HR questions

1.Why you are looking for shift
A.XXXX is equally a good company to work with .I learnt all the good things of Testing.
And may be this is the right time to move on. As there is logical end of project. Iam looking for good exposure and domain where I can brought in all my experience and also Iam looking forward for the different automation tools .
I went through the company details in Website..XXXXX is equally big company to hone my skills and more over Iam looking for exposure in different domains and Automation.


2.Why you shifted from Manufacturing to IT industry?
A. I have over 5 years of experience in manufacturing industry but with in the Quality side.
Quality attributes remain same and quality control remains same for both the industries.
I could not resist the transition considering the monetary benefits.
I could able to adjust easily.

3. What are your strengths?
A. My ability in prioritising the work is my big strength.More over, Iam flexible and a keen listener and Learner.

4. What is your weakness?
A.Cracking a laugh say needed to identify..But may be I will take work far too personally.

5. Can you justify salary you are looking at ?
A.It is well within the market standards.Iam looking for the salary for the qualification and experiencing iam bringing for the role.

6.Can u tell more about your family?
A. Introduce your father and Tell most of your relations are working in IT industry.
Say your family is well settled in where ever place you are attending the interview.

7. Do you have any questions for me ?
A. Not much .but I want to know what kind of projects I will be assisting on
( Wait for him to speak..Let him tell the project details….)
Then ask..When can I be productive…( This is closed question for him to say when he is giving offer letter.) Find out his reply and happily come out of interview..


Iam sure you can come out with happy face.


Based on above Q&A try to answer these questions

. What Technical Environments have you worked with?

2. Have you ever converted Test Scenarios into Test Cases?

3. What is the ONE key element of 'test case'?

4. What is the ONE key element of a Test Plan?

5. What is SQA testing? tell us steps of SQA testing

6. How do you promote the concept of phase containment and defect prevention?

7. Which Methodology you follow in your Testcase?

8. Specify the tools used by MNC companies

9. What are the test cases prepared by the testing team

10. During the start of the project how will the company come to an conclusion that tool is required for testing or not?

11. Define Bug Life Cycle? What is Metrics

12. What is a Test procedure?

13. What is the difference between SYSTEM TESTING and END-TO-END TESTING?

14. What is Traceability Matrix? Is there any interchangeable term for Traceability Matrix ?Are Traceability Matrix and Test Matrix same or Different ?

15. What is the differance between an exception and an error?

16. Correct bug tracking process - Reporting, Re-testing, Debigging, .....?

17. What is the difference between bug and defect?

18. How much time is/should be alloated for Testing out of total Development time based on industry standards?

19. What are test bugs?

20. Define Quality - bug free, Functionality working or both?

short FAQs

71. What are the kind of requirements you are referring
A. Use cases ,Business requirement documents ,Functional specifications

72. What is use case?
A. Use cases is a document defining how user interacts with system
Use case consists of Basic flow ,Alternate flows and Business rules

73.How many test cases you write for simple, Medium and complex use case?
A. For simple use case there will be around 8 TC’s ( 1 BF + 1-3 Alt flow+1-4 BR’s)
For medium use case there will be around 15 TC’s ( 1 BF+4-6 Alt flow+5 –10 BR’s)
For complex usecase there will be more than 20 TC’s(1 BF + morethan 6 Alt flow + more than 10 BR’s)

74. what is HTTPs
A/ It is secures hypertext transfer protocol for secured sites.

75.. What do you feel when automation should be involved in project
A. If more and more regressions are planned and if project have budget and timelines including resources automation will be useful for both functional testing and regression testing.
But on more cases will be useful in regression testing

76.Does automation increases cost for project?
A. Yes. But it will be economical on longer run and will be accurate in testing

77. What is the process of development of your current project?
A. We are following RUP process with iterative development and managing requirements and changes

78. How will you manage changes?
A. we are using configuration management tool for tracking and relating changes.

79. Why you shifted from manufacturing industry to IT industry?
A. Quality check up is same and quality attributes are same…Since I could able to correlate my experience I shifted to IT..

