Interview Help

Software Testing Frequently Asked Questions

2010-01-21T21:09:00.001-08:00

Black box testing
not based on any knowledge of internal design or code. Tests are based on requirements and functionality.

White box testing
based on knowledge of the internal logic of an application’s code. Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths, conditions.

Unit testing
the most ‘micro’ scale of testing; to test particular functions or code modules. Typically done by the programmer and not by testers, as it requires detailed knowledge of the internal program design and code. Not always easily done unless the application has a well-designed architecture with tight code; may require developing test driver modules or test harnesses.

Incremental integration testing
continuous testing of an application as new functionality is added; requires that various aspects of an application’s functionality be independent enough to work separately before all parts of the program are completed, or that test drivers be developed as needed; done by programmers or by testers.
Integration testing
testing of combined parts of an application to determine if they function together correctly. The ‘parts’ can be code modules, individual applications, client and server applications on a network, etc. This type of testing is especially relevant to client/server and distributed systems.

Functional testing
black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application; this type of testing should be done by testers. This doesn’t mean that the programmers shouldn’t check that their code works before releasing it (which of course applies to any stage of testing.)
System testing
black box type testing that is based on overall requirement specifications; covers all combined parts of a system.
End-to-end testing
similar to system testing; the ‘macro’ end of the test scale; involves testing of a complete application environment in a situation that mimics real-world use, such as interacting with a database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems if appropriate.
Sanity testing
typically an initial testing effort to determine if a new software version is performing well enough to accept it for a major testing effort. For example, if the new software is crashing systems every 5 minutes, bogging down systems to a crawl, or destroying databases, the software may not be in a ’sane’ enough condition to warrant further testing in its current state.
Regression testing
re-testing after fixes or modifications of the software or its environment. It can be difficult to determine how much re-testing is needed, especially near the end of the development cycle. Automated testing tools can be especially useful for this type of testing.
Acceptance testing
final testing based on specifications of the end-user or customer, or based on use by end-users/customers over some limited period of time.
Load testing
testing an application under heavy loads, such as testing of a web site under a range of loads to determine at what point the systems response time degrades or fails.
Stress testing
term often used interchangeably with ‘load’ and ‘performance’ testing. Also used to describe such tests as system functional testing while under unusually heavy loads, heavy repetition of certain actions or inputs, input of large numerical values, large complex queries to a database system, etc.
Performance testing
term often used interchangeably with ’stress’ and ‘load’ testing. Ideally ‘performance’ testing (and any other ‘type’ of testing) is defined in requirements documentation or QA or Test Plans.
Usability testing
testing for ‘user-friendliness’. Clearly this is subjective, and will depend on the targeted end-user or customer. User interviews, surveys, video recording of user sessions, and other techniques can be used. Programmers and testers are usually not appropriate as usability testers.
Install/uninstall testing
testing of full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall processes.
Recovery testing
testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.
Security testing
testing how well the system protects against unauthorized internal or external access, willful damage, etc; may require sophisticated testing techniques.
Compatibility testing
testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/operating system/network/etc. environment.
Exploratory testing
often taken to mean a creative, informal software test that is not based on formal test plans or test cases; testers may be learning the software as they test it.
Ad-hoc testing
similar to exploratory testing, but often taken to mean that the testers have significant understanding of the software before testing it.
User acceptance testing
determining if software is satisfactory to an end-user or customer.
Comparison testing
comparing software weaknesses and strengths to competing products.
Alpha testing
testing of an application when development is nearing completion; minor design changes may still be made as a result of such testing. Typically done by end-users or others, not by programmers or testers.
Beta testing
testing when development and testing are essentially completed and final bugs and problems need to be found before final release. Typically done by end-users or others, not by programmers or testers.
Mutation testing
a method for determining if a set of test data or test cases is useful, by deliberately introducing various code changes (’bugs’) and retesting with the original test data/cases to determine if the ‘bugs’ are detected. Proper implementation requires large computational resources.

SQL Interview Questions and Answers

2009-09-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

What is RDBMS?
Relational Data Base Management Systems (RDBMS) are database management systems that maintain data records and indices in tables. Relationships may be created and maintained across and among the data and tables. In a relational database, relationships between data items are expressed by means of tables. Interdependencies among these tables are expressed by data values rather than by pointers. This allows a high degree of data independence. An RDBMS has the capability to recombine the data items from different files, providing powerful tools for data usage.

What is normalization?
Database normalization is a data design and organization process applied to data structures based on rules that help build relational databases. In relational database design, the process of organizing data to minimize redundancy. Normalization usually involves dividing a database into two or more tables and defining relationships between the tables. The objective is to isolate data so that additions, deletions, and modifications of a field can be made in just one table and then propagated through the rest of the database via the defined relationships.

What are different normalization forms?
1NF: Eliminate Repeating Groups
Make a separate table for each set of related attributes, and give each table a primary key. Each field contains at most one value from its attribute domain.
2NF: Eliminate Redundant Data
If an attribute depends on only part of a multi-valued key, remove it to a separate table.
3NF: Eliminate Columns Not Dependent On Key
If attributes do not contribute to a description of the key, remove them to a separate table. All attributes must be directly dependent on the primary key
BCNF: Boyce-Codd Normal Form
If there are non-trivial dependencies between candidate key attributes, separate them out into distinct tables.
4NF: Isolate Independent Multiple Relationships
No table may contain two or more 1:n or n:m relationships that are not directly related.
5NF: Isolate Semantically Related Multiple Relationships
There may be practical constrains on information that justify separating logically related many-to-many relationships.
ONF: Optimal Normal Form
A model limited to only simple (elemental) facts, as expressed in Object Role Model notation.
DKNF: Domain-Key Normal Form
A model free from all modification anomalies.
Remember, these normalization guidelines are cumulative. For a database to be in 3NF, it must first fulfill all the criteria of a 2NF and 1NF database.

What is Stored Procedure?
A stored procedure is a named group of SQL statements that have been previously created and stored in the server database. Stored procedures accept input parameters so that a single procedure can be used over the network by several clients using different input data. And when the procedure is modified, all clients automatically get the new version. Stored procedures reduce network traffic and improve performance. Stored procedures can be used to help ensure the integrity of the database.
e.g. sp_helpdb, sp_renamedb, sp_depends etc.

What is Trigger?
A trigger is a SQL procedure that initiates an action when an event (INSERT, DELETE or UPDATE) occurs. Triggers are stored in and managed by the DBMS.Triggers are used to maintain the referential integrity of data by changing the data in a systematic fashion. A trigger cannot be called or executed; the DBMS automatically fires the trigger as a result of a data modification to the associated table. Triggers can be viewed as similar to stored procedures in that both consist of procedural logic that is stored at the database level. Stored procedures, however, are not event-drive and are not attached to a specific table as triggers are. Stored procedures are explicitly executed by invoking a CALL to the procedure while triggers are implicitly executed. In addition, triggers can also execute stored procedures.
Nested Trigger: A trigger can also contain INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE logic within itself, so when the trigger is fired because of data modification it can also cause another data modification, thereby firing another trigger. A trigger that contains data modification logic within itself is called a nested trigger.

What is View?
A simple view can be thought of as a subset of a table. It can be used for retrieving data, as well as updating or deleting rows. Rows updated or deleted in the view are updated or deleted in the table the view was created with. It should also be noted that as data in the original table changes, so does data in the view, as views are the way to look at part of the original table. The results of using a view are not permanently stored in the database. The data accessed through a view is actually constructed using standard T-SQL select command and can come from one to many different base tables or even other views.

What is Index?
An index is a physical structure containing pointers to the data. Indices are created in an existing table to locate rows more quickly and efficiently. It is possible to create an index on one or more columns of a table, and each index is given a name. The users cannot see the indexes, they are just used to speed up queries. Effective indexes are one of the best ways to improve performance in a database application. A table scan happens when there is no index available to help a query. In a table scan SQL Server examines every row in the table to satisfy the query results. Table scans are sometimes unavoidable, but on large tables, scans have a terrific impact on performance.

Clustered indexes define the physical sorting of a database table’s rows in the storage media. For this reason, each database table may have only one clustered index.
Non-clustered indexes are created outside of the database table and contain a sorted list of references to the table itself.

What is the difference between clustered and a non-clustered index?
A clustered index is a special type of index that reorders the way records in the table are physically stored. Therefore table can have only one clustered index. The leaf nodes of a clustered index contain the data pages.
A nonclustered index is a special type of index in which the logical order of the index does not match the physical stored order of the rows on disk. The leaf node of a nonclustered index does not consist of the data pages. Instead, the leaf nodes contain index rows.

