3. It should run quickly and provide immediate feedback.
4. It should be isolated and shouldn’t interact with external
dependencies such as network, database, or file system unless
needed. You can use the mocking technique to simulate the
external dependencies and isolate the code under test.

17. What is static software testing?

Static testing is a technique in which you test the software without actually
executing it. It involves doing code walkthroughs, code reviews, peer-
reviews, or using sophisticated tools such as eslint, StyleCop to
perform static analysis of the source code. Static testing is typically
performed during software development.

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18. What is dynamic software testing?

In contrast to static testing, dynamic software testing tests the
software when it’s executing. The tester runs the software in a test
environment and goes through all the steps involved, entering the
inputs and verifying the actual output with the expected result.

19. What is Quality Assurance(QA)?

QA stands for Quality Assurance. In a software development team, a QA
ensures that the software is thoroughly tested before releasing it to the
end-users.

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Quality control is a software engineering process that is used to ensure

the software quality and whether it implements the required standards
and follows the protocols and procedures necessary.
In many software organizations, a tester and a QA can be the same
person, but they can be different depending on the organization's size.
The goal of the QA is to ensure quality in the shipped software.

20. What is a software bug?

A software bug is an error in the software that produces wrong results.
A software tester tests the software to find bugs in it.
There are many causes for the bugs—for example, poor design, sloppy
programming, lack of version control, or miscommunication.
Throughout development, developers introduce hundreds or thousands
of bugs in the system. The goal of the tester is to uncover those bugs.

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You can find a bug in many different ways, regardless of your role.
When building the software, the software developer might notice the
bug in another module, written by another developer or by themselves.
The tester actively tries to find the bugs as part of a routine testing
process. Finally, the users could see the bugs when the software is in
production.
All bugs, no matter how they are found, are recorded into a bug-
tracking system. A triage team triages the bugs and assigns a priority
to the bug, and assigns the bug to a software developer to fix it. Once
the developer resolves the problem, they check in the code and mark
that bug as ready for testing. Once a bug is ready for testing, it goes to
the tester, who tests the software to verify if it’s indeed fixed. If it is,
then it’s closed. If not, they assign it to the same developer with a
description of the exact steps to reproduce the bug. Some examples of
popular bug-tracking systems include BugZilla, FogBugz, etc.
Trivia:
The first software bug was discovered by Admiral Grace Hopper, on
September 9, 1947. After they opened a malfunctioning piece of
hardware, they found an insect stuck in the relay. Image Source: Link

First Software Bug

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Software Testing Interview Questions For

Experienced
21. How much testing is sufficient? Or, is it
possible to do exhaustive testing of the
software?
It is impossible to exhaustively test software or prove the absence of
errors, no matter how specific your test strategy is.
An extensive test that finds hundreds of errors doesn’t imply that it has
discovered them all. There could be many more errors that the test
might have missed. The absence of errors doesn’t mean there are no
errors, and the software is perfect. It could easily mean ineffective or
incomplete tests. To prove that a program works, you’d have to test all
possible inputs and their combinations.
Consider a simple program that takes a string as an input that is ten
characters long. To test it with each possible input, you’d have to enter
2610 names, which is impossible. Since exhaustive testing is not
practical, your best strategy as a tester is to pick the test cases that
are most likely to find errors. Testing is sufficient when you have
enough confidence to release the software and assume it will work as
expected.

22. Why developers shouldn’t test the software they wrote?

Developers make poor testers. Here are some reasons why:
They try to test the code to make sure that it works, rather than
testing all the ways in which it doesn't work.
Since they wrote it themselves, developers tend to be very
optimistic about the software and don't have the correct attitude
needed for testing: to break software.
Developers skip the more sophisticated tests that an experienced
tester would perform to break the software. They follow the happy
path to execute the code from start to finish with proper inputs,
often not enough to get the confidence to ship software in
production.

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However, it doesn't mean that developers shouldn't test the software

before sending it to the tester. Developer testing helps find many bugs
that are caused by programming errors. These are hard to find for a
tester because they don't always have access to the source code.

