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Top 60 QA Interview Questions | DevAssure

· 10 min read
Anush Chandra Shekar
Anush Chandra Shekar
SEO & Digital Marketing, DevAssure

This blog presents a comprehensive list of the top 60 QA interview questions to help aspiring QA professionals excel in their interviews. The questions are categorized into two sections: Elementary and Advanced. Reviewing and practicing these questions will equip software testers with the knowledge and confidence needed to stand out from other candidates.

Elementary QA Interview Questions​

The Elementary section features 35 essential QA interview questions that frequently appear in job interviews. Designed for aspiring QA professionals and those with a few years of experience, these questions often come up during the pre-screening or initial screening rounds. Mastering these fundamentals will not only boost your confidence but also help you make a strong first impression and move smoothly through the early stages of the hiring process.

1. What is Software Testing?​

Software testing is the process of evaluating and verifying a software application to ensure it meets the specified requirements and is free of defects. It involves executing the software to identify bugs, validate functionality, and check performance, security, and usability.

2. What are the different types of Software Testing?​

There are two main types:

  • Manual Testing

    1. Exploratory Testing
    2. Black Box Testing
    3. White Box Testing
    4. Ad-hoc Testing

  • Automation Testing

    1. Unit Testing
    2. Integration Testing
    3. Regression Testing
    4. Performance Testing

For an in-depth comparison of Manual Testing vs. Automation Testing, explore DevAssure’s comprehensive guide by clicking the hyperlink above. This resource provides valuable insights to help you understand the key differences, advantages, and best use cases for both testing approaches.

3. What is the difference between Verification and Validation?​

  1. Verification: Ensures the software meets design specifications (static testing).

  2. Validation: Ensures the software meets customer expectations (dynamic testing).

4. What are Functional and Non-functional Testing?​

  1. Functional Testing: Ensures that the application functions as expected (e.g., unit testing, integration testing).

  2. Non-functional Testing: Evaluates aspects like performance, usability, and security.

5. What is the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)?​

STLC includes:

  • Requirement Analysis

  • Test Planning

  • Test Case Development

  • Test Environment Setup

  • Test Execution

  • Test Closure

6. What are the different levels of Testing?​

  1. Unit Testing – Testing individual components.

  2. Integration Testing – Testing interactions between modules.

  3. System Testing – Testing the complete system.

  4. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) – Testing the application in a real-world scenario.

7. What is Visual Regression Testing?​

Visual Regression Testing is a type of software testing that ensures the visual appearance of an application remains consistent after code changes. It helps detect unintended UI changes, such as misaligned elements, font inconsistencies, color shifts, or layout distortions, that may occur due to updates, bug fixes, or new feature additions.

8. What is Smoke Testing?​

Smoke Testing is a preliminary test to check whether the software’s basic functionalities work before further testing.

9. What is Sanity Testing?​

Sanity Testing is a subset of regression testing that focuses on verifying bug fixes or small changes in the application.

10. What is Exploratory Testing?​

Exploratory Testing is an informal testing approach where testers explore the application without predefined test cases.

11. What is Ad-hoc Testing?​

Ad-hoc Testing is an unstructured approach to finding defects without formal test cases.

12. What is Black Box Testing?​

Black Box Testing evaluates software functionality without knowledge of the internal code.

13. What is White Box Testing?​

White Box Testing examines the internal structure, logic, and code of the software.

14. What is Grey Box Testing?​

Grey Box Testing is a mix of Black Box and White Box testing where testers have limited knowledge of the internal code.

15. What is Test Plan?​

A Test Plan is a document that outlines the testing scope, objectives, schedule, resources, and test deliverables.

16. What is Test Case?​

A Test Case is a set of conditions and inputs designed to verify a particular functionality.

17. What is Test Scenario?​

A Test Scenario is a high-level concept of what to test, covering multiple test cases.

18. What is Defect Life Cycle?​

The Defect Life Cycle includes:

  1. New

  2. Assigned

  3. Open

  4. Fixed

  5. Retested

  6. Closed/Reopened

19. What is Severity and Priority in Testing?​

  1. Severity: Impact of the defect (Critical, Major, Minor).

  2. Priority: Importance of fixing the defect (High, Medium, Low).

20. What is Boundary Value Analysis (BVA)?​

BVA tests the edges of input values (e.g., testing 0, 1, and 100 if the valid range is 1–100).

21. What is Equivalence Partitioning?​

Equivalence Partitioning divides input data into valid and invalid partitions to reduce test cases.

22. What is Usability Testing?​

Usability Testing evaluates how user-friendly an application is.

23. What is Performance Testing?​

Performance Testing checks the application’s speed, stability, and scalability.

24. What is Load Testing?​

Load Testing evaluates system performance under expected user loads.

25. What is Stress Testing?​

Stress Testing assesses system performance under extreme conditions.

26. What is Security Testing?​

Security Testing identifies vulnerabilities and ensures data protection.

27. What is Compatibility Testing?​

Compatibility Testing ensures software runs on different devices, OS, and browsers.

28. What is Localization Testing?​

Localization Testing checks whether the software supports different languages and cultures.

29. What is Globalization Testing?​

Globalization Testing ensures software works across various regions without localization.

30. What is Alpha and Beta Testing?​

  1. Alpha Testing: Done in a development environment before release.

  2. Beta Testing: Done by end users in a real-world setting.

31. What is Monkey Testing?​

Monkey Testing is random testing to find unexpected crashes.