What are the different index configurations a table can have?
A table can have one of the following index configurations:

No indexes
A clustered index
A clustered index and many nonclustered indexes
A nonclustered index
Many nonclustered indexes

What is cursors?
Cursor is a database object used by applications to manipulate data in a set on a row-by-row basis, instead of the typical SQL commands that operate on all the rows in the set at one time.
In order to work with a cursor we need to perform some steps in the following order:
Declare cursor
Open cursor
Fetch row from the cursor
Process fetched row
Close cursor
Deallocate cursor

What is the use of DBCC commands?
DBCC stands for database consistency checker. We use these commands to check the consistency of the databases, i.e., maintenance, validation task and status checks.
E.g. DBCC CHECKDB – Ensures that tables in the db and the indexes are correctly linked.
DBCC CHECKALLOC – To check that all pages in a db are correctly allocated.
DBCC CHECKFILEGROUP – Checks all tables file group for any damage.

What is a Linked Server?
Linked Servers is a concept in SQL Server by which we can add other SQL Server to a Group and query both the SQL Server dbs using T-SQL Statements. With a linked server, you can create very clean, easy to follow, SQL statements that allow remote data to be retrieved, joined and combined with local data.
Storped Procedure sp_addlinkedserver, sp_addlinkedsrvlogin will be used add new Linked Server.

What is Collation?
Collation refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared. Character data is sorted using rules that define the correct character sequence, with options for specifying case-sensitivity, accent marks, kana character types and character width.

What are different type of Collation Sensitivity?
Case sensitivity
A and a, B and b, etc.

Accent sensitivity
a and á, o and ó, etc.

Kana Sensitivity
When Japanese kana characters Hiragana and Katakana are treated differently, it is called Kana sensitive.

Width sensitivity
When a single-byte character (half-width) and the same character when represented as a double-byte character (full-width) are treated differently then it is width sensitive.

What’s the difference between a primary key and a unique key?
Both primary key and unique enforce uniqueness of the column on which they are defined. But by default primary key creates a clustered index on the column, where are unique creates a nonclustered index by default. Another major difference is that, primary key doesn’t allow NULLs, but unique key allows one NULL only.

How to implement one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships while designing tables?
One-to-One relationship can be implemented as a single table and rarely as two tables with primary and foreign key relationships.
One-to-Many relationships are implemented by splitting the data into two tables with primary key and foreign key relationships.
Many-to-Many relationships are implemented using a junction table with the keys from both the tables forming the composite primary key of the junction table.

What is a NOLOCK?
Using the NOLOCK query optimiser hint is generally considered good practice in order to improve concurrency on a busy system. When the NOLOCK hint is included in a SELECT statement, no locks are taken when data is read. The result is a Dirty Read, which means that another process could be updating the data at the exact time you are reading it. There are no guarantees that your query will retrieve the most recent data. The advantage to performance is that your reading of data will not block updates from taking place, and updates will not block your reading of data. SELECT statements take Shared (Read) locks. This means that multiple SELECT statements are allowed simultaneous access, but other processes are blocked from modifying the data. The updates will queue until all the reads have completed, and reads requested after the update will wait for the updates to complete. The result to your system is delay(blocking).

What is difference between DELETE & TRUNCATE commands?
Delete command removes the rows from a table based on the condition that we provide with a WHERE clause. Truncate will actually remove all the rows from a table and there will be no data in the table after we run the truncate command.

TRUNCATE
TRUNCATE is faster and uses fewer system and transaction log resources than DELETE.
TRUNCATE removes the data by deallocating the data pages used to store the table’s data, and only the page deallocations are recorded in the transaction log.
TRUNCATE removes all rows from a table, but the table structure and its columns, constraints, indexes and so on remain. The counter used by an identity for new rows is reset to the seed for the column.
You cannot use TRUNCATE TABLE on a table referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint.
Because TRUNCATE TABLE is not logged, it cannot activate a trigger.
TRUNCATE can not be Rolled back using logs.
TRUNCATE is DDL Command.
TRUNCATE Resets identity of the table.

DELETE
DELETE removes rows one at a time and records an entry in the transaction log for each deleted row.
If you want to retain the identity counter, use DELETE instead. If you want to remove table definition and its data, use the DROP TABLE statement.
DELETE Can be used with or without a WHERE clause
DELETE Activates Triggers.
DELETE Can be Rolled back using logs.
DELETE is DML Command.
DELETE does not reset identity of the table.

Difference between Function and Stored Procedure?
UDF can be used in the SQL statements anywhere in the WHERE/HAVING/SELECT section where as Stored procedures cannot be.
UDFs that return tables can be treated as another rowset. This can be used in JOINs with other tables.
Inline UDF’s can be though of as views that take parameters and can be used in JOINs and other Rowset operations.

When is the use of UPDATE_STATISTICS command?
This command is basically used when a large processing of data has occurred. If a large amount of deletions any modification or Bulk Copy into the tables has occurred, it has to update the indexes to take these changes into account. UPDATE_STATISTICS updates the indexes on these tables accordingly.

What types of Joins are possible with Sql Server?
Joins are used in queries to explain how different tables are related. Joins also let you select data from a table depending upon data from another table.
Types of joins: INNER JOINs, OUTER JOINs, CROSS JOINs. OUTER JOINs are further classified as LEFT OUTER JOINS, RIGHT OUTER JOINS and FULL OUTER JOINS.

What is the difference between a HAVING CLAUSE and a WHERE CLAUSE?
Specifies a search condition for a group or an aggregate. HAVING can be used only with the SELECT statement. HAVING is typically used in a GROUP BY clause. When GROUP BY is not used, HAVING behaves like a WHERE clause. Having Clause is basically used only with the GROUP BY function in a query. WHERE Clause is applied to each row before they are part of the GROUP BY function in a query. HAVING criteria is applied after the the grouping of rows has occurred.

What is sub-query? Explain properties of sub-query.
Sub-queries are often referred to as sub-selects, as they allow a SELECT statement to be executed arbitrarily within the body of another SQL statement. A sub-query is executed by enclosing it in a set of parentheses. Sub-queries are generally used to return a single row as an atomic value, though they may be used to compare values against multiple rows with the IN keyword.

A subquery is a SELECT statement that is nested within another T-SQL statement. A subquery SELECT statement if executed independently of the T-SQL statement, in which it is nested, will return a result set. Meaning a subquery SELECT statement can standalone and is not depended on the statement in which it is nested. A subquery SELECT statement can return any number of values, and can be found in, the column list of a SELECT statement, a FROM, GROUP BY, HAVING, and/or ORDER BY clauses of a T-SQL statement. A Subquery can also be used as a parameter to a function call. Basically a subquery can be used anywhere an expression can be used.

Properties of Sub-Query
A subquery must be enclosed in the parenthesis.
A subquery must be put in the right hand of the comparison operator, and
A subquery cannot contain a ORDER-BY clause.
A query can contain more than one sub-queries.

What are types of sub-queries?
Single-row subquery, where the subquery returns only one row.
Multiple-row subquery, where the subquery returns multiple rows,.and
Multiple column subquery, where the subquery returns multiple columns.

10 Signs Your Interview Went Well

2009-07-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

You landed an interview, dressed to impress and had great conversation, and you think you might actually have a shot at getting a job offer.

But is there any way to actually know if the interview was in your favor?

Many times, job seekers are so focused on what they did wrong in an interview that they don't think about the many things they did right. While no signs are 100 percent foolproof, there are definitely some indicators that you have won over your interviewer.

Justin Honaman, director of customer intelligence at Coca-Cola Customer Business Solutions, says that although you may think you've executed well in the interview, don't stop the process there. Even if all signs point to a job offer, you should follow up effectively to complete your career transition.

Here are 10 signs that indicate you rocked your interview:

1. Round two
The easiest way to gauge short-term success is if the interviewer asks you to return for another round of interviews. If he wasn't interested, he would be evasive as whether or not you could expect to hear back from someone. "The hiring manager does not want to waste any more time interviewing you if you are not a fit," Honaman says. "Invitation to the next round is a win!"

2. References please
Why would you be asked for references unless someone cared to learn more about you? "A firm will not spend the time to do background checks and talk with references if you are out of the candidate pool," Honaman says. "Provide specific, knowledgeable references and bring those to the interview."

3. Meet the team
It's a good sign when the hiring manager chooses to introduce you to the team on the spot, or mentions that there are some people she would like you to meet. If she wasn't interested, she wouldn't take the time in making acquaintances.

"Leaders are protective of their team and will not risk introducing a candidate if they are not a potential fit to join the organization," Honaman says. Remember that the hiring manager may request feedback from the team on their first impressions of you, so be nice to anyone you meet.

4. What are the transition steps?
When a company is interested in you, you'll be asked things like the amount of time needed for a transition or what noncompete agreements might be in place, Honaman says. "If the hiring manager is interested in moving forward with an offer, they will typically ask what steps need to be taken for your departure from your current organization so that you can assume the new role," he says.

5. Dollars and sense
Depending on what stage of the interview process you're in, it could be a good thing if you're asked about salary expectations. It demonstrates that the company might be willing to invest in you. Honaman suggests answering this question with caution:

"You can have the absolute best interview ever and be dead in the water if you answer this question incorrectly," he says. "The question comes in two forms: 'What are your salary expectations?' or 'What is your current compensation?' Arrive at any interview with current compensation details written down for your own reference -- if asked -- and have an idea of how you will answer this question."