80. How good you are in database concepts?
A. Iam good in SQL in data manipulation and creating and inserting the test data.

81. What is your experience on Automation?
A. I don’t have any project experience but I have good working knowledge on winrunner in recording the scripts and modifying the TSL.
I have assisted my automation team in data driven testing.for the regression.

82.Do you have any questions for us?
If goes smooth ask like…. What kind of projects I will be assisting on

Explain more about current project

CRS is Customer report system developed for ICICI Lombard.
This is more like credit checking agency.. Which evaluates all the demographically characteristics for the customers before being insured..
The check involves in the physical ,financial and social status of customer..
Identify risk and assess the risk and rank them….and based on risk score analysis and evaluation is being carried out.supplying reports to the ICICI.
There was an existing system but change is being required in risk scores and evaluation methods.
I was involved since from inception.
Design is being carried out in UML…We use to pick our requirements in UML and understanding the scope of our requirements…
The business analyst is from ICICI..we worked out workshops in requirements finalisation and signoff.
My test cases is being reviewed and signed off at client side.
We are following the arket update tools for configuration ,Test management and Defect management
We will kick start testing in next week..

development and Testing approach you followed

We are following the iterative model. For development…and Though it is narrated for V model testing
But actually we land up in functional testing at two levels. System testing and regression testing.

Explain Loan and Mortgage domain

Loan and Mortgage:
There are different types of loans:
1.Residential
2.Personal
3.Vehicle
4.Cash Loans on Mortgage.
Loan project deals about residential loans against mortgage
A typical Loan process starts with
a. Loan application (Set of screens)
b. Loan Processing ''
c. Loan disbursement
d. Loan Repayment
e. Recovery
You can say the whole application is planned for 8 iterations and you have tested two iterations so far which involves the phases (a and b).
Typical functionality covering a (Loan application) is Applicant details, Assigning address to customer, Loan product definition and classification.
In screen for Loan application all the details for the applicant will be given and extract address from the tables already supplied in database.
There is hierarchy (Legal region) in which this address has been supplied (These are also screens where you will give address and see if this has been kept in right format.). and also you have defined Loan product.
There are different properties you can set for Loan in screens. You need to test these as well.
1.General properties
2.Repayment
3.Loan cost
4.Loan discounts
5.Loan appraisal
and Functionality covering b( Loan processing ) is Application Process, verification of Mortgage,Credit checking, Enquiries.
So you can say i have tested the functionality for first two iterations on UI screens delivered in .JSP by writing the test cases well in advance.
by means of entering the data in screens, Verifying the data retrieved on screens, Navigation of screens and the business process screen was doing.
(Always testing can be done by this way only for any of domain screens. if screens is for Loan we will say Loan domain...if this is for Hospital we will say health care domain and if screens is for enterprise Management we will say EM Domain. )
For any system, Testing can be done by
1.Writing the test cases following the requirement documents on that system.
2. Test case Review and Sign off.
3.Test case execution on delivered code.
4.Defect logging and reporting.

Do u prepare test cases only with requirements.

There should be basis in preparing TC’s.
User requirements may in any of form BRD, Functional specifications, Use case or Non functional requirements.

How to access the VSS. who give the access control.

Configuration manager will give admin rights to all the members of team and based on your access you can open the documents

Where the requirements are stored...

In requirements management tool or shared server.

How to access the requirements

We were using requirements management tool rational requisite pro version control requirements management tool..My earlier projects I use to go through with functional specifications in word form.

Tell me about testing process

Testing process starts with test objective definition, Test plan,Test case writing understanding requirements,TC specification and execution and defect logging and tracking during test execution.Test reporting and metrics collection

What is your role in your company/Project

My involvement was in entire testing life cycle.
Following the test plan, Understanding scope and requirements from requirement documents. Review in use cases,
Implementing new test case specification techniques,
Writing test cases,
Participation in TC reviews,
Test execution, Defect logging and tracking.
Client interfacing in reports and stand in defect prevention group member

What kind of metrics you are collecting

Say you are only focussed for product metrics.
Review defect density = No. of defects in review / Total no. of test cases
Test coverage = No. of testcases executed / Total No. test cases documented
Defect quality = No. defects attended/ No Of defects reported

What kind of defect management activities you have done

Say you are part of defect prevention group. Where cause analysis will be done for randomly selected defect. You will analyse the defect causes and highlights to team. (Both Dev and Test)

How you verify change requests

Say with your amount of experience working in quality side you are asked to do impact analysis from the testing side for the change request and was giving inputs for the test management the effort required.

