LinkedIn Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Testing services directly without the UI, checking status codes, responses, security and performance. It finds issues early and is faster than UI tests.

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.

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

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

Talk to developers and users, explore the product, review similar systems, create notes and mind maps, confirm assumptions and write test cases as you learn.

Keep tests modular, prioritise by risk, use exploratory testing, automate stable parts and keep close contact with product owners.

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

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

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

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

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

A grid mapping requirements to test cases and defects, proving every requirement is tested.

Severity = impact on the system. Priority = urgency to fix. Logo misspelt on the homepage → low severity, high priority. Crash in a rarely used report → high severity, low priority.

Success, failure and pending flows, timeouts, refunds, double-click payments, every method (UPI, cards, net banking), rounding, security (no card data stored) and reconciliation with bank reports.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Severity is impact on the system; priority is urgency of the fix. A crash in a rare report is high severity, low priority; a spelling mistake in the logo is low severity, high priority.

A clear title, steps to reproduce, expected vs actual result, environment/build, severity and priority, and evidence (screenshot, video, logs).

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peer review for clarity, coverage of requirements, correct expected results, test data and traceability, then update and baseline them.

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

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.

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.

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

An API style using HTTP methods on resources identified by URLs, usually exchanging JSON and staying stateless.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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