6. HR smiles
The human resources representative or recruiter is generally a good indication of how things went in the interview process. Take note of his comments after the interview; he is your No. 1 contact during the process and is often a guide to the projected outcome, Honaman says.

7. Your turn
When the interviewer spends a lot of time answering your questions, it's a signal that he wants to sell you on the business, the team and position rather than you continuing to pursue the role, Honaman says. "In most interviews, the hiring manager will ask if you have any questions as standard procedure, but spend less time with questions and answers if the interview has not gone well in their mind."

8. Let's keep rolling
If hiring managers are uninterested, they typically look for ways to wrap up the interview. "At times, interviews will go well beyond the allotted time as the hiring manager or interview team wants to know more about you, or share with you more about the organization and role," Honaman says. If they are not interested in your candidacy, they won't drag out the interview.

9. Nonverbals speak
Nonverbal signals are often a good predictor of interview performance. Pay close attention to the interviewer(s) and observe such nonverbal cues as taking notes, smiling, nodding or asking probing questions, Honaman says. "At the same time, if an interviewer is taking few notes, looking at their watch repeatedly [or] not asking detailed questions, the interview may not be going well."

10. Cultural fit
The more a hiring manager talks about how you'll fit into the mold at a company, the better. "Most leaders are looking for candidates that can easily fit into a team environment or operate well as an individual contributor," Honaman says. "If the hiring manager is interested in your taking the position, they will share additional details about the culture and shift into 'sales' mode on the organization."

Again, none of these are sure-fire signals that you've gotten the job. Plus, even though you did everything right, there is always the chance that someone else did, too. But if you continually see a couple of the above signals you'll know you've at least got a shot.

Source: MSN Careers (7/1/2009)

QA Tester Interview Questions

2008-12-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

Below is the list of questoins that might help you prepare for the SDET or QA positions. For others questions and post please check the older post in the blog.

1. Can you tell me about yourself?

Answer: In my QA career, I have been working on various system platforms and operating systems like Windows 95, Windows 2000, Windows XP and UNIX. I have tested applications developed in Java, C++, Visual Basic and so on. I have tested Web-based applications as well as client server applications.
As a QA person, I have written Test Plans, Test Cases, attended walkthrough meetings with the Business Analysts, Project Managers, Business Managers and QA Leads. I have attended requirement review meetings and provided feedback to the Business Analysts. I have worked in different databases like Oracle and DB2, wrote SQL queries to retrieve data from the database. As far as different types of testing is concerned, I have performed Smoke Testing, Functional Testing, Backend Testing, Black Box Testing, Integration Testing, Regression Testing and UAT (User Acceptance Testing) Testing. I have participated in Load Testing and Stress Testing.
I have written defects as they are found using ClearQuest and TestDirector. Once the defects were fixed, retested them and if the passed, closed them. If the defects were not fixed, then reopened them. I have also attended the defect assessment meetings as necessary.
In the meantime, a continuous interaction with developers was necessary.
This is pretty much what I have been doing as a QA person.

2. What did you do in your last project?

Answer: In my last project, the application was a web-based application developed in Java platform. As a QA Person, I wrote Test Plans from the requirement documents and Use Cases. I performed Smoke Testing, Functional Testing, Backend Testing, Black Box Testing, Integration Testing, Regression Testing and UAT (User Acceptance Testing). I have participated in Load Testing and Stress Testing. I attended several walkthrough meetings for requirement reviews and provided feedback to the Business Analysts. Mostly, I was in the backend testing, which required writing SQL queries directly to the database.
Besides these, I wrote defects using ClearQuest. Once the defects were fixed, retested them and if the passed, closed them. If the defects were not fixed, then reopened them.

3. Have you written Test Plan? What is a Test Plan? What does it include?
Answer: Yes.

What is a Test Plan?

Answer: A Test Plan is a document that describes the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of intended testing activities. It identifies test items, the features to be tested, the testing tasks and who will do each task (roles and responsibilities) and any risks and its solutions.
Click here to see how the Test Plan looks like.

What does it include?

Answer: A Test Plan includes Heading, Revision History, Table of Contents, Introduction, Scope, Approach, Overview, different types of testing that will be carried out, what software and hardware will be required, issues, risks, assumptions and sign off section.

4. Have you written Test Cases? Answer: Yes.
What is a Test Case? What does it include?

Answer: A Test Case is a document that describes step-by-step process how to test the application. A Test Case includes Test Case ID, Steps Description, Expected Output, Actual Output, Pass/Fail, and Remarks. (Remember, this is NOT a part of Test Plan. It is a separate document written using Excel. In some companies, they use Rational TestManager or TestDirector. But for companies, who do not have these tools, use Excel sheet. In t he example below, it is in the Excel sheet)

Did you use any tools to write Test Cases?

Answer: Yes. I have used TestDirector (now called QualityCenter) and Rational TestManager to write Test Cases. However, in most of the companies, I used Excel sheet.
Click here to see a sample Test Case.

How many Test Cases did you write in your last project?
Answer: I wrote about 1100 Test Cases in my last project. (The reasonable number of Test Cases varies from 500 to thousands. The number 1100 test cases can be completed in 6-month project duration).

What document did you refer to write the Test Cases?

Answer: Requirement document. (NOTE: It can also be Use Cases, or Design Document. It depends company to company. In some company, they use Use Cases. In some companies, they use Requirement Documents and in companies, they use Design Document. However, in practical scenario, most of the companies have requirement document at least).

5. Did you have a situation where you did not have any documents (no requirement document, no Use Cases, or no Design Document) and you had to write the Test Cases? How did you write the Test Cases in this situation?

Answer: Yes. I have been to that kind of scenarios several times. There were companies where they had no documents at all. In that case, I had to discuss the application scenario and functionalities with the Business Analysts or developer. On the basis of that discussion, I prepared a document in consultation with Business Analysts and Developers and then started writing Plans and Test Cases.

6. What you worked with Use Cases before?

Answer: Yes. I have written Test Cases using Use Cases.

Can you tell me what a Use Case is?

Answer: A use case is a document that describes the user action and system response for a particular functionality. Click here to see how a Use Case looks like.

7. What is SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)?

Answer: SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) is the process of developing software through business needs, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance. Software has to go through various phases before it is born which are as follows:

(i)Generating a Concept – A concept comes from the users of the software. For example, a Pizza Hut may need software to sell pizza. An Indian store may need software to sell its newly arrived movies or grocery. The owner of the company feels that he needs software that would help him in tracking his expenses and income as well as enhance the selling process. This is how the concept is generated. The owner will specifically tell the software company what kind of software he would need. In other words, he will specify his requirements.
(ii) Requirements analysis – After the owner (user) knows his requirements, then it is given to a software team (company) who will analyze the requirement and prepare requirement document that will explain every functionality that are needed by the owner. The requirement document will be the main document for developers, testers and database administrators. In other words, this is the main document that will be referred by everyone. After the requirement documents, other detailed documents many be needed. For example, the architectural design which is a blueprint for the design with the necessary specifications for the hardware, software, people and data resources.
(iii) Development: After the detailed requirement documents (some companies have design documents instead of requirement documents), the developers start writing their code (program) for their modules. On the other hand, the testers in the QA (Quality Assurance) Department start writing Test Plans (one module=1 test plan), test cases and get ready for testing.
(iv) Testing: Once the code (programs) are ready, they are compiled together and to make a build. This build is now tested by the software testers (QA Testers)
(v) Production: After testing, the application (software) goes into production (meaning, it will be handed over to the owner).
(vi) End: And one day, the owner will have say bye to the software either because the business grows and this software does not meet the demand or for some reason, the he does not need the software. That’s the end of it.

8. What is Business Requirement Document (BRD)?

Answer: It is a document that describes the details of the application functionalities which is required by the user. This document is written by the Business Analysts.

9. What is Business Design Document?

Answer: It is the document that describes the application functionalities of the user in detail. This document has the further details of the Business Requirement Document. This is a very crucial step in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Sometimes the Business Requirement Document and Business Design Document can be lumped together to make only one Business Requirement Document.

10. What is a Module?

Answer: A ‘Module’ is a software component that has a specific task. It can be a ‘link’, which can go inside to its component detail. (This is NOT a very common question for the interview. This is just for your knowledge, if you don’t know what a module is.)

11. What is walk-through meeting?

Answer: Once the Business Analysts complete the requirement document, they call a meeting to explain how the functionalities work, what the process is in the designed application and other details. The Business Analysts explain the high level functionalities of the application (software) that is going to the built. The participant members in the meeting may provide feed back and various point of views are expressed. This is walk-through meeting.