What types of test you performed

Always restricted to functional, Integration, System and regression testing.... Speak what ever your resume speaks. Acceptance testing is done at user site with real near data and is challenging.

difference between application and product.

Application is designed for specific customer ( ICICI lambord,Rabo bank ) where as product is generalised software.( I- cube for Banking ,SAP- for enterprice management,Tally -credits and debits)
Testing mechanism remains same apart from some adjustments required in requirements documentation,and test effort.

What is UML

1.UML (Unified mark up language – Design will be done in the notations of Class diagram,Activity diagram,Usecase diagram )
2.HTML( Hyper text mark up language - Yur actual functioning screen ( See any web page for extension .html)
3.XML ( Extensible mark up language - Functioning screen - with permission of writing script in server side)

What is Testing life cycle

1.Understanding the user requirements ( Typically usecases,functional specifications,Business requirement documents ....Of course in English )
2. Understanding your scope ( Discussions with business analysts,Clients in understanding your task with in big user requirements....Business communication should be
in english )
3. Test case writing ( In either client supplied template or Built in template ..should be in english)
4. Review of test cases ( Review logs and communication should be in english )
5.Test execution ( When code is delivered you execute Test cases that are written earlier..so should be in position to undertsand what you are doing )
6.Defect logging and Tracking ( If any defects in code you will open the defects and follow with defect life cycle..Usually in english )
7.Test reporting ( Reporting what you have done ..Typically in English )

What is configuration management

Configuration management - is an sytem which can be seen by all the project members about the changes ,Modifications and project activities.

CM tools - Rational clear case,VSS ( Godrej Alamarah ,Bajaj alamarah Laga)
Application servers - Weblogic,Websphere.IIS( The place where developed aplication ( EX: ICICI net banking application) is stored
Screens - HTML, XML ( ends with .html,.xml( Hypertext mark up language ,Extensible mark up language)..Next time when ever you open any screen in
Net( Ex eenadu.com,Cricketinfo.com.etc ,all this pages are in either HTML.ASP(Active server pages),JSP(Java server pages)

What is metrics you have developed

Since we are focussing for CMM4 assessment ..There are strict implications on metrics.
I as experienced member use to gather and record the metrics for product.
Process metrics such as Schedule variance and effort variance is being done by project management.
But for the testing side iam responsible in producing metrics such as Review defect density,test coverage,Test effectiveness,Undocumented test cases
( Refer my earlier Tips for the formulas on basis of which you produced metrics)
Iam part of defect prevention group where we evaluate the root cause analysis.

What is User Acceptance testing (UAT)

There are two type of testing for User Acceptance Testing(UAT)
Alpha Testing and Beta testing.
Alpha testing :It will perform in internal company only, Here few developers, Testers and client will involve in this. They will create an virtual environment(like real time environment) in the company itself and they will conduct a testing in the presence of client.
Beta Testing :It will perform in client place,here few developers, Testers and client will involve here ,it will conduct by Client in real environment with real time data.

impartan question

If you find a defect at the final stage,it means application is going to be deliver at that time you find that defect,It will takes lot of time to fix that defect so PM said ignore that defect, then what is the status of that defect, Do you close it or open?

ans)As a Tester if you find any defect then you shouldn’t close that until unless its fix or if it is not a defect. It means still it remains open stage

After develop Test cases, How do you say, Have you covered all the requirements or not

After writing the test cases, you will prepare Trace ability Matrix ,based on that we will know either we covered all the requirements or not.
Trace ability Matrix : Matching between the requirements and Test cases. There should be at least one test case for each requirement.

