EPAM Systems Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers
Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.
About EPAM Systems hiring for Software Testing roles
EPAM Systems is a global digital platform engineering and software development services company. It works on product development, quality engineering, cloud and data projects for clients in finance, life sciences, retail and software. Its India delivery centres hire for software engineers, test automation engineers, data engineers and data scientists.
For Software Testing roles, this EPAM Systems practice set focuses most on Agile, SQL and API Testing (8), Mobile Testing (5), Manual Testing Basics (4), STLC and Test Planning (4). It has 16 easy, 22 medium, 2 hard questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.
Company type
IT services
Headquarters
Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA
Main India offices
Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Gurugram
EPAM Systems Software Testing interview process
Online coding assessment
Technical interview
Technical or design round
Hiring manager round
Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.
Solved for EPAM SystemsStart practicing
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Turn on the screen reader, for example NVDA with a browser, and listen rather than look. Navigate by headings to check the structure is logical, by landmarks to find main regions and by Tab through controls. Each control should announce a clear name, role and state, such as 'Subscribe, checkbox, not checked'. Check images, form errors, dynamic updates like cart counts and dialogs. Note exactly what was announced in bug reports.
A development model where each development phase has a matching testing phase, such as requirements with acceptance tests and design with integration tests.
401 Unauthorized means the request has no valid authentication, such as a missing, expired or wrong token, so the client should log in again. 403 Forbidden means the user is authenticated but does not have permission for that resource, such as a normal user calling an admin API. Testers verify both: call without a token to expect 401, and call with a low-privilege token to expect 403.
07
What is the difference between UI automation and API automation, and which gives faster feedback?
UI automation drives the browser or app like a user, so it checks the full experience but is slower and breaks more often with design changes. API automation sends requests directly to services and checks responses, which is much faster, more stable and can run before the UI exists. API tests give faster feedback, so teams place most business rule checks at the API level and keep a smaller set of UI journeys.
08
What are focus order and visible focus, and how do you test them?
Focus order is the sequence in which keyboard focus moves through interactive elements; it should follow the visual reading order. Visible focus means the focused element clearly shows a ring or highlight. Test by pressing Tab through the page and watching where focus goes. Common bugs are focus jumping to the footer, focus going behind an open dialog and designers removing the outline with CSS, leaving keyboard users lost.
Compliance testing checks that software meets external laws, standards or internal policies, not just functional requirements. Examples include payment security standards for card data, data protection rules for personal data, accessibility guidelines and RBI rules for banking apps. Testers verify items such as consent capture, data retention, audit logs and masking. Findings are usually documented as evidence for auditors, so traceability and clear records matter as much as the tests.
INVEST is a checklist for good user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small and Testable. For testers, testable is the most important: a story must have clear acceptance criteria so you can say pass or fail. Small stories are easier to test within a sprint. If a story fails INVEST, raise it in refinement rather than discovering the gaps during testing.
12
How do you test location-based features in a mobile app?
Test with location permission allowed, denied and approximate only. Use mock location tools to simulate different cities and moving routes. Verify the app shows nearby results correctly, updates location while moving and handles GPS turned off. Check accuracy indoors and with weak GPS, battery impact of continuous tracking and that background location is used only if needed and explained to the user.
A deep link opens a specific screen inside the app from a URL, email, SMS, QR code or notification. Test that each link opens the correct screen with the right data when the app is installed, closed or running in background. If the app is not installed, it should open the store page or a web fallback. Test links that need login, expired or invalid links, and that parameters cannot be tampered with to access other users' data.
Waterfall is a sequential model: requirements, design, development, testing and deployment happen one after another. Testing starts only after development is complete, so defects in requirements or design are found late and are costly to fix. It suits small projects with stable, well-defined requirements. Its weakness for testers is the late feedback, which is why most teams now use Agile or the V-model.
17
What is the difference between an emulator, a simulator and a real device?
An emulator imitates both the hardware and software of a device, as with the Android emulator, so it behaves close to a real phone. A simulator imitates only the software environment, as with the iOS simulator, and does not reproduce the hardware. Both are free and fast for early testing. Real devices are needed for camera, battery, sensors, actual performance, network behaviour and final sign-off.
18
What is regression testing, and when do you automate it?
Scrum works in fixed sprints with planned scope, roles and ceremonies, so the tester plans testing for the sprint and aims to finish all stories by the sprint end. Kanban is a continuous flow with work-in-progress limits and no fixed sprints, so testing happens as each item reaches the test column. In Kanban, a tester watches that the testing column does not become a bottleneck and raises it when limits are hit.
It checks app behaviour on different networks: Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G, slow 2G or 3G, high latency, packet loss and no network. Also test switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data in the middle of an action, and airplane mode. The app should show loaders and clear offline messages, retry safely without duplicate actions and not freeze. Network throttling tools in developer options or proxy tools help simulate these conditions.