12. What is a Use Case and what does it include?

Answer: A Use Case is a document that describes the user action and system response for a particular functionality. It includes cover page, Revision History, Table of Contents, Flow of Events (normal flow and alternative flow), Exceptions, Special Requirements, Pre-conditions and Post-conditions. Click here to see how a Use Case looks like.

13. What is Build?

Answer: When each of the different modules of software is prepared, the Configuration Management Team (CMT) puts them in a single folder and it is called the ‘Build’. . (This is NOT a very common question for the interview. This is just for your knowledge, if you don’t know what a build is.)
Click here to see how the build is prepared.

14. What does the Build Deployment mean?

Answer: When the Build so prepared by the CMT (Configuration Management Team), it is deployed (put) to different Test Environments, it is called the Build Deployment.

15. What is Test Strategy?

Answer: A Test Strategy is a document that describes the test efforts, test configuration, testing tools to be employed, test environments, exit criteria and entry criteria for testing, what different types of testing will be carried out (for example, smoke test, regression, load test, functional test and so on) types of testing to be carried out and system requirement. The Test Manager or Lead writes it. (Remember, the Tester does NOT write Test Strategy. A Tester writes Test Plans and Test Cases)
Click here to see how a Test Strategy looks like

16. Are Test Plan and Test Strategy same type of documents?

Answer: No, they are different documents. A Test Plan is a document that collects and organizes test cases by functional areas and/or types of testing in a form that can be presented to the other teams and/or customer (see the definition on this page for Test Plan) where as the Test Strategy (see the definition in the above question) is the documented approach to testing. The tester prepares test Plan whereas the Manager or lead prepares the Test Strategy. Both are important pieces of Quality Assurance processes since they help communicate the test approach scope and ensure test coverage while improving the efficiency of the testing effort.

17. What does Test Strategy include?

Answer: It includes introduction, Test Objectives, Test Process, Test Methodology, Test Scope, Release Criteria for Testing (exit criteria), Test Lab configuration, resource and schedule for test activities, acceptance criteria, test environment, test tools, test priorities, test planning, executing a test pass and types of test to be performed.

18. What are different types of software testing and define them?Answer: Different types of testing are:

1) Unit testing
2) Shakeout testing
3) Smoke testing (Ad-hoc testing)
4) Functional testing
5) Integration testing
6) Regression testing
7) System testing
8) Load testing
9) Stress testing
10) Performance testing
11) User acceptance testing
12) Black box testing
13) White box testing
14) Alpha testing
15) Beta testing
(Note: Except the Shakeout testing and Unit testing (which are respectively done by the CMT (Configuration Management Team) and Coder/Developer), all other testing are done by the QA tester.)
What is Unit testing? It is a test to check the code whether it is properly working or not as per the requirement.
What is Shakeout testing?
This test is basically carried out to check the networking facility, database connectivity and the integration of modules. The Configuration Management team, who prepare builds for test environments, normally does this test. They also test whether the major components of the software are not broken. This test is done BEFORE the build is deployed in the test environment. After the shake out testing, the next step is smoke testing (which is done by the testers after the build is deployed in the test environment)

What is smoke testing? This test is done when the build is just prepared (fresh build) and deployed in the test environments. This is basically an ad hoc test to check roughly to make sure the major functionalities are not broken. It is the preliminary a test carried out by the QA tester. After the smoke test, the testers perform functional testing.
What is Functional testing? It is a test to check whether each and every function of that application is working as per the requirement (remember this work “as per requirement document”-you must say this in the interview). It is a major test where 80% of the tests are done. In this test, the Test Cases are executed (or run).
What is Integration testing? It is a test to check whether all the modules are combined together or not and working successfully as specified in the requirement document. (Just for your information: Each developer works on different modules. When they finish their code, the configuration management team puts them together and prepares a build. We, as testers, need to make sure that these modules, which are now combined, work as per requirement document)

What is Regression testing? When a new functionality is added to the software, we need to make sure that the added new functionality does not break the other parts of the application. Or when defects (bugs) are fixed, we need to make sure that the bug fix has not broken the other parts of the application. To test this, we perform a repetitive test, which is called regression test.
What is System testing? When testers complete testing (The testers test the application in the test environments, meaning they test with the test data only, NOT with the real data), the application (software) has to be tested in the real environment. What it means is, since the testers test it in the test environment with the test data, we have to make sure that the application works well in the real environment with the real data. In test environment, some of the things cannot be simulated or tested. Al though the test environment is very similar to the production (real) environment, we need to make sure that we get a smooth delivery in the real system as well (As servers are different and database is different, things may not work as expected when the application is moved from test environment to production environment)
What is Load testing? It is a test to check the user’s response time for number of users using any one scenario (single business process) of the same application at the same time.
What is Performance testing? It is a test to check the user’s response time for number of users using multiple scenarios (multiple business process) of the same application at the same time.
(Did you notice the difference between Load Testing and Performance testing? What is it? See the highlighted bold letters)

What is Stress testing? In this type of testing the application is tested against heavy load such as complex numerical values, large number of inputs, large number of queries etc. which checks for the stress/load the applications can withstand.

What is User acceptance testing (UAT)? In this type of testing, the software is handed over to the user in order to find out if the software meets the user expectations and works as it is expected to. In this testing, the tester may do the testing or the clients may have their own testers (For example, banks may have their own teller employees who can test the application).

What is Black box testing? It is test where a tester performs testing without looking into the code. (OR it is a testing method where the application under test is viewed as a black box and the internal behavior of the program is completely ignored. Testing occurs based upon the external specifications. Also known as behavioral testing, since only the external behavior of the program is evaluated and analyzed.)

What is White box testing? It is a test where a tester looks into the code and performs the testing.
What is Alpha testing? In this type of testing, the users are invited at the development center where they use the application and the developers note every particular input or action carried out by the user. Any type of abnormal behavior of the system is noted and rectified by the developers.

What is Beta testing? In this type of testing, the software is distributed as a beta version to the users and users test the application at their sites. As the users explore the software, in case if any exception/defect occurs that is reported to the developers.

19. What is the difference between Load Testing and Performance Testing?

Answer: Basically Load, Stress and Performance Testing are the same. However, Load testing is the test to check the users’ response time of number of users of any one scenario of the application whereas Performance Testing is the test to check the user response time for multiple scenario of the same application.

20. What was the process of QA testing in your company where you worked for the last time? (Or As far as the QA process is involved, what was the testing process in your company?)

Answer: The QA testing process that was followed in my last company where I worked was as follows:
First of all the Business Requirement Document was prepared as per the client’s requirement (with the muck-up). Then on the basis of the requirement document, QA Team wrote Test Plans, Test Cases and Test Strategies. The developers started coding their modules (started programming). Once the developers finished coding, the Configuration Management Team compiled the code together and prepared a build. This Build is now deployed to different testing environments where different types of testing were performed. Once the defects were found, the testers would log the defect using the tools available (like TestDirecotor, ClearQuest and so on. For the companies who cannot afford these expensive tools, they can use Excel sheet as well). Once the defects are logged, then those defects would be discussed in the defect status meeting and would take further actions (meaning, closing, reopening, retesting of defects etc).

21. What is Change Control?

Answer: It is a document that describes the additional functionalities that are added after the Business Requirement Document is signed off. It can be updated in the old business requirement document or it can be a separate document. (For example, in the Business Requirement Document, on the login page, there are User Name and Password fields. The owner of the software wants to add, “If you do not have User Name and Password, please click here.” This is a change. But this change came after the document is signed off by the Project Managers. Now this is a change control and comes as a separate document. (It is also called Change Request, Modification Request).

22. Have you written Change Control?

Answer: Yes. There was a situation where in one page of an application in my previous project, when the user clicked “Contact” link, it would pop up a different window (new separate window). But it was NOT the way it was described in the requirement document. In the requirement document, when the user clicks “Contact” link, then it should navigate to another page (Not a separate new window. Then was it a problem? Functionality wise, it was NOT a problem, however, on all the other pages, when the user clicked “Contact” link, the system would navigate to next page (not a separate window). So, it was NOT CONSISTENT with the other functionalities on the other pages. Therefore, it was a consistency issue. I reported this as a bug. But the Project Manager asked me to write it as a Change Control (because it requires more budget to fix this issue) so that he can address this issue at a later time. So I wrote this as a Change Control. (However, it is NOT a job of a tester to write change control. It’s the business analyst’s job)

23. What is Backend Testing?

Answer: It is a test to check whether the data displayed in the GUI front-end matches with the particular data in the backend.