23. What qualities a software tester should have?

Any software tester's goal is to find out as many bugs and problems in
the system so that the customers don't have to. Hence, a good
software tester should have a keen eye for detail. They should know
the ins and outs of the software they are testing and push every aspect
of the software to its limits, to identify bugs that are hard to find with
the software's regular use.
Having the domain knowledge of the application is essential. If a tester
doesn't understand the specific problems the software is trying to
solve, they won't be able to test it thoroughly.
A good tester should keep the end-user in mind when they are testing.
Having empathy with the end-user helps the tester ensure that the
software is accessible and usable. Simultaneously, the tester should
possess basic programming skills to think from a developer's
perspective, which allows them to notice common programming errors
such as null-references, out-of-memory errors, etc.
Communication, both written and verbal, is an essential skill for a
tester. A tester will frequently have to interact with both the
developers and the management. They should be able to explain the
bugs and problems found during testing to the developers. For each
bug found, a good tester should provide a detailed bug report
consisting of all the information a developer would need to fix that
problem. They should be able to make a good case to the
management if they are uncomfortable releasing the software if it
contains unresolved issues.

24. What is a bug report?

During testing, a tester records their observations, findings, and other
information useful to the developers or the management. All this data
belongs to a test record, also called a bug report.

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A detailed bug report is an important artifact produced during testing. It

helps the team members with:
Understand the problem,
Steps to reproduce the problem,
The environment and the specific conditions under which it
happens, and The resolution if/when the developers fix the
problem.
Here are a few bits of information that a good bug report should
contain. Image Source: Bugzilla

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Field Description

Title A short headline that summarizes the

problem. It shouldn’t be too long but
just to give just the right information to
the reader. It should be specific and
accurate.
Description The description should answer all the
questions that are not explained by the
title. It contains a detailed summary of
the bug, its severity, and impact, steps
to reproduce, expected results vs. the
actual output.
Version A lot of time can be wasted in trying to
reproduce a bug in the wrong version
of the product. Knowing the exact
product version or the build number on
which this bug was found is very useful
to the developer in reproducing the
bug.
Status At any point, a bug can be either
‘Active’, ‘Ready for Testing’, or
‘Closed’. A bug becomes active when it
is found, is ready for testing once the
developer fixes it. A tester can mark it
closed if the developer fixed it, or
active if not.
Steps
Though the steps to reproduce the
to
problem can be provided in the
Reprodu
description, sometimes having a
ce
distinct field force the tester to think
about them. They include each step
one must take to successfully
reproduce the problem.
Assigned Name of the developer or the tester to

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To
whom this bug is assigned.

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For example, here is a picture of a bug reported on Jira, a popular bug-

tracking software.

25. What are some important testing metrics?

Testing metrics provide a high-level overview to the management or the
developers on how the project is going and the next action steps.

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Here are some of the metrics derived from a record of the tests and failures:
Total number of defects found, ordered by their
severity Total number of bugs fixed
Total number of problems caused by an error in the source code
vs. configuration or external environmental factors
Bug find and fix rate over
time Bugs by
produce/feature area
The average time is taken by a bug since it’s found and fixed.
Total time spent on new feature development vs. time spent on
resolving bugs and failures
Number of outstanding bugs before a release
Bugs/failures reported by the customers vs. those found by the testers

26. What is Test-Driven-Development?

Test-Driven-Development (TDD) is a popular software development
technique, first introduced by Kent Beck in his book with the same name,
published in 1999.

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In TDD, a developer working on a feature first writes a failing test, then

writes just enough code to make that test pass. Once they have a
passing test, they add another failing test and then write just enough
code to pass the failing test. This cycle repeats until the developer has
the fully working feature. If the code under the test has external
dependencies such as database, files, or network, you can mock them
to isolate the code.

Benefits of TDD:
Writing tests first forces you to think about the feature you are
trying to build, helping you produce better code.
As you always have a working set of tests at hand, a failing test
indicates that the problem is with the code you just added,
reducing the time spent in debugging.
Writing tests help the developer to clarify the requirements and
specification.
It’s challenging to write good tests for a poor set of requirements.
It’s tough to produce high-quality software unless you can test the
software after each new change. You can never be sure that your
new code didn’t break the working software. TDD gives you the
confidence to add new code, as you already have a test in place.

