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Tech Mahindra 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 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.
02

How do you test pagination, sorting and filtering through an API?

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Send page, size, sort and filter parameters, then verify counts, order, boundaries (first, last, empty page) and invalid parameter handling.
03

How do you reduce the number of defects slipping into production?

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Shift left with early reviews, improve test design, automate regression, use better test data, add monitoring and learn from escaped defects.
04

What goes into a test plan?

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Scope (in and out), objectives, approach, environments, schedule, roles, entry/exit criteria, risks and mitigation, deliverables and tools.
05

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.
06

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.
07

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.
08

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.
09

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.
10

What is decision table testing?

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List conditions and actions in a table and cover every combination of conditions (rules) — ideal for business rules like loan approval: salary > X AND credit score > Y → approve.
11

What is localisation and internationalisation testing?

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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.
12

What are the levels of testing?

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Unit, integration, system and acceptance testing, moving from individual components to the complete product in front of users.
13

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).
14

What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE?

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DELETE removes selected rows and can be rolled back; TRUNCATE quickly removes all rows and resets the table.
15

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.
16

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.
17

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.
18

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.
19

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.
20

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.
21

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.
22

What is defect leakage?

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Defects found after release that testing should have caught; leakage % = defects in production / total defects x 100.
23

What is software testing and why is it needed?

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Evaluating software to find defects and confirm it meets requirements. It reduces risk, protects users and saves the cost of fixing bugs after release.
24

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.
25

What is the V-model?

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A development model where each development phase has a matching testing phase, such as requirements with acceptance tests and design with integration tests.
26

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.
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 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.
29

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.
30

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.
31

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.
32

How do you handle a bug found late in a release cycle?

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Assess impact and risk, discuss with product and dev, decide to fix, defer with a workaround or delay release, and document the decision.
33

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
34

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.
35

Difference between black box, white box and grey box testing?

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Black box tests behaviour without code knowledge; white box tests internal logic and paths; grey box uses partial knowledge of the internals.
36

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'.
37

Scrum ceremonies and the tester's role?

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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.
38

What is root cause analysis for defects?

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Finding why a defect was introduced, such as unclear requirements or missed reviews, to prevent similar defects in future.
39

What is a test plan and what does it contain?

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A document defining scope, approach, resources, schedule, entry and exit criteria, risks and deliverables of testing.
40

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.
41

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.
42

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.
43

What is JQL?

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JIRA Query Language, used to search issues, for example project = ABC AND status = Open AND priority = High.
44

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.
45

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.
46

Write test cases for a search box.

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Valid keyword, partial match, no results, special characters, very long text, empty search, case sensitivity, spelling errors, suggestions and speed of results.
47

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.
48

What are positive and negative test cases?

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Positive cases use valid inputs to confirm expected behaviour; negative cases use invalid inputs to confirm the system handles errors gracefully.
49

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.
50

Smoke vs sanity testing?

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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).
51

How do you review test cases?

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Peer review for clarity, coverage of requirements, correct expected results, test data and traceability, then update and baseline them.
52

What are the characteristics of a good test case?

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Clear, concise, independent, repeatable, traceable to a requirement, with precise expected results and tested data.
53

Explain the bug life cycle.

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New → Assigned → Open → Fixed → Retest → Verified → Closed, with Reopened, Rejected, Deferred and Duplicate as side paths.
54

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.
55

What is a bug triage meeting?

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A regular review where QA, development and product assess new bugs and decide severity, priority, owner and target release.
56

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.
57

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.
58

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.
59

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.
60

What are SQL constraints?

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Rules such as NOT NULL, UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY and CHECK that keep data valid and consistent.
61

Write test cases for an ATM withdrawal.

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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.
62

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.