24. Have you done any Backend Testing and/or if you did, how did you do it in your last project?

Answer: Yes. I have done backend testing. When I was working in my last project, this was my scenario of backend testing:

I was working on Reports. It was the scenario of testing one application used in the bank, where a customer comes to a bank’s front desk, the bank teller is requested to open a Checking Account. The associate then asks for the personal information about the customer, which, are the primary data, such as: First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Address and Social Security Number. The associate then puts these primary data of that particular customer into the computer, which then afterwards batch-processed (normally happens in the middle of the nigh). Now, after the batch process, the information of that customer goes into the central database in the XML format. The data now from the database goes to ETL (Extract-Transform-Load). (ETL is a tool made by two companies ‘AbInitio’ and ‘Informatica’) ETL now processes the job to create a file (output file) to produce the report. The file is now displayed in the GUI Front End report with the help of Business Object (or Crystal Reports. These are tools that display data in GUI format). In the GUI Front End report, let us say, if for January, the deposit of that person was displayed as $ 900.00. Then my job was to validate whether this $900 is correct or not. I validated this data by writing SQL queries directly to the database. The data pulled from my SQL query should match to the data in the GUI front end. In other words, my SQL query should also display $900. If it matches, it is well and good. If it doesn’t, then it’s a bug. This is how I have done my Back End Testing.

How can you be sure that the query you wrote is correct? Or how do you know that the data you pulled from the database is correct?

Answer: I write SQL query based on the requirement document. In the requirement document, various conditions are given for the query. Based on those conditions, I write SQL query. Therefore, anything different from the requirement document is definitely a defect.

25. From you resume, I see that you have been working in one place for a very short period of time. This raises me questions why. Can you explain why?

Answer: As a consultant, I am hired for a certain period of time (for project duration only), normally for 6 months to 1 year. Once the project is over, I needed to move to another project. That’s why you see me in the resume jumping frequently here and there.

26. What is done on the first day of the work?

Answer: On the first day, the Manager will come to receive at the lobby. He/she will welcome you; tell where you will be sitting. The next thing will be will show you login name and password and they want to make sure that the login name and password works so that you can use your computer. Then the Manager will tell you where the documents are located in the network drive (or shared drive, or ClearCase, or Sharepoint—different companies use different software for this purpose). Once you find the documents, then you will ask them what you will be working on what are the related documents that you should read. You start reading the documents, which lasts normally one week or more.

27. What do you do on the job every day? What is the first thing you go when you go to work on a day? (What is your routine job?)

Answer: Go to work, have a cup of coffee (coffee is free in any work place), then check emails. I will check in my calendar whether there is any meeting for the day. If there is anything urgent work that needs to take care of, then I will start with that job. Otherwise, I will start what is left from yesterday on a priority basis.
(This question was asked to one of my friends while he was attending interview in one of the companies. When they asked him this question, his answer was, he said, “I start testing”. This was his wrong answer. The answer varies in which phase of testing the application is. If the application is in very beginning state-meaning that the coding has just begun, then the tester’s job will be to analyze and read the requirement documents, write test plans and write test cases. Probably attend walkthrough meeting and so on. However, the daily routine job would be, as mentioned above, check emails, read documents, attend meeting and so on. It’s not that as soon as you enter the office, you start testing)

What do you do if you have any questions to ask? Who do you ask?

At the beginning, we all panic, what kind of questions to ask? What if they ask questions that I don’t know? Is it OK to ask questions? What do I do if I don’t know how to do the job I am assigned to? and so on.
As mentioned earlier, on the first day, your Manager will give you the system (computer) (They normally call system, not computer), will tell you what the User ID and Password is, where are the QA documents on the shared drive (or Network drive) are and so on. They will definitely ask you to read a lot of documents at the beginning (And you must read read and read those documents AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. At the beginning, allocate about 2 hours extra at home for reading these documents. This habit will put you on the top of your job). These documents are normally design specification document (DSD). Different companies call it with different names, for example, Requirement Specification Document (RSD) and so on. After reading the documents, you will be asked to write Test Plans or Test Cases (Don’t panic. The Test Plans and Test Cases templates will be give by your manager or test lead and they will tell you what to do and how to do because different companies have different formats they follow. If they don’t have one, then you can always prepare a sample from this website (see on the right column) and give it to them. You will be hero)
Who do you ask?

Now let’s say you did not understand something while reading documents. Who are you going to ask? Answer-Business Analysts who wrote this document. If you have any other questions that you don’t know, you will be asking that to you friend first, if he/she is not able to answer, then ask this question to the Lead (or Manager). Do not ask too many questions (some people get irritated). Therefore, it is important to read read and read. That’s the only way to succeed.

If you have any questions in TestDirector, or QTP or any other automation tools, then there is a HELP menu as well as tutorial. Please go through these, read them before you ask any questions to anyone else.
What kind of questions should I ask in the meeting?
Nothing. My advice is, keep your mouth shut. Just listen. This is the best way to handle the job until you are confident enough to speak and you know what you are talking about. If they ask you some questions, then reply gently, wisely.

How to deal with your team members?

Most probably, you will not be the only tester in the team. There will be more than you. Sometimes, dealing with you team members is frustrating, specially when you are new. They try to ignore you. They want to show themselves smart. Don’t worry. Don’t blame them. This part of the human nature. Try to cope with it. Invite them when you go for coffee (in the coffee room in your office, don’t go outside), try to share your feelings and so on. It is all how you handle your friends. It is part of your daily activities, handle it gently. This is part of the situation I have gone through, my friends have gone through. I am just sharing this with you.

28. Have you used automation tools?
(Normally, when some one asks this question, we tend to think about automation functional testing tools, like WinRunner, LoadRunner, QTP (Quick Test Pro), Rational Robot, Experian and so on. But the reality is, even a Manual Tester also uses automation tools like bug tracking tools like TestDirector, ClearQuest, PVC Tracker and so on. Therefore, your answer should be Yes)

Answer: Yes. I have used TestDirector and ClearQuest as defect tracking tools. (Your answer is based on whether you have used automation tools specially for functional and load testing. If you have NOT used, but read about these tools, then you may be better off saying, “I know about the tools. I was involved in some of the testing using these tools, but would need some brush up in order to work independently.” I am saying this because these tools are difficult to tackle in the interview and have to know in depth. In order to pass the interview on functional automation tools, it may not be easy unless you really know the stuff. But, since there is not much to learn in ClearQuest and TestDirector, you only have to know what different types of fields are there in the defect logging window when writing a defect.)

29. When you log a defect using TestDirector (or ClearQuest) what fields do you see?

Answer: When we log a defect, we see Defect ID (it shows later in TestDirector), Summary (where we write short description of the defect), Description (long description of the defect), Detected by (Person who found the defect, (it’s you), Severity (meaning-is the defect critical? High? Medium? Or Low?), Date, Detected in Version, Priority, Project, Status, Assigned to and so on.
Click here to see the fields in TestDirector (go to page 24-27)
Click here to see the fields in ClearQuest (go to page 9)

30. Are you better working in a team or working alone?

Answer: I am a team player. I get along with team members very well. As far as the working is concerned, I can be equally productive in team or working alone.
(Caution: Never say, I like working alone. This could lead you to not getting a job as they are always looking for people who can get along with other people.)

31. Do you have any situations in the past where you have some arguments with your team members?

Answer: No. I never had that type of situation wherever I have worked.
(Even if you had one, it’s a good idea to say “No”. This could be a red flag, which might stop you from getting the job)

32. What do you like about a Manager? And what don’t you like?

Answer: The best thing I like about a Manager is that the Manager should be able to coordinate with the other teams so that we can get the updated documents, for example, updated requirements documents right away. A Manager who can efficiently in distributes the work to the team, without being biased and easily accessible and protective to his team for the right cause. As far as “what I don’t like” is concerned, I don’t like a manager who keeps coming to desk 10 times a day to check my work even if it is just a regular work. Once the responsibility is given, the team member should be trusted and let his work done.

33. Where do you see yourself in another 5 years?

Answer: I see myself a QA Lead in another 5 years.
(You can also say “QA Manager”, but since the QA Manager is taking your interview most of the time, they some times feel challenged. Therefore, it might be a good idea to limit you to QA Lead)

34. Why are you in QA?

Answer: I am in QA because I like this job.

35. Why do you like this job?

Answer: I like this job, because it is process oriented. Meaning that I get an opportunity to work from analyzing the requirement documents to writing test plans, test cases, testing the application, logging defects, retesting, preparing reports and finally testing in production as well. Therefore, I am involved from the very beginning to the end of the software development life cycle (SDLC) process. I like this.
Another reason is I like to find defects. I enjoy logging defects. The more defects I find, the happier I am.

36. How do you determine what to test in an application?

Answer: First of all we have the test cases (or test scripts) that are written based on the requirement document. This pretty much covers what functionalities to test. Therefore, looking at the test cases tells us what to test in the application.

37. If you have no documentation about the product, how do you test an application? Describe the process.

Answer: Well, this is a situation where I have come across several times. Some of the companies in my previous projects did not have any documents. In this case, I went to the Business Analyst and some times to developers to find out how exactly the functionalities work, how to navigate from one page to another page and so on. After getting a clear vision, I write test cases based on the conversation (which is a step by step procedure to test an application) and get ready for testing.

What do you do once you find a defect?