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27. What is Selenium? What are its benefits?

Selenium is a web browser automation tool that automates the test
suits you need to run on a web browser.
Some of the benefits of Selenium include:
It is open-source software, eliminating licensing costs.
It supports all the major languages, such as Java, C#, Python, Ruby, etc.
It supports all the major web browsers, e.g., Google Chrome, Firefox,
Safari, etc.
You can integrate it with other testing frameworks and tools to
build a comprehensive test suite for your software.

28. What is boundary value analysis?

In software, many errors occur near the edges of the range of the data
values. For example, when the programmer uses the greater-than
operator (>) instead of the greater-than-or-equal-to (>=) operator, it
causes the off-by-one indexing error.
Typically, developers miss these boundary cases because they follow a
happy path when developing and testing. Boundary value analysis
helps to discover the errors caused by extreme values. The tester
chooses the test data at and immediately above and below the
boundaries of the input domain of the data.
For example, if an input field expects a string of 20 characters long, the
tester tests it with strings of lengths 19, 20, and 21.

29. What are the differences between manual and

automated testing?

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Manual Testing Automated Testing

A human tester tests the

A tester or a programmer uses
software by manually
scripts and tools that
running the test cases and
execute the software
observing and comparing
the actual and expected and compares the actual
and expected outputs.
outputs.

Since it is programmed,
automated testing is
Manual testing is not
consistently reproducible
reproducible and
and repeatable. It can be
repeatable.
executed
as many times as the tester
wants.

To set up automated testing,

For new features, a tester
there’s the initial
can quickly test the
investment required to
feature manually,
write the tests and
without much
prepare an environment
configuration and setup.
to run those tests on.
Automated testing is more
Manual testing is useful for
suitable for catching
finding bugs in the user
bugs that a human
interface or accessibility
tester would miss, such
issues.
as programming bugs,
business logic errors.
As there is no human
participation involved
Manual testing is prone to (other than writing
human errors and is tests), automated testing
slow. is more reliable. It is
much faster than
manual testing.

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Questions

30. What is a user story?

All software has a target user. A user story describes the user's
motivations and what they are trying to accomplish by using the
software. Finally, it shows how the user uses the application. It ignores
the design and implementation details.
A user story aims to focus on the value provided to the end-user
instead of the exact inputs they might enter and the expected output.
In a user story, the tester creates user personas with real names and
characteristics and tries to simulate a real-life interaction with the
software. A user story often helps fish out hidden problems that are
often not revealed by more formal testing processes.

31. What is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a means of
communication between two software components. An API abstracts
the internal workings and complexity of a software program and
allows the user of that API to solely focus on the inputs and outputs
required to use it.

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When building software, developers rarely write software from scratch

and make use of other third-party libraries. An API allows two software
components to talk to each other by providing an interface that they
can understand.
Another use of an API is to provide data required by an application.
Let's say you are building a weather application that displays the
temperature. Instead of building the technology to collect the
temperature yourself, you'd access the API provided by the
meteorological institute.

32. What are the different HTTP status codes that a

server can return?
An HTTP status code is a three-digit number that indicates the status of
an incoming HTTP request, that is, if the request has been completed
or not.

A server can send the following five types of responses for an HTTP request.

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1. Information (100 - 199): These status codes provide a temporary

response. The response consists of the status line and optional
headers and terminates by an empty line.
2. Success (200 - 299): Indicate that the incoming HTTP request was
successfully received, understood, and accepted.
3. Redirect (300 - 399): These status codes indicate further actions
the client should take to satisfy the HTTP request. It can mean that
the requested resource may have moved temporarily or
permanently. It can also redirect the client to another URL.
4. A client error (400 - 499): Indicate a problem with the client
who initiated the HTTP request.
5. Server error (500 - 599): The 5XX status code indicates a problem on
the server while processing the request.

33. What is API testing?

API testing ensures that the APIs that the software is using work as
expected. The tester writes code that makes an API request to the
server that provides the API, provides the required inputs, collects the
output from the response, and matches the actual output with the
expected output.
API testing primarily concerns the business logic of the software that’s
exposing the API. It does not involve the look and feel, accessibility, or
usability of the software. API testing can be automated to make it
repeatable and reproducible each time they run.