How will you get the requirement at the initial stage

we will get the Requirement documents from that we will develop test case.
If you want to take some risks can say that we will High and Low level Design documents from that we will develop Use cases from these we will develop Test cases.

What is testing model you r following or what is your testing architecture

Explain all the steps in V Model right hand side(related to test side).

What is the life cycle(SDLC) you r following

Better to tell V model and explain all the steps.

What are the Block box testing techniques

There 4 Block box testing techniques
1) Classification tree
2)Boundary value analysis
3)Error guessing
4)Equivalence partitioning

Check these things any institute material.Explain all these techniques clearly with examples.Always better to explain with your project examples.

They will give any one window or one scenario, they can ask write the test cases for that condition

if they ask to tell then simply you can say the conditions what you r going to cover,If they ask to write,then first write a test case template and write according to that.

What is your Test case Template

Sr NO, Test case Id, Test case Description, Step Number, Step Description ,Expected Result, Result, Remarks.

Note : YOU can define your own template these are not fixed in any where.

Let us say an Example for Very High priority and Low Severity and vice versa

You prepare some examples for both conditions from your project.
A.During the testing of current application in the window Risk evaluation, Risk Id is unique.
But during testing it is found that it is duplicated assigned severity and priority as high
Duplicate check was failing.

While ranking the risks , The field length was expected to be 3 digits but it is not set so.
It is accepting 8 digits like the case in prototype.
I assigned priority as Low and is been attended.

What is Priority

It is depend on time, at what time they need to fix the defect.
For this also same you can use Very High, High, Medium, Low like that or 1,2,3,4
This depends on your company. f Development is with other company then Severity and Priority are defined in service level agreement.

What is Severity

How much it is affecting the functionally based on that we will give Severity
YOU can use Very High, High, Medium, Low like that or 1,2,3,4

What is your Defect Template

Sr Number, Date ,Defect ID, Description, Severity, Priority, Raised by, Reported to, Module, attachments, Remarks

Note : what ever the Templates you r telling prepare all templates once and by hard them, Define your own template that is company dependent and project dependent also, you can argue with them in my company we following like this only.

Still he is not accepting what will you do

I will try to convince 2 to 3 times still if he don’t accept,Every week we have team meeting with my PM and all,then we will raise this type things in that meeting,then my PM will decide either really it is a defect or not based on that we will commit.

Developers didn’t accept your defect what you will do

I will send attach a snap shots, reproducing steps and with proper description.

what is the life cycle of Defect

First initially its NEW, you reporting to your TL he will change the status as OPEN, Developers will receive the defect status, they have 4 options (Accept,Fix,Deffer,Reject).after receiving the developer if he accept that defect he will give status as Accept its just like acknowledgement,after that they will fix once they fix that status change to FIX ,Defer it is a defect they will fix in next build.Reject ,they are not accepting as a defect that.

How do you assign defect to developers

Once we find a defect we will do retest again and we will intimate to my TL with defect sheet, He will send to Developers.If you r using Defect tracking tool,My TL will raise the defect in defect tracking tool,if you r putting more than 3 + Exp you can say I will log the defect in Defect tracking tool.If you r not using any tool for defect tracking then you can say that my TL will maintain all defects in one ExcelSheet after reporting to developers and he will track the defects .Once he receive the updates then he will intimate to tester(who tested that previously)then we will do retest that one.If it is a tool,once developer fix that defect they will update in tool,once they will update tool automatically generate an email and send to corresponding persons.

What is the team structure in your company

Say PM,TL,Sr Testers and Testers.
If you r putting big company and well known to all ,then you should have know what is the company structure.just like in my company(TechMahindra) Jr Technical Associate, Technical Associate,Sr Technical Associate ,TL(Team Lead),PL(Project Leader),PM(Project Manager),SPM(Sr Project Manager),GH(Group Head),CH(Corporate Head) like this every company have their own structure,so find that and use the same. Don’t use my company structure because no company use this structure.
If you r putting very small company then you can say, Jr Tester,Tester,Sr Tester,TL,PM,SPM,Corporate Manager.