Once you find a defect, this is what we need to do:

1. Recreate the Defect: Once you find a defect, we must try to recreate (meaning that we should be able to reproduce it) at least 3 times so that we are sure that it is a defect. Some times, once we find it log it without recreating, may put us in a false situation (because sometimes the application does not behave in the same way). Therefore, it is important to recreate the same defect several times.
2. Attach the Screen Shot (supporting document): Once we confirm that it is a defect, and then it is a good idea to attach supporting documents when we log (write) a defect. For example, screen shot, requirement document etc. For instance, let us say that instead of “Continue” button on a page, there is a typo “Contiinuee”. Now, we will make a screen shot of this page (To make screen shot, press “Print Screen” button on the keyboard, and open a Word document, and Click Edit on the Word document and “Past” it. You will see the screen now) Now, a tester needs to write defects in easy and clear language to make all the developers to understand easily.

3. Log the Defect: Now, the next step is, we need to log it. Depending on the company what kind of tools they are using (for example, some companies use TestDirector to log defects, some companies use Rational ClearQuest, some use PVC Tracker and so on). If the company is small and cannot afford these expensive tools, then they may simply use Excel sheet to log defects. We log the defect.

38. What are the basic elements you put in a defect?

Answer: Basic elements we put in a defect are: SEVERITY, PRIORITY, CREATED BY, VERSION NO, HEADER, DESCRIPTION OF THE DEFECT where we write how to recreate a defect, in what module the defect is found, Status, and so on.

39. What is the biggest bug you have ever found?

Answer: Well, there are many big defects I have found in various projects. For example, in the last project, on a page, there was a button called “More Information”. Once the user clicked that button, the system would open a new window (pop up).

We could close the new window in 3 ways:
-By clicking X at the top right corner of the page
-By clicking “Close” button on the page
-By pressing combination keys (Alt+F4) on the key board
Although the combination key (Alt+F4) was not mentioned in the test case, I just wanted to try how the application reacts when Alt+F4 is pressed. Then I pressed Alt+F4. The result was a disaster-the application crashed (broke). The application disappeared from the computer monitor. Since it was the last day of testing for us, it brought chaos in our Managers, Leads and the whole teams. Finally, the developers disabled Alt+F4 as a temporary solution and the application went into production.

40. How do you make sure that it is quality software?

Answer: There is a certain process how the quality of software is guaranteed (ensured). If is defined by the ‘exit criteria’. (What it means is, a QA Manager writes a document called Test Strategy. This Test Strategy defines the ‘exit criteria’.) Exit Criteria gives the measurement, for example, in order to confirm the quality, how many critical defects, high defects, medium defect and low defect are acceptable? These are all defined in the exit criteria. (Normally in practice, for a quality software, there should no critical defects (0 critical), no high defect (0 high), no medium defect (0 medium) and may be 1 low defect)

41. As a QA Tester, can you tell me the situation when you felt the most proud of it?

Answer: When I find the defect that normally others don’t find, then I feel very proud. For example, there were situations where I found bugs that crashed the whole system at the end of testing phase. I tried the scenarios where the scenarios were NOT mentioned in the test cases. For example, we can close the windows by clicking X on the page, with “Close” button and so on. But there is another way that you can close the window, by pressing Alt+F4 on the keyboard. Not many testers test this scenario. I have done this in my last two projects. Both the time, the application crashed which became a big issue. I felt proud.

42. What made you to choose testing career?

Answer: I am a very detailed oriented person and I like process-oriented job. The way QA process works is just the kind of work I like. For example, analyzing requirement documents, attending walk-through meetings, writing test plans, writing test cases, executing the test cases (or running the test cases) testing the application, logging defects, retesting them and so on. I think I really like the process and that’s why I chose this career.

43. When should testing start in a project? Why?

Answer: We should start testing as soon as the following things are ready:
-Test Data are ready
-Build (all the developers have coded their code and merged them
together)
-Test Environment (servers, network etc) is set up and ready
-When the manager asks us to go ahead and start testing.

44. Let us say you have a web application to test. How do you go about testing it? What is the process?

Answer: First of all, I will look at the requirement documents (or design document in some companies). The requirement document will tell us what the functionalities in the application (software) are. Once I analyze the requirement documents (one module=one requirement document). After that, I will write test plans for each module (one module =one test plan). Then after the test plan is complete, I will write test cases (One module can have hundreds, even thousands test cases). Once the test cases are ready and the application is ready (or once the build is ready), then I will start testing. Before I start testing, however, I will make sure the test environments, test data and defect logging tools are in place. This is how I will go about testing an application.

45. What is a “bug?”

Answer: A bug is a bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer code (program) that prevents it from behaving as intended (e.g., producing an incorrect result). (You can also add this: When the expected results (accordingly to the requirement documents) don’t match with the actual results (while testing), then it is considered a bug)

46. How would you ensure that you have covered 100% testing?

Answer: The testing coverage is defined by exit criteria (There is exit criteria and entry criteria in the Test Strategy). For example, if the exit criteria says “The software will be acceptable to the client only if there are no critical defects, no high defects, no medium defects and only two low defects”, then all the critical, high, medium should be zero. Only 2 low defects are acceptable. Thus, 100% coverage is measured by the exit criteria. Also, 100% test cases must be executed in order to cover 100% of testing.

47. What problems did you face in the past? How did you solve it?
(You will be OK if you just give one of the problems below, not all of them)

Answer: I had many problems while testing applications in the past.

As far as I remember one of them (then describe one of them from below), this was the scenario:
(i) It was a web-based application. I was working on a module called “Transaction Summary”. There was “Submit” button on that page. After entering data in the all the fields, for example, First Name, Last Name, Social Security Number, Date of Birth and so on, I clicked the Submit button. Once I clicked Submit button, an error page displayed, “Page cannot be found…”. Since it was a critical defect, I immediately informed the Test Lead. There was a chaos in the room. All the developers, Database Administrators and Testers gathered in my cube (room). No body could tell exactly what was wrong with it. Finally, one smart guy checked into the database and found out that one of the files in the database was closed. The status of all the files should be in the open status. Once the status of the closed file was put in the “open” status, the application worked fine.

(ii) One of the problems was in the Login window (page). When the user enters and Login Name and Password, then Password should be encrypted. One of the Test Cases was that I needed to open database and see whether the password is encrypted or not. I found out it was not encrypted. I reported it as a bug (defect) and it was fixed in the next release (build).

(iii) Defects I have found in a project was a defect to close a window (pop up).
For example, in the last project, on a page, there was a button called “More Information”. Once the user clicked that button, the system would open a new window (pop up).We could close the new window in 3 ways:
-By clicking X at the top right corner of the page
-By clicking “Close” button on the page
-By pressing combination keys (Alt+F4) on the key board
Although the combination key (Alt+F4) was not mentioned in the test case, I just wanted to try how the application reacts when Alt+F4 is pressed. Then I pressed Alt+F4. The result was a disaster-the application crashed (broke). The application disappeared from the computer monitor. Since it was the last day of testing for us, it brought chaos in our Managers, Leads and the whole teams. Finally, the developers disabled Alt+F4 as a temporary solution and the application went into production.

(iv) Another problem was that a user would search for branch location information of a bank. The user logs in by using User Name and Password. After the log in, on the “Search Location” page, the user enters and zip code of the location he wants to find, then clicks Find button. After that the system (application) gives a number of branch locations. The user now clicks “Request Information” for one of the branches. As soon as the user clicks “Request Information” button, the application breaks (displays “Page cannot be found” error). I logged this defect as a critical defect. When the developers and database administrator looked into it, then they found out that in one of the tables, the data was not recorded. In all the tables (UserProfile table, ClientID table and SessionID table), the data should be populated with the information entered by the user. For some reason, in one of the tables, it was blank (null). Once they wrote a small code to populate data (enter data) to the table, the application started working.
(v) In my previous project, when the customer wants to upload a document, for example, a copy of a monthly statement (in Word format), on the website, the system should automatically change the Word document into .pdf format. Once the document was uploaded, I saw that the fields in the .pdf document were interchanged (misplaced). For example, the First Name displayed in the Last Name section. Date of Birth displayed in the Social Security Number field and so on. We found out that the problem was a mapping problem (remember this word). Once the mapping was correct, I tested in the new build. It was fixed.

(vi) The most common problem that I have faced in my previous projects are the Java script errors, data connectivity, error, HTTP 500 error (This error occurs when server is down), HTTP 400 error (when file is not found) and so on.

(vii) “Father” pop up displayed when Print/Print Preview button clicked. (This was coded by the developer to mark this coding portion (for his/her own purpose as a mark to indicate where he/she made changes, however, forgot to remove it). Once the developer fixed it, it still displayed the same thing (because it was in the servers memory and could not go). Now, I had to reset memory of the server from my machine. Therefore, what I did is, I went to the website I was testing (for example, http://mysite.app.org/My_profile) and added reset.aspx at the end of the URL (Now the URL becomes http://mysite.app.org/My_profile/reset.aspx and hit enter. It took me to the server memory and I selected section and submitted the query and it was cleared. Retested again and it is now OK.

