Software Testing Interview Questions for Lead Roles (₹20–25 LPA)

Send page, size, sort and filter parameters, then verify counts, order, boundaries (first, last, empty page) and invalid parameter handling.

Testing shows presence of defects, exhaustive testing is impossible, test early, defects cluster, the pesticide paradox, testing is context-dependent and absence-of-errors is a fallacy.

Static testing reviews documents and code without executing; dynamic testing executes the software to observe behaviour.

A document defining scope, approach, resources, schedule, entry and exit criteria, risks and deliverables of testing.

JIRA Query Language, used to search issues, for example project = ABC AND status = Open AND priority = High.

Designing tests from user flows described in use cases to verify complete real-world interactions.

A development model where each development phase has a matching testing phase, such as requirements with acceptance tests and design with integration tests.

Basic operations, division by zero, decimals, large numbers, order of operations, clear and backspace, repeated operations and memory keys.

Valid card and PIN, wrong PIN, three failed attempts, amount above balance, amount above daily limit, invalid denomination, machine out of cash, network failure and receipt printing.

Test 17, 18, 19, 59, 60 and 61.

Log and track bugs, link them to stories, build dashboards and filters with JQL, manage sprints and generate reports.

Break the work into modules and test cases, use past velocity or three-point estimation (optimistic, likely, pessimistic), add time for test data, environment issues, retesting and regression, and keep a risk buffer.

Verify inserted, updated and deleted rows match UI actions, check constraints, duplicates, NULLs and totals with COUNT and SUM queries.

Evaluating how easy and pleasant a product is to use by observing real users complete tasks and noting confusion.

The team selects stories for the sprint. QA helps estimate testing effort, clarifies acceptance criteria and flags dependencies and risks.

An epic is a large body of work; stories are user-facing slices of it; tasks are technical work items; bugs are defects.

A final document summarising what was tested, defects found and open, metrics, lessons learned and the recommendation for release.

Assess impact and risk, discuss with product and dev, decide to fix, defer with a workaround or delay release, and document the decision.

They let testers verify totals and counts per category, such as the number of orders per customer, and compare them with the UI or reports.

Alpha is done in-house by internal teams before release; beta is done by a limited group of real users in their own environment.

Code is built and tested automatically on each change; tests are quality gates that stop faulty builds from moving forward.

Testing that is continuous and collaborative within each sprint, with testers working alongside developers and product owners from the start.

SDLC is the full software development life cycle; STLC is the testing life cycle: requirement analysis, test planning, test design, environment setup, execution and closure.

Checking the application works across browsers, devices, operating systems, screen sizes and network conditions.

Functional testing checks what the system does (login, checkout). Non-functional testing checks how well it does it (performance, security, usability, compatibility).

For a field accepting 1–100: valid class 1–100 (test 50), invalid below 1 (test −5), invalid above 100 (test 150). One value represents each class.

A model with many fast unit tests at the base, fewer API or integration tests in the middle and a small number of UI tests at the top.

Positive cases use valid inputs to confirm expected behaviour; negative cases use invalid inputs to confirm the system handles errors gracefully.

Entry criteria are conditions that must be met to start testing (build ready, environment set); exit criteria define when testing can stop (pass rate, no critical defects).

Internationalisation tests that the product can support many languages and formats; localisation tests that a specific locale is correct for text, currency, date and layout.

Risk-based testing: cover critical user flows, recent changes and high-defect areas first. Clearly communicate the untested risks and get stakeholder sign-off.

Using experience to guess where defects likely hide, such as empty fields, special characters or unexpected sequences, and designing tests for them.

Test on real devices and OS versions, interrupts such as calls, battery, network changes, gestures, permissions and app store guidelines.

DELETE removes selected rows and can be rolled back; TRUNCATE quickly removes all rows and resets the table.

Scope (in and out), objectives, approach, environments, schedule, roles, entry/exit criteria, risks and mitigation, deliverables and tools.

An urgent patch released outside the normal schedule to fix a critical production defect, followed by regression testing and merge back to the main branch.

User Acceptance Testing — end users or the client verify that the system meets business needs in a production-like environment before go-live.

Defects found after release that testing should have caught; leakage % = defects in production / total defects x 100.

Mandatory fields, email format, password rules, duplicate email, terms checkbox, captcha, confirmation email and field length limits.

Re-testing existing features after a change. Automate stable, repetitive, high-value flows that run every release.

Valid keyword, partial match, no results, special characters, very long text, empty search, case sensitivity, spelling errors, suggestions and speed of results.

Status code, response body and schema, headers, response time, error messages for invalid input, authentication (401/403) and that data is saved in the database.

Shift left with early reviews, improve test design, automate regression, use better test data, add monitoring and learn from escaped defects.

New → Assigned → Open → Fixed → Retest → Verified → Closed, with Reopened, Rejected, Deferred and Duplicate as side paths.

A shared checklist for when a story is complete, usually including code review, tests passing, no open critical bugs and documentation updated.

Verifying the application works across different hardware, software and settings combinations.

GET retrieves data and has parameters in the URL; POST sends data in the body to create or process something.

Valid login, wrong password, empty fields, case sensitivity, max length, SQL-injection strings, password masking, 'remember me', lock-out after N attempts and the forgot-password link.

Statuses like To Do, In Progress, In Review, Ready for QA, Done and Reopened, with transitions that depend on the team's configuration.

A team meeting at the end of a sprint to discuss what went well, what did not and what to improve next.

Re-check environment, data, browser and steps; check the logs; try the reporter's setup; add video and console logs; mark it 'cannot reproduce' only after discussing with the developer, and keep monitoring.

Checking that people with disabilities can use the product, using screen readers, keyboard navigation, colour contrast and WCAG guidelines.

Moves to the chosen floor, doors open and close, door sensor stops closing on obstruction, overload alarm, emergency button, behaviour in a power cut, max capacity and the floor display.

Allowed and disallowed formats, size limits, empty file, duplicate names, special-character names, cancel upload, slow network and multiple files.

Re-check the requirement, reproduce with clear steps and evidence (screenshots, logs), discuss with the BA/PO and record the final decision.

A human error causes a defect in the code, and when that defect is executed it produces a failure visible to users.

The extent of requirements or code exercised by tests. Measure requirement coverage with a traceability matrix and code coverage with tools.

INNER returns matching rows, LEFT keeps all left rows, RIGHT keeps all right rows and FULL keeps all rows from both tables.

The observation that a small number of modules contain most defects, so testing should focus on those areas.

Sprint planning (estimate test effort), daily stand-up (status and blockers), sprint review (demo) and retrospective (improve). Testers clarify acceptance criteria early and test within the sprint.

The hardware, software, data and configuration where testing happens, set up to mirror production as closely as practical.

A suite is a collection of related test cases; a run is one execution of a set of tests against a build.

Black box tests behaviour without code knowledge; white box tests internal logic and paths; grey box uses partial knowledge of the internals.

Check SQL injection, brute-force lockout, password masking, session timeout, HTTPS, cookie flags, error messages not revealing users and password reset flow.

A defect that stops testing or release of a feature because no workaround exists, so it is highest priority.

Testing at the edges of input ranges, such as 17, 18 and 19 for an age limit of 18, since errors cluster at boundaries.

State the problem, location and condition briefly, for example 'Checkout button disabled after applying a coupon on the cart page'.

Prioritising tests by the likelihood and impact of failure, so critical areas get the most coverage when time is limited.

Check access with valid, expired and missing tokens, role-based permissions, error codes and that sensitive data is never exposed.

200 OK, 201 Created, 204 No Content, 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found, 500 Internal Server Error.

The inputs used in tests. Prepare using valid, invalid and boundary values from production-like but masked data, spreadsheets or generators.

The number of defects per size of software, for example defects per thousand lines of code or per module, used to compare quality.

Create a request with method, URL, headers and body, send it, check status and body, add test scripts and save it in a collection.

Testing how a system moves between states based on events, for example an order going from placed to paid to shipped to delivered.

Smoke tests run on every build for quick feedback; full regression runs less often, such as nightly or before release.

Reproduce and assess impact, inform stakeholders, help developers fix and verify in staging, run regression and check monitoring after the hotfix, then do a post-mortem.