Master Software Testing

Q: What is STLC?
A: Software Testing Life Cycle defines phases: Requirement Analysis, Test Planning, Test Case Design, Test Execution, and Test Closure.

Q: What are the 7 principles of testing?
A: Testing shows presence of defects, Exhaustive testing is impossible, Early testing, Defect clustering, Pesticide paradox, Testing is context dependent, Absence of errors fallacy.

Q: Difference between smoke and sanity testing?
A: Smoke testing checks build stability (wide & shallow), while sanity testing verifies specific functionality after fixes (narrow & deep).

Q: What is regression testing?
A: Testing existing functionality after code changes to ensure no new defects are introduced.

Q: What is boundary value analysis?
A: A technique that tests values at the edges of input ranges, where defects are most likely to occur.

Q: Explain equivalence partitioning?
A: Dividing input data into partitions where all values in a partition should behave similarly.

Q: What is shift-left testing?
A: Moving testing activities earlier in the development lifecycle to find and fix defects sooner.

Q: Difference between BDD and TDD?
A: TDD focuses on how code works (developer-centric), BDD focuses on behavior and what system does (business-centric).

Q: What is defect lifecycle?
A: The stages a defect goes through: New → Assigned → Open → Fixed → Retest → Verified → Closed.

Q: Key test metrics to track?
A: Test coverage, defect density, test execution rate, defect detection efficiency, test case effectiveness.

Q: Difference between load and stress testing?
A: Load testing checks normal expected load; stress testing pushes beyond normal capacity to find breaking point.

Q: What is penetration testing?
A: Simulating cyber attacks to identify security vulnerabilities in applications and systems.

Q: What are automation framework types?
A: Linear, Modular, Data-driven, Keyword-driven, Hybrid, and BDD frameworks.

Q: Selenium vs Cypress differences?
A: Selenium supports multiple languages/browsers; Cypress is faster, JavaScript-only, with better debugging.

Q: What is API testing?
A: Testing application programming interfaces directly at the message layer, focusing on data exchange, functionality, reliability, and performance.

Q: REST vs SOAP testing differences?
A: REST uses HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) with JSON/XML; SOAP uses XML with envelope structure and WSDL.

Q: What is Appium?
A: Open-source automation tool for native, hybrid, and mobile web applications on iOS and Android platforms.

Q: Mobile testing challenges?
A: Device fragmentation, OS versions, network conditions, battery usage, memory constraints, and touch gestures.

Q: What is continuous testing?
A: Automated testing integrated throughout the software delivery pipeline to provide immediate feedback on business risks.

Q: Benefits of containerized testing?
A: Consistent environments, faster test execution, easy scaling, and isolation of test dependencies.

Q: How do you handle flaky tests?
A: Identify root causes (timing, environment, dependencies), implement proper waits, improve test design, and use retry mechanisms judiciously.

Q: Explain your automation strategy?
A: Test pyramid approach - unit tests (70%), integration (20%), UI (10%). Focus on stable, valuable scenarios with good ROI.

Q: How do you test AI/ML models?
A: Test data quality, model accuracy, bias detection, performance under different scenarios, and model interpretability.

Q: What is chaos engineering?
A: Deliberately introducing failures into systems to test resilience and identify weaknesses before they cause outages.