(viii) I was testing a web application. On one page, I clicked Save & Continue button twice (my mistake). Once this button is clicked twice, the system displayed an error message, “Could not save the answers, please contact technical support”. (When clicked only once, the button works fine.).

Solution: Once the user clicks the button once, the button was disabled later so that the user cannot click twice.

(ix) I was testing a web-based application. Once all the fields are entered on the one of the pages, we had Print Preview button. If the user clicks this button, we were supposed see the same information in a new window in PDF format. While looking at the data in PDF file, there were some fields missing, for example, Date of Birth was missing in the PDF file.

48. Tell me about the worst boss you’ve ever had. (Here, you should be careful not to say any negative words about the past boss. This will give a reflection that you cannot work with different nature of people. You should be able to show them that you can cope with any king of boss. Therefore, just take an idea below how the answer should be.)

Answer: I can hardly think of any Manager that was really bad. But when I compare, then I remember of a Test Lead who was just made a lead from the developers team. She used to feel that she has been very proud of her position and used to boss around. Some times, she used to call home and check where I was and what I was doing. Or have I completed my job before leaving and so on. I think, whatever she did, was in the benefit of the company and myself in the long run which would give me more confidence in future.

49. What do you like about QA?

Answer: The best thing I like about QA is, I like the job which is more process oriented. For example, we have to work right from reading the requirement documents, providing feedback to the Business Analysts as necessary, writing test plans, test cases, execute the test cases, interaction with different developers, attend walk-through meeting and so on. I am a very detailed oriented person. When I test applications, I try to get into the depth of functionality so that I don’t miss out anything. Finally, I love logging defects.

50. What are all the basic elements in a defect report?

Answer: The basic elements in a defect report are: Defect ID, Header, Description, Defect Reported by, Date, Status, Version, Assigned to, Approved by, Module where the defect was found and so on.

51. What is the difference between verification and validation?

Verification: Verification is a process to ensure that the software that is made, matches the original design. In other words, it checks whether the software is made according to the criteria and specification described in the requirement document. It is to check whether you built the product right as per design. It is a low level checking. (It is done in walk-through meetings generally). It checked whether it is made accordingly to the design..

Validation: Validation is a process to check whether the product design fits the client’s need. It checks whether you built the right thing. It checks whether it is designed properly.

52. How do you know it is sufficient testing?

Answer: Every company has entry and exit criteria. When we test applications, we refer to exit criteria. When we are about to finish testing, then the QA Team (QA Manager) refers to the exit criteria (exit criteria tells the level of defect that you can be comfortable with before it goes to production. For example, there should be ZERO critical defect, ZERO high level defect, ZERO medium defect, 1 Low level defect, all the test cases must be 100% executed etc). Once the exit criteria meet the requirements, then the software is considered to be sufficiently tested.
Every company has entry and exit criteria. When we test applications, we refer to exit criteria. When we are about to finish testing, then the QA Team (QA Manager) refers to the exit criteria (exit criteria tells the level of defect that you can be comfortable with before it goes to production. For example, there should be ZERO critical defect, ZERO high level defect, ZERO medium defect, 1 Low level defect, all the test cases must be 100% executed etc). Once the exit criteria meet the requirements, then the software is considered to be sufficiently tested.

53. How to derive test scenarios and use cases? What are the contents and format?

Answer: Test scenarios are derived from requirement documents. We follow each and every functionality (called business rules) mentioned in the requirement document. One functionality can have multiple business rules. For example, let us say in there is one requirement called “Login”. This “Login” may have various scenarios. For example, one scenario is, enter the right User ID and wrong password. The system should display an error message. Another scenario would be to enter wrong User ID and right Password. The system should display an error message. The third scenario could be to enter the right User Name and right Password. The system should allow the user to get into the system. This is how the test cases are derived from the requirement documents or from the Use Cases.
(For contents for formats of test scenario, please refer to question 4 in qaquestions.com)

54. What are the types of test cases that you write?

Answer: We write test cases for smoke testing, integration testing, functional testing, regression testing, load testing, stress testing, system testing and so on.

55. How to write Integration test cases?

Answer: I have never written separate Test Cases Integration Testing. Since Integration Testing is a test to check whether the all the modules are integrated together or not (meaning that when the developers compile all their module and make a build, all modules should be working when they are combined together and those modules when combined, should work as expected). If they are not integrated (combined) in a nice way, then the application breaks. Basically, when we do the functional testing, the integration testing is automatically done. This is my experience.

56. How to write Regression test cases? What are the criteria?

Answer: Regression test cases are also based on the requirement documents. They are written more into detail and with every release (build), the testers need to do regression testing. The criteria for regression testing are; there should be no major defects while we do our smoke test and functional testing.

57. Is there a format for a test case? Do you follow any methodology for numbering test cases?

Answer: Yes. It depends upon the company how the company has followed the numbering of test cases. However, normally, it is just a simple numbering in most of the time (see question 4 of qaquestions.com). But some companies may also relate this numbering to the requirement number. For example, if the requirement for Login is “REQ-LOG-001”, then we can number the test cases like REQ-LOG-001-001 and so on.

58. What is Test Harness?

Answer: (Definition from www.wikipedia.org) “In software testing, a test harness or automated test framework is a collection of software and test data configured to test a program unit by running it under varying conditions and monitor its behavior and outputs. It has two main parts: the test execution engine and the test script repository.”

59. How to write User Acceptance Test plan & test cases?

Answer: The way of writing Test Plan and Test Cases is the same in all the test phases. However, specifically for User Acceptance Testing, the testers use data nearly real data (meaning that the data is very much similar to the production data or real data). For the format, please refer to question 3 and 4 in qaquestions.com.

60. What are the different matrices that you follow?
Answer: There are various reports we normally prepare in QA:
· Test summary Report – It is a report that has list of the total test cases, list of executed test cases, remaining test case to be executed, executed date, pass/fail
· Defect Report – In this report we normally prepare a list of defect in spreadsheet e.g. defect # CQ12345 [ if you log a defect in the application called Rational ClearQuest]
· Traceability Matrix [also called RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix)] Report – the document which shows the relationship between the functionalities or the business rules and the test cases. So, with the help of Traceability Matrix we make sure that we includes all the functionalities in our test cases according to the requirement document.

61. Explain Bug Life Cycle.

Answer: I would describe this as below:
A Tester finds a defect and logs it. (But before you log it, you must try to recreate it for 3 or 4 times so that you are 100% sure that it is a bug)
The defect is now approved or disapproved by the Test Lead.
(If it is disapproved, then the test lead will come to you ask for more details and you have explain to him why it is a bug)
After the Test Lead approves the bug, it is now assigned to a development Team Lead (or Development Manager). He/she now assigns that bug to the concerned developer. The developer now looks into the bug and fixes it. Once the fix is ready, there will be another build ready to test. The tester now tests the defect. It the defect is fixed, then the tester closes the defect, if not then the test will reopen it and same cycle starts.
Defect Life Cycle

62. What will you do if developer does not accept the bug?

Answer: If the developer does not accept the defect, then he will reject it. Once it is rejected, then it comes back to the tester. Now, the tester will ask for clarification with the developer why the defect is rejected. Since everything is based on the requirement documents, both tester and developer will have to look at the requirement document, validate it and then reopen it if necessary or close.

63. What are the different tests that can be done for Client Server Application and Web-based Application. Give details.

Answer: For both client server and web based applications, the testing is the same except one thing: We test web based applications in different browsers, for example, Internet Explorer (will test in different versions like IE 5.0, IE 6.0, IE 7.0), Firefox, Safari (for Mac) and so on where as for client server, we don’t need to test in the browsers.

64. What is an inspection?

Answer: An inspection is a formal meeting, more formalized than a walkthrough and typically consists of 3-10 people including a moderator, reader (the author of whatever is being reviewed) and a recorder (to make notes in the document). The subject of the inspection is typically a document, such as a requirements document or a test plan. The purpose of an inspection is to find problems and see what is missing, not to fix anything. The result of the meeting should be documented in a written report. Attendees should prepare for this type of meeting by reading through the document, before the meeting starts; most problems are found during this preparation. Preparation for inspections is difficult, but is one of the most cost-effective methods of ensuring quality, since bug prevention is more cost effective than bug detection.

65. Give me five common problems that occur during software development.

Answer: Poorly written requirements, unrealistic schedules, inadequate testing, adding new features after development is underway and poor communication. Requirements are poorly written when requirements are unclear, incomplete, too general, or not testable; therefore there will be problems. The schedule is unrealistic if too much work is crammed in too little time.
Software testing is inadequate if none knows whether or not the software is any good until customers complain or the system crashes. It’s extremely common that new features are added after development is underway.
Miscommunication either means the developers don’t know what is needed, or customers have unrealistic expectations and therefore problems are guaranteed

66. What is the role of documentation in QA?

Answer: Documentation plays a critical role in QA. QA practices should be documented, so that they are repeatable. Specifications, designs, business rules, inspection reports, configurations, code changes, test plans, test cases, bug reports, user manuals should all be documented. Ideally, there should be a system for easily finding and obtaining of documents and determining what document will have a particular piece of information. Use documentation change management, if possible.