Tell me about your self

Your Name, Total Exp, where you worked and working,What ever you mentioned in your summary i.e related exp ,next your current project and your responsibilities in that project.They may start questions at any stage of your induction or they may wait until you complete.
a)Usually They will start ask questioning when you come to your project from that they will start to ask about your project,what is your role and responsibility in that project
b)How big this project. (prepare your own answer based on your project)
c)How long you r in this project,what is the actual start date of project. (prepare your own answer based on your project)
d)Howmany people in your team.( prepare your own answer based on your project)
ans : generally say 5 to 6 people.
e)where you r standing in your team
and : say as Sr Test Engineer if you r more than 3 years,if you r below that say as Test engineer.

Who will initiate the work and how they will intimate you

My TL will initiate the work, we have central access for my project ,we will kept every document in that.My TL will send an email to us,If is there any new document or for initiation of work.First he will send an email.we have meeting in that TL will decide what I need to do.We will report the work to TL through mail.We will place all the document in my project central server whatever the work we completed daily and we will send daily status report to my TL.

Defirent Types of testings

System Testing :After completion of all modules and before going to release we will do this. i.e. Functional,Regression all r parts of this Testing.
Do you cover all the Test cases again in this Testing.
Eg : There are two 4 components .Integration of 4 components is called as a Product ,so when we are testing all to gether it doesn’t come under system testing.
When you are testing individual that component then it will System Testing.
In this again first you will do Functional ,regression and all, after completion of all ,you will do the System Testing that time you need to concentrate about window/Homepage of that application, In that whatever the colours ,edit boxes are some thing,it will come under UI(one type)it means Cosmetic things and you will test over all functionally of that application, Here you don’t consider all conditions for any input.

Regression Testing: Once you find the defects then you will report those defects to Developer after you will get a new build with fixes, then you will do the testing on that
Module. This is Regression Testing.

Which type of Test cases you will cover in this?
We will cover whatever the Test cases failed and impacted Test cases ,If we have time then we will execute all test cases also.

What is the difference between the Build and Release ?
Build : whatever the things are rotated internal the company is called build. i.e. once Developers give to testers it is build after that you will find some defects and you will send to developers after fix they will send you build.


Release :Once its delivered to client, then again with new additions come outside it is release .
Eg: Take any Automation tools ,you will get different versions, these are releases.
Winrunner7.0 winrunner 8.0,winrunner9.0.

Retesting : Same functionality with multiple inputs.
Eg : In Calculator you want to test multiply ,then you will take different set of inputs like that.

Smoke Testing : When you got the build, before going to accept that build you will do Smoke Testing to accept that build. It will check the basic end to end functionality of the application. It will touch all the modules but it doesn’t concentrate in depth to any module.

Sanity Testing : When you got new build after fixes, then you r going to test basic functionality of that module before going to accept. It will cover end to end basic functionality and it concentrates on failed test cases in depth.Here we will cover some of Regression Test cases ,So we can say this as subset of Regression Testing.

Integration Testing : Integration between module to module or component to component. After completion individual modules you will do the integration between module module.
Some times one module with one company or team, other module with other company or team, end of that integration is required between those modules.

GUI : Graphical User Interface Testing .whatever the objects we are testing it will come under GUI. Eg : text box,edit box,drop list box etc…

How the communication flows in your project

We have internal mailing and status meetings on weekly basis and there is also activity tracking.

How you can optimise your test cases

Ensuring one to one coverage of requirements and also new Test case specification techniques.

How many test cases you will write

For simple use case – 6-8 Tc’s depends on Alt flows and Business rules
For Medium use case – 8-12 Tc’s depends on Alt flows and Business rules
For Complex use case – 12-20-8 Tc’s depends on Alt flows and Business rules

How you will manage the requirements and its changes

By using Requirements management tool.
By classifying and establishing the relations between requirements

Severity and Priority

Severity determines the seriousness of defect and Priority determines the attendance of defect.
Urgent - Cannot perform testing
High - May Impact another defect so require to attend
Medium - should be attended
Low - Can attend Later

test plan and the contents of the test plan

Test plan is detailed document speaks about testing events.
It details
Introduction and Scope
Critical success Factors & risks
Testing strategy and Approach
Test environment & Tools
Entry and Exit criteria’s
Test effort and resource Scheduling
Defect resolution
Metrics Management and Deliverables

trace ability between different testing and test cases

We use to follow standard naming convention and also we were using test management tool for storing all our test scripts.

