Software testing industry presents a plethora of career opportunities for candidates, who are interested in pursuing a career in the software industry. If you are the kind of a person, who does not enjoy software programming, yet very keen about making a career in the software field, then software testing could be the right option for you. This field offers several job positions in testing, Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Control etc. However, you need to have your basics in place, so as to improve your chances of acquiring a job in this particular industry. Preparing for the Interview Before applying for any IT job, it is imperative that you have a sound understanding of the field you are hoping to venture in. Besides being technically sound, you should also keep yourself abreast with the latest tools and trends in the software testing industry. Remember, this is a volatile field, hence, the things that you learned in your curriculum may have become obsolete by the time you are ready for a job. There are several types of software testing and methodologies, which you must be thorough with, before going for an interview. Typically, your set of interview questions would depend upon the particular area of software testing you are interested in. Hence, we have divided the questions into five common categories. Software Testing Interview Questions On Product Testing

• What will be the test cases for product testing? Give an example of test plan template.
• What are the advantages of working as a tester for a product based company as opposed to a service based company?
• Do you know how a product based testing differs from a project based testing? Can you give a suitable example?
• Do you know what is exactly meant by Test Plan? Name its contents? Can you give a sample Test Plan for a Login Screen?
• How do you differentiate between testing a product and testing any web-based application?
• What is the difference between Web based testing and Client server testing?
• How to perform SOAP Testing manually?
• Explain the significance of Waterfall model in developing a product.

On Quality Assurance

• How do you ensure the quality of the product?
• What do you do when there isn't enough time for thorough testing?
• What are the normal practices of the QA specialists with perspective of a software?
• Can you tell the difference between high level design and low level design?
• Can you tell us how Quality Assurance differs from Quality Control?
• You must have heard the term Risk. Can you explain the term in a few words? What are the major components of the risk?
• When do you say your project testing is completed? Name the factors.
• What do you mean by a walk through and inspection?
• What is the procedure for testing search buttons of a web application both manually and using Qtp8.2?
• Explain Release Acceptance Testing. Explain Forced Error Testing. Explain Data Integrity Testing. Explain System Integration Testing.
• How does compatibility testing differ while testing in Internet explorer and testing in Firefox?

On Testing Scenarios

• How do you know that all the scenarios for testing are covered?
• Can you explain the Testing Scenario? Also explain scenario based testing? Give an example to support your answer.
• Consider a yahoo application. What are the test cases you can write?
• Differentiate between test scenario and test case?
• Is it necessary to create new Software requirement document, test planning report, if it is a 'Migrating Project'?
• Explain the difference between smoke testing and sanity testing?
• What are all the scenarios to be considered while preparing test reports?
• What is an 'end to end' scenario?
• Other than requirement traceability matrix, what are the other factors that we need to check in order to exit a testing process ?
• What is the procedure for finding out the length of the edit box through WinRunner?

On Automated Testing

• What automated testing tools are you familiar with?
• Describe some problems that you encountered while working with an automated testing tool.
• What is the procedure for planning test automation?
• What is your opinion on the question that can a test automation improve test effectiveness?
• Can you explain data driven automation?
• Name the main attributes of test automation?
• Do you think automation can replace manual testing?
• How is a tool for test automation chosen?
• How do you evaluate the tool for test automation?
• What are the main benefits of test automation according to you?
• Where can test automation go wrong?
• Can you describe testing activities?
• What testing activities you need to automate?
• Describe common issues of test automation.
• What types of scripting techniques for test automation are you aware of?
• Name the principles of good testing scripts for automation?
• What tools can you use for support of testing during the software development life cycle?
• Can you tell us, if the activities of a test case design can be automated?
• What are the drawbacks of automated software testing?
• What skills are needed to be a good software test automator?

On Bug Tracking

• Can you have a defect with high severity and low priority and vice-versa i.e high priority and low severity? Justify your answer.
• Can you explain the difference between a Bug and a Defect? Explain the phases of bug life cycle.
• What are the different types of Bugs we normally see in any of the projects? Also include their severity.
• What is the difference between Bug Resolution Meeting and Bug Review Committee? Who all participate in Bug Resolution Meeting and Bug Review Committee?
• Can you name some recent major computer system failures caused by software bugs?
• What do you mean by 'Reproducing a bug'? What do you do, if the bug was not reproducible?
• How can you tell if a bug is reproducible or not?
• On what basis do we give priority and severity for a bug. Provide an example for high priority and low severity and high severity and low priority?
• Explain Defect Life Cycle in Manual Testing?
• How do you give a BUG Title & BUG Description for ODD Division?
• Have you ever heard of a build interval period?

While these questions cannot assure you success in your job interview, they can sure provide you with a glimpse of what software testing interview could be like. Brush up your testing knowledge thoroughly before appearing for the interview and create a decent resume or CV. Keep yourself updated on latest trends in software testing industry even if you are starting out as a fresher. Remember, software testing is a vast field and there is really no dearth of interview questions that can be asked. You can explore the Internet for more questions and of course, the solutions.