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PayPal Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers

Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.

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01

What is the difference between GET and POST?

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GET retrieves data and has parameters in the URL; POST sends data in the body to create or process something.
02

What are the boundary values for an age field that accepts 18–60?

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Test 17, 18, 19, 59, 60 and 61.
03

How would you test a login page for security?

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Check SQL injection, brute-force lockout, password masking, session timeout, HTTPS, cookie flags, error messages not revealing users and password reset flow.
04

What is performance testing and its types?

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Measuring speed and stability: load (expected users), stress (beyond limits), spike (sudden surge), endurance (long duration) and scalability testing.
05

What makes a good bug report?

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A clear title, steps to reproduce, expected vs actual result, environment/build, severity and priority, and evidence (screenshot, video, logs).
06

What is configuration testing?

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Verifying the application works across different hardware, software and settings combinations.
07

What is API testing and why is it important?

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Testing services directly without the UI, checking status codes, responses, security and performance. It finds issues early and is faster than UI tests.
08

What is a REST API?

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An API style using HTTP methods on resources identified by URLs, usually exchanging JSON and staying stateless.
09

What is usability testing?

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Evaluating how easy and pleasant a product is to use by observing real users complete tasks and noting confusion.
10

What is a blocker bug?

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A defect that stops testing or release of a feature because no workaround exists, so it is highest priority.
11

How would you test a payment gateway?

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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.
12

What is UAT?

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User Acceptance Testing — end users or the client verify that the system meets business needs in a production-like environment before go-live.
13

What are the typical JIRA workflows for bugs?

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Statuses like To Do, In Progress, In Review, Ready for QA, Done and Reopened, with transitions that depend on the team's configuration.
14

What is risk-based testing?

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Prioritising tests by the likelihood and impact of failure, so critical areas get the most coverage when time is limited.
15

What is Agile testing?

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Testing that is continuous and collaborative within each sprint, with testers working alongside developers and product owners from the start.
16

What are test data and how do you prepare them?

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The inputs used in tests. Prepare using valid, invalid and boundary values from production-like but masked data, spreadsheets or generators.
17

How do you test database integrity using SQL?

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Verify inserted, updated and deleted rows match UI actions, check constraints, duplicates, NULLs and totals with COUNT and SUM queries.
18

How do you write a good bug title?

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State the problem, location and condition briefly, for example 'Checkout button disabled after applying a coupon on the cart page'.
19

What is defect clustering?

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The observation that a small number of modules contain most defects, so testing should focus on those areas.
20

Write SQL to verify an order was saved correctly.

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SELECT status, amount FROM orders WHERE order_id = 'ORD123'; -- compare with the UI, then check the matching rows in order_items
21

What is a test case and its components?

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A set of steps with inputs and expected results. Components: ID, title, preconditions, steps, test data, expected result, actual result and status.
22

Explain SQL joins briefly.

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INNER returns matching rows, LEFT keeps all left rows, RIGHT keeps all right rows and FULL keeps all rows from both tables.
23

How do you test an API using Postman?

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Create a request with method, URL, headers and body, send it, check status and body, add test scripts and save it in a collection.
24

What is a sprint planning meeting and what does QA contribute?

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The team selects stories for the sprint. QA helps estimate testing effort, clarifies acceptance criteria and flags dependencies and risks.
25

What do you check when testing an API in Postman?

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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.
26

What is the use of SQL GROUP BY and HAVING in test validation?

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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.
27

What is SDLC and STLC?

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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.
28

What is the difference between a test case and a test scenario?

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A scenario is a high-level thing to test (user logs in); test cases are the detailed steps and data that verify it.
29

Write test cases for a calculator app.

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Basic operations, division by zero, decimals, large numbers, order of operations, clear and backspace, repeated operations and memory keys.
30

What is the testing pyramid?

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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.
31

What is exploratory testing?

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Learning, test design and execution at the same time, without scripted cases — time-boxed sessions with a charter (e.g. 'explore checkout with coupons'), noting bugs and ideas. Great for finding edge cases.
32

How do you use JIRA in testing?

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Log and track bugs, link them to stories, build dashboards and filters with JQL, manage sprints and generate reports.
33

What is the difference between static and dynamic testing?

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Static testing reviews documents and code without executing; dynamic testing executes the software to observe behaviour.
34

Severity vs priority — with an example.

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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.
35

How do you estimate testing effort?

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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.
36

How do you test a REST API that is not ready yet?

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Use mocks or stubs from the API contract such as Swagger, write test cases early and validate again when the real service is available.
37

What is SQL and why do testers use it?

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A language to query databases. Testers use it to verify data saved by the application, prepare test data and check backend results.
38

What is defect density?

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The number of defects per size of software, for example defects per thousand lines of code or per module, used to compare quality.
39

Write test cases for an online money transfer.

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Valid transfer, insufficient balance, daily limit, wrong beneficiary, OTP failure, network drop mid-transaction, duplicate click and statement update.
40

What are severity and priority? Give examples.

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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.
41

Production has a critical bug. What are your steps?

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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.
42

What is a test closure report?

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A final document summarising what was tested, defects found and open, metrics, lessons learned and the recommendation for release.
43

Write test cases for a lift (elevator).

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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.
44

How do you test an application with no documentation?

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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.
45

What metrics do QA teams track?

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Test execution rate, pass percentage, defect density, defect leakage, defect rejection ratio, requirement coverage and automation coverage.
46

What is the difference between an error, a defect and a failure?

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A human error causes a defect in the code, and when that defect is executed it produces a failure visible to users.
47

Give an example of equivalence partitioning.

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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.
48

What is the difference between a test suite and a test run?

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A suite is a collection of related test cases; a run is one execution of a set of tests against a build.
49

What is accessibility testing?

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Checking that people with disabilities can use the product, using screen readers, keyboard navigation, colour contrast and WCAG guidelines.
50

What is a traceability matrix?

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A grid mapping requirements to test cases and defects, proving every requirement is tested.
51

Write a SQL query to find duplicate records.

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SELECT email, COUNT(*) FROM users GROUP BY email HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;
52

How do you test an application when requirements change frequently?

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Keep tests modular, prioritise by risk, use exploratory testing, automate stable parts and keep close contact with product owners.
53

What is a test scenario for the login functionality at a high level?

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Valid login, invalid login, forgot password, locked account and session handling are the main scenarios to cover.
54

What is state transition testing?

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Testing how a system moves between states based on events, for example an order going from placed to paid to shipped to delivered.
55

What is a test environment?

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The hardware, software, data and configuration where testing happens, set up to mirror production as closely as practical.
56

How do you test a REST API with authentication?

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Check access with valid, expired and missing tokens, role-based permissions, error codes and that sensitive data is never exposed.
57

What is mobile app testing and what extra checks does it need?

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Test on real devices and OS versions, interrupts such as calls, battery, network changes, gestures, permissions and app store guidelines.
58

What are common HTTP status codes?

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200 OK, 201 Created, 204 No Content, 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found, 500 Internal Server Error.
59

Functional vs non-functional testing?

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Functional testing checks what the system does (login, checkout). Non-functional testing checks how well it does it (performance, security, usability, compatibility).
60

What is use case testing?

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Designing tests from user flows described in use cases to verify complete real-world interactions.
61

What is TDD vs BDD?

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TDD writes unit tests before code to drive design; BDD describes behaviour in business language scenarios that become automated acceptance tests.
62

What is the difference between a story, epic, task and bug in JIRA?

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An epic is a large body of work; stories are user-facing slices of it; tasks are technical work items; bugs are defects.
63

Verification vs validation?

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