32. What is the difference between Test Strategy and Test Plan?​

  1. Test Strategy: High-level document describing the testing approach.

  2. Test Plan: Detailed document with specific test cases and execution steps.

33. What is Agile Testing?​

Agile Testing is a testing approach integrated with Agile development, ensuring continuous feedback.

34. What is Continuous Testing?​

Continuous Testing is the automated execution of tests in the CI/CD pipeline.

35. What are the principles of Software Testing?​

  • Testing shows defects.

  • Exhaustive testing is impossible.

  • Early testing saves time and cost.

  • Defects cluster together.

  • Pesticide Paradox (same tests lose effectiveness over time).

  • Testing depends on context.

  • Absence of errors is a fallacy.

Advanced Questions​

Remaining 25 Questions Cover Advanced Topics, Test Automation, and Industry-Specific QA Concepts.

36. What is Automation Testing?​

Automation Testing is the process of executing test cases using automation tools to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and speed up testing.

37. What are the advantages of Automation Testing?​

  • Faster execution

  • Increased test coverage

  • Reusability of test scripts

  • Reduces human error

  • Supports regression testing

  • DevAssure (end-to-end test automation tool)

  • Appium (Mobile Applications)

  • JMeter (Performance Testing)

  • Postman (API Testing)

  • TestNG, JUnit (Test Frameworks)

  • Cypress (Web UI Testing)

  • Playwright (Modern Web Automation)

39. What is Selenium?​

Selenium is an open-source tool for automating web applications. It supports multiple browsers and programming languages like Java, Python, and C#.

40. What is the difference between Selenium WebDriver and Selenium Grid?​

  1. WebDriver: Executes tests on a single browser instance.

  2. Grid: Runs tests in parallel on multiple machines and browsers.

41. What are locators in Selenium?​

Locators are used to identify web elements. Examples include:

  1. ID: driver.findElement(By.id("username"))

  2. Name: driver.findElement(By.name("password"))

  3. Class Name: driver.findElement(By.className("login-btn"))

  4. XPath: driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@id='email']"))

42. What is the Page Object Model (POM) in Selenium?​

POM is a design pattern where each webpage is represented as a class, and elements are defined within it to improve maintainability and reusability.

43. What is TestNG, and why is it used?​

TestNG is a testing framework for Java that provides features like parallel execution, grouping, annotations, and reporting.

44. What is the difference between API Testing and UI Testing?​

  1. API Testing: Validates request-response data, security, and performance of APIs.

  2. UI Testing: Verifies graphical user interface elements and interactions.

45. What are common API Testing tools?​

46. What is Continuous Integration (CI) in Testing?​

CI is a practice where developers merge code frequently, and automated tests run to ensure stability (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions).

47. What is Continuous Deployment (CD)?​

CD automates the release process, ensuring new changes are deployed to production seamlessly.

48. What are the key Performance Testing metrics?​

  • Response Time (Time taken to load a request)
  • Throughput (Requests processed per second)
  • Latency (Delay before a response starts)
  • Error Rate (Failed transactions vs. total transactions)

49. What is the difference between Load Testing and Stress Testing?​

  • Load Testing: Simulates expected user load to check performance.

  • Stress Testing: Pushes the system beyond its limits to check stability.

50. What is Penetration Testing?​

Penetration Testing is a security assessment to find vulnerabilities in a system before attackers exploit them.

51. What is Database Testing?​

Database Testing ensures data integrity, consistency, and accuracy by validating queries, schema, and performance.

52. What are common SQL queries used in Testing?​

  • SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 30;

  • UPDATE orders SET status = 'Shipped' WHERE order_id = 123;

  • DELETE FROM products WHERE id = 10;

53. What is Mobile Testing?​

Mobile Testing verifies functionality, performance, and security of mobile apps across different devices and OS (Android/iOS).

54. What are common Mobile Testing tools?​

55. What is the difference between Real Device and Emulator Testing?​

  • Real Device Testing: Done on physical devices (accurate but costly).

  • Emulator Testing: Simulated environment for faster execution but may not catch real-world issues.

56. How do you handle flaky test cases?​

  1. Improve element locators

  2. Increase wait times (Explicit Waits)

  3. Re-run failed tests automatically

  4. Use stable test environments

57. What is Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in Testing?​

RCA identifies the underlying cause of defects to prevent recurrence. Common methods:

  1. 5 Whys Technique

  2. Fishbone Diagram

58. What are the best practices for writing effective Test Cases?​

  1. Keep them simple and clear

  2. Cover positive and negative scenarios

  3. Use reusable test steps

4 .Ensure traceability to requirements

59. What is Shift-Left Testing?​

Shift-Left Testing involves testing early in the development lifecycle to catch defects sooner and reduce costs.

60. What are common QA challenges in Agile projects?​

  1. Changing requirements

  2. Short test cycles

  3. Integration with DevOps

  4. Continuous Testing challenges

These 60 QA interview questions and answers cover manual testing, automation testing, performance, security, mobile, API, and Agile testing concepts.

Additional Resources​

Beyond all this, here are some topic-specific blogs to help you prepare more effectively for your interviews:

  1. API Testing Interview Questions

  2. What is Software Testing?

  3. What is Automation Testing?

  4. What are Flaky Tests?

  5. Key practices of Development Testing

  6. What is Test Driven Development (TTD) ?

  7. SDET Interview Preparation