34. What is a test environment?

A test environment consists of a server/computer on which a tester runs
their tests. It is different from a development machine and tries to
represent the actual hardware on which the software will run; once it’s
in production.
Whenever a new build of the software is released, the tester updates
the test environment with the latest build and runs the regression
tests suite. Once it passes, the tester moves on to testing new
functionality.

35. What is test coverage?

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Test coverage is a metric that indicates how much of the source code is
covered by the tests, allowing the tester to verify the quality of their
testing. It helps the tester figure out whether they are testing
everything they're supposed to test.
Test coverage can mean different things to different people, depending
on the particulars of their testing approaches.
1. Product: It means looking at test coverage to answer the
question: Which features or the areas of the software does
your tests cover?
2. Requirements: The software might work well, but it's not useful
to the customer if it doesn't satisfy their needs. Requirements
coverage indicates how many of the requirements are tested.
3. Source Code: This is usually a developer's domain and is a
white-box testing technique. The developer can check how much
of their source code is covered by the unit tests.

36. What is meant by browser automation?

t’s a process of automatically testing a web application’s functionality in a
browser, where a program launches the browser, navigates to the
application, and interacts with the user interface by clicking buttons or
links, just like an average user would.
The only difference is that the browser automation can test this very quickly
and often, whereas the same test would take a human tester a long
time. It’s part of automated testing. Some essential tools for browser
testing include Selenium, [Link], and cypress.

37. What is A/B testing?

A/B testing is the process of testing two or more different versions of your
software with users to assess which performs better. It is a low-risk way
of testing variations of a new or existing functionality.
You can choose a part of your users to use feature A. The other group uses
feature B. Then user feedback and response are evaluated using
statistical testing to decide the final version of the feature.

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Typically, A/B testing is used to test the user experience of different

interfaces. This allows the team to quickly gather feedback and test
their initial hypothesis.

38. What is meant by Code Coverage?

Code coverage is one of the important testing metrics. It indicates the
ratio of the codebase under unit tests to the entire codebase. Code
coverage of 50% means that the unit tests cover half of the codebase.
It is crucial to keep in mind that 100% code coverage doesn’t mean that
the software is error-free or there are no bugs. It just means that the
unit tests cover all the code. However, it’s still possible that the tests
don’t test all branches that code could take or the problems with
business logic execution.

39. List some of the popular testing

tools/frameworks, providing a brief
description of each.

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1. Selenium: a web browser automation tool that automates the

test suites you need to run on a web browser.[1]
2. Protractor: An end-to-end test framework for Angular and
AngularJS applications. Protractor runs tests against your
application running in a real browser, interacting with it as a
user would.[2]
3. Cypress: A modern front-end testing tool built for the modern
web. Though it’s similar to Selenium and Protractor, it’s
architecturally different from them.[3]
4. Jasmine: This is an open-source JavaScript testing framework that
allows you to write behavior-driven tests.[4]
5. JUnit and NUnit: These are unit testing frameworks for
Java and C# programming languages, respectively.

40. What are the different types of severity you can

assign to a bug?
Though it varies depending on the size and structure of the software
development teams, typically, a bug can be assigned the following
types of severities, going from low to high:

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Low
User Interface
bugs
Accessibility
issues
Medium
Leaky abstractions
Software hangs
Users unable to perform a specific
action Boundary conditions
High

Crashing under high load

Business logic and/or calculation errors
Any user action that causes the software
to crash Exposing sensitive user data
Security problems
Loss of data
Conclusion
41. Conclusion
Software testing is an important activity that ensures quality, giving
the confidence to release the software to customers. This article
explained the testing process and its importance in software
development. It also explained different types of testing, such as
functional and non-functional testing, white-box and black-box testing,
and the benefits of each.
However, testing is only a single component of a good software
development strategy. A development team should use high coding
standards, best practices, and patterns to reduce the bug count. As a
long-term strategy, the best way to improve the testing process is to
test frequently, measure the results, gather feedback and use it to get
better.
References:

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Selenium:
[Link]
Protractor: [Link]
Cypress: [Link]
Jasmine: [Link]

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