67. What if the software is so buggy it can’t be tested at all?

Answer: In this situation the best bet is to have test engineers go through the process of reporting whatever bugs or problems initially show up, with the focus being on critical bugs. Since this type of problem can severely affect schedules and indicates deeper problems in the software development process, such as insufficient unit testing, insufficient integration testing, poor design, improper build or release procedures, managers should be notified and provided with some documentation as evidence of the problem.

68. How do you know when to stop testing?

Answer: This can be difficult to determine. Many modern software applications are so complex and run in such an interdependent environment, that complete testing can never be done. Common factors in deciding when to stop are…
Deadlines, e.g. release deadlines, testing deadlines;
Test cases completed with certain percentage passed;
Test budget has been depleted;
Coverage of code, functionality, or requirements reaches a specified point;
Bug rate falls below a certain level; or
Beta or alpha testing period ends.

69. What if there isn’t enough time for thorough testing?

Answer: Since it’s rarely possible to test every possible aspect of an application, every possible combination of events, every dependency, or everything that could go wrong, risk analysis is appropriate to most software development projects. Use risk analysis to determine where testing should be focused. This requires judgment skills, common sense and experience. The checklist should include answers to the following questions:
· Which functionality is most important to the project’s intended purpose?
· Which functionality is most visible to the user?
· Which functionality has the largest safety impact?
· Which functionality has the largest financial impact on users?
· Which aspects of the application are most important to the customer?
· Which aspects of the application can be tested early in the development cycle?
· Which parts of the code are most complex and thus most subject to errors?
· Which parts of the application were developed in rush or panic mode?
· Which aspects of similar/related previous projects caused problems?
· Which aspects of similar/related previous projects had large maintenance expenses?
· Which parts of the requirements and design are unclear or poorly thought out?
· What do the developers think are the highest-risk aspects of the application?
· What kinds of problems would cause the worst publicity?
· What kinds of problems would cause the most customer service complaints?
· What kinds of tests could easily cover multiple functionalities?
· Which tests will have the best high-risk-coverage to time-required ratio?

70. What can be done if requirements are changing continuously?

Answer: Work with management early on to understand how requirements might change, so that alternate test plans and strategies can be worked out in advance. It is helpful if the application’s initial design allows for some adaptability, so that later changes do not require redoing the application from scratch. Additionally, try to… · Ensure the code is well commented and well documented; this makes changes easier
for the developers.
· Use rapid prototyping whenever possible; this will help customers feel sure of their
requirements and minimize changes.
· In the project’s initial schedule, allow for some extra time to commensurate with
probable changes.
· Move new requirements to a ‘Phase 2′ version of an application and use the original
requirements for the ‘Phase 1′ version.
· Negotiate to allow only easily implemented new requirements into the project; move
more difficult, new requirements into future versions of the application.
· Ensure customers and management understand scheduling impacts, inherent risks and
costs of significant requirements changes. Then let management or the customers
decide if the changes are warranted; after all, that’s their job.
· Balance the effort put into setting up automated testing with the expected effort
required to redo them to deal with changes.
· Design some flexibility into automated test scripts;
· Focus initial automated testing on application aspects that are most likely to remain
unchanged;
· Devote appropriate effort to risk analysis of changes, in order to minimize regression-
testing needs;
· Design some flexibility into test cases; this is not easily done; the best bet is to minimize the detail in the test cases, or set up only higher-level generic-type test plans;
· Focus less on detailed test plans and test cases and more on ad-hoc testing with an understanding of the added risk this entails.

71. What if the application has functionality that wasn’t in the requirements?

Answer: It may take serious effort to determine if an application has significant unexpected or hidden functionality, which it would indicate deeper problems in the software development process. If the functionality isn’t necessary to the purpose of the application, it should be removed, as it may have unknown impacts or dependencies that were not taken into account by the designer or the customer.
If not removed, design information will be needed to determine added testing needs or regression testing needs. Management should be made aware of any significant added risks as a result of the unexpected functionality. If the functionality only affects areas, such as minor improvements in the user interface, it may not be a significant risk.

72. How can software QA processes be implemented without stifling productivity?

Answer: Implement QA processes slowly over time. Use consensus to reach agreement on processes and adjust and experiment as an organization grows and matures. Productivity will be improved instead of stifled. Problem prevention will lessen the need for problem detection. Panics and burnout will decrease and there will be improved focus and less wasted effort. At the same time, attempts should be made to keep processes simple and efficient, minimize paperwork, promote computer-based processes and automated tracking and reporting, minimize time required in meetings and promote training as part of the QA process. However, no one, especially talented technical types, like bureaucracy and in the short run things may slow down a bit. A typical scenario would be that more days of planning and development will be needed, but less time will be required for late-night bug fixing and calming of irate customers.

73. What is parallel/audit testing?

Answer: Parallel/audit testing is testing where the user reconciles the output of the new system to the output of the current system to verify the new system performs the operations correctly. Let us say, for example, the currently software is in the mainframe system which calculates the interest rate. The company wants to change this mainframe system to web-based application. While testing the new web based application, we need to verify that the web-based application calculates the same interest rate. This is parallel testing.

74. What is system testing?

Answer: System testing is black box testing, performed by the Test Team, and at the start of the system testing the complete system is configured in a controlled environment. The purpose of system testing is to validate an application’s accuracy and completeness in performing the functions as designed. System testing simulates real life scenarios that occur in a “simulated real life” test environment and test all functions of the system that are required in real life. System testing is deemed complete when actual results and expected results are either in line or differences are explainable or acceptable, based on client input.
Upon completion of integration testing, system testing is started. Before system testing, all unit and integration test results are reviewed by Software QA to ensure all problems have been resolved. For a higher level of testing it is important to understand unresolved problems that originate at unit and integration test levels. You CAN learn system testing, with little or no outside help. Get CAN get free information. Click on a link!

75. What is end-to-end testing?

Answer: Similar to system testing, the *macro* end of the test scale is testing a complete application in a situation that mimics real world use, such as interacting with a database, using network communication, or interacting with other hardware, application, or system.

76. What is security/penetration testing?

Answer: Security/penetration testing is testing how well the system is protected against unauthorized internal or external access, or willful damage. This type of testing usually requires sophisticated testing techniques.

77. What is recovery/error testing?
Answer: Recovery/error testing is testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.

78. What is compatibility testing?

Answer: Compatibility testing is testing how well software performs in a particular hardware, software, operating system, or network environment.

79. What is comparison testing?

Answer: Comparison testing is testing that compares software weaknesses and strengths to those of competitors’ products.

80. What is acceptance testing?

Answer: Acceptance testing is black box testing that gives the client/customer/project manager the opportunity to verify the system functionality and usability prior to the system being released to production. The acceptance test is the responsibility of the client/customer or project manager, however, it is conducted with the full support of the project team. The test team also works with the client/customer/project manager to develop the acceptance criteria.

81. What is a Test/QA Team Lead?

Answer: The Test/QA Team Lead coordinates the testing activity, communicates testing status to management and manages the test team.

82. What is software testing methodology?

Answer: One software testing methodology is the use a three step process of…
1. Creating a test strategy;
2. Creating a test plan/design; and
3. Executing tests. This methodology can be used and molded to your organization’s needs. Rob Davis believes that using this methodology is important in the development and in ongoing maintenance of his customers’ applications.

83. What is the general testing process?

Answer: The general testing process is the creation of a test strategy (which sometimes includes the creation of test cases), creation of a test plan/design (which usually includes test cases and test procedures) and the execution of tests.

84. How do you create a test strategy?

Answer: The test strategy is a formal description of how a software product will be tested. A test strategy is developed for all levels of testing, as required. The test team analyzes the requirements, writes the test strategy and reviews the plan with the project team. The test plan may include test cases, conditions, the test environment, a list of related tasks, pass/fail criteria and risk assessment. Inputs for this process:
· A description of the required hardware and software components, including test tools. This information comes from the test environment, including test tool data.
· A description of roles and responsibilities of the resources required for the test and schedule constraints. This information comes from man-hours and schedules.
· Testing methodology. This is based on known standards.
· Functional and technical requirements of the application. This information comes from requirements, change request, technical and functional design documents.
· Requirements that the system can not provide, e.g. system limitations. Outputs for this process:
· An approved and signed off test strategy document, test plan, including test cases.
· Testing issues requiring resolution. Usually this requires additional negotiation at the project management level.

85. How do you create a test plan/design?

Answer: Test scenarios and/or cases are prepared by reviewing functional requirements of the release and preparing logical groups of functions that can be further broken into test procedures. Test