Google Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers

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

Clear, concise, independent, repeatable, traceable to a requirement, with precise expected results and tested data.

A scenario is a high-level thing to test (user logs in); test cases are the detailed steps and data that verify it.

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

By business criticality, usage frequency, defect history, risk and dependencies, running high-priority cases first.

A bug is behaviour that deviates from agreed requirements; an enhancement is a new or improved capability beyond the current requirements.

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

Smoke testing checks that the critical features of a new build work (broad and shallow). Sanity testing checks that a specific fix or area works after a change (narrow and deep).

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

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.

A language to query databases. Testers use it to verify data saved by the application, prepare test data and check backend results.

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.

Test execution rate, pass percentage, defect density, defect leakage, defect rejection ratio, requirement coverage and automation coverage.

A regular review where QA, development and product assess new bugs and decide severity, priority, owner and target release.

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

Valid transfer, insufficient balance, daily limit, wrong beneficiary, OTP failure, network drop mid-transaction, duplicate click and statement update.

Finding why a defect was introduced, such as unclear requirements or missed reviews, to prevent similar defects in future.

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).

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.

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

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

Verification: are we building the product right? (reviews, walkthroughs — no code run). Validation: are we building the right product? (actual testing against user needs).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

A set of steps with inputs and expected results. Components: ID, title, preconditions, steps, test data, expected result, actual result and status.

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

TDD writes unit tests before code to drive design; BDD describes behaviour in business language scenarios that become automated acceptance tests.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Measuring speed and stability: load (expected users), stress (beyond limits), spike (sudden surge), endurance (long duration) and scalability testing.