T map approach

Test management approach suggested by Sogeti. Involves the Test process improvement in the phases of Preparation, Specification,Execution and completion

What you have done in the WINRUNNER

We were using Winrunner for regression testing .
After start up we were recording the scripts using test cases,
Modifying the scripts,
Data driven testing
Test case execution.

RUP methodology

Rational unified process implements the best process of software development.
Develop iteratively
Manage changes
Manage requirements
Visual model
Ensure quality

In Unified Mark Up Language design ,I was finding the requirements in going through Static and Dynamic diagrams.
Static Diagrams – Class diagram,Use case diagram
Dynamic diagram – Sequence diagram, Activity diagram

explain loan and mortgage domain

The domain starts with Loan application, Loan process,Loan agreement,
Loan disbursement Loan appraisal, Repayment ,Recovery.

configuration management

Configuration Management is common work place for the project team where any new change and project communication flows.Attends more visibility across the team and common access.

interaction with development, support and release team

Iam interfaced with Business analyst in understanding the requirements and sign off of Test case.And also Part of release team I use to Map the contents of release in note before actual testing starts.And also I was participant in defect prevention group and used to co-ordinate during defect tracking.

What are the metrics you derived

I was filling the product metrics derived by client like Undocumented test cases,
Review defect density, Test case coverage, Defect Quality.

What are the different risks you are faced and how you have mitigated

The types of risks I have faced are Technology Risks, Support risk..I use to do Gap analysis in understanding the scope definition. One to one with Business analysts and designer.

How will you document the bugs

We were using Test director for my earlier project as Test management tool as well as Defect management tool.We were using the built in Template in logging the defects.
The Template is Defect description, Module, Detected By,Assigned to,Defect Type,
Severity, priority. Reproducible…and system created unique ID for defect.

How will you maintain the analytical approach

The amount of defect finding experience helps me in quantifying the defects and also I ensure the sufficient test coverage during Testing.Always there use to be defects apart from defects raised through test case execution.

What is Functional Testing, Unit, Integration, System testing, Regression Testing

Checking the functionality of system in compliance with user requirements is called functional testing.

Checking the functionality of single unit for compliance with user requirements is called Unit testing

Checking the functionality of multiple units together for compliance with user requirements is called Integration testing

Checking the functionality of system as a whole for compliance with user requirements is called System testing

Checking the functionality of system if any change, defect fixes has effected the existing functionality is called regression testing.

What is a SDLC

Software development life cycle starts with
Gathering the requirements
Analysis & Design
Code and development
Testing and Implementation

What are the testing mechanisms you are worked?

I have an experience testing web based and client server applications in different levels.Functional testing, Regression Testing, Integration testing

'test life cycle'

Testing Life cycle starts with understanding Plan and scope, Test case specification,
Review and Sign off, Test environment set up, Test execution, Defect cycle, Test completion.Summary and reporting.

How the review process going in your earlier project

After initial test scripts development, there use to be internal review. We were using the review log for record and after then will validated by Business analyst from client side.I use to co-ordinate with him for updates and Sign off.
Signed off TC’s are being moved to Test management tool.

test case definition

The logical sequence of steps to carry out testing is called test case and Test case definition is the phase suggested by Tmap approach where Test case template, approach, design and review has been planned and My involvement was pretty much there in the last project

quality management skills

I have more than xx years of experience in quality assurance and control?I was in quality check side in manufacturing industry for a while and then transited in to IT industry The quality characteristics of Reusability, Maintainability and acceptability a, Functionality, Effectiveness and efficiency I use to check in Day to day activities.With this amount of experience I can rather say my quality management is right up there.