Check how timestamps are stored, ideally in UTC with a time zone aware type. Create a record from a user in IST and another in a different zone, then query the raw value and compare it with what each user sees on screen. Test boundaries such as orders placed just before midnight IST, which fall on the previous UTC date, and daylight saving changes for foreign users. Reports grouped by date are a common bug area.
25
The UI shows the correct order total, but the database has a different value. What do you check?
Note the order ID and compare the UI value, the API response and the database value to find where they differ. Check if the UI calculates the total on the screen instead of using the saved value, whether taxes, discounts or rounding are applied at different layers and whether a later update job changed the record. Log the bug with all three values, because invoices and reports will use the database figure.
Start with low-cost steps. Add an OWASP-based security checklist to the definition of done for stories touching login, payments or personal data. Train testers on access control, injection and session checks. Add automated dependency and vulnerability scans to the CI pipeline. Include negative authorization tests in API suites. Arrange a penetration test before major releases and track security bugs separately with clear severity rules.
Defect removal efficiency shows how many defects the team found before release. DRE = defects found before release divided by (defects found before release plus defects found after release), multiplied by 100. If QA found 90 bugs and users reported 10, DRE is 90 percent. A falling DRE means testing is missing more defects, and the escaped bugs should be analysed to improve test coverage.
Testing services directly without the UI, checking status codes, responses, security and performance. It finds issues early and is faster than UI tests.
30
What happens in the requirement analysis phase of STLC?
In requirement analysis, the testing team studies the requirements to understand what needs to be tested. They identify testable requirements, clarify doubts with the business analyst or client, decide test types needed, note automation candidates and look at environment needs. The outputs are a list of questions, a requirement traceability matrix draft and an automation feasibility note. Problems found here are the cheapest to fix.
Database testing checks that the data an application stores and reads is correct, complete and safe. It covers schema checks (tables, columns, data types), constraints and keys, data integrity after create, update and delete actions, stored procedures, triggers and views, transactions, and basic performance of heavy queries. For example, after placing an order in the UI, a tester queries the orders and order_items tables to confirm every value was saved exactly as entered.
32
Why must input validation be tested on the server and not only in the browser?
Client-side validation improves user experience by giving quick feedback, but anyone can bypass it by disabling JavaScript or sending requests directly with tools like Postman. The server must validate every input again for type, length, format and business rules. Testers check this by sending invalid data straight to the API, such as a negative quantity or a very long name, and confirming the server rejects it.
Verify reset with a registered email sends a link. Verify an unregistered email shows a generic message without revealing whether the account exists. Check the link opens the reset page and expires after the defined time. Check the link works only once. Validate new password rules and that confirm password must match. Verify login works with the new password and fails with the old one. Check resend limits and that other sessions are logged out.
Visual regression testing takes screenshots of pages or components and compares them with approved baseline images to detect unexpected layout, font, colour or spacing changes that functional assertions miss. When a difference crosses a threshold, a person reviews it and either accepts the new baseline or logs a bug. Dynamic content like dates and ads must be masked, and the same browser and screen size must be used to avoid noise.
Model answer: Most users in India now use services first on their phones, so mobile quality directly affects customers. In my project I tested a college event app on four phones and found that the registration button was hidden by the keyboard on small screens. Fixing it raised sign-ups. I enjoy the variety of devices, networks and real-life situations that mobile testing involves.
Verification: are we building the product right? (reviews, walkthroughs — no code run). Validation: are we building the right product? (actual testing against user needs).
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.
40
SQL: find rows where mandatory columns are NULL or empty in a customers table.
-- Mandatory fields: name, email, phone
SELECT id, name, email, phone
FROM customers
WHERE name IS NULL OR TRIM(name) = ''
OR email IS NULL OR TRIM(email) = ''
OR phone IS NULL OR TRIM(phone) = '';
-- Expected result: no rows
Tips to crack the EPAM Systems Software Testing interview
Revise core concepts in Java, Python or JavaScript deeply, as EPAM interviews often test language fundamentals in detail.
Prepare test automation framework design questions if applying for QA roles, including page object model and CI integration.
Read about EPAM's engineering-first identity and its learning platforms, which it highlights for career growth.
Keep a one-minute story ready for every project on your CV: problem, your part, tools, result.
Practise the hard questions on this page aloud; EPAM Systems interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are there in the EPAM Systems Software Testing interview?
Candidates usually go through 4 stages: Online coding assessment; Technical interview; Technical or design round; Hiring manager round. The exact rounds change with the role, team, location and your experience, so confirm the process with the recruiter.
Which topics should I prepare for the EPAM Systems Software Testing interview?
This practice set leans on Agile, SQL and API Testing (8), Mobile Testing (5), Manual Testing Basics (4), STLC and Test Planning (4). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most EPAM Systems interviewers ask you to walk through real work.
Are these the exact questions asked at EPAM Systems?
No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in it services interviews like EPAM Systems's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.
Where does EPAM Systems hire Software Testing professionals in India?
EPAM Systems has large teams in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Gurugram. Openings and locations change often, so check the EPAM Systems careers page and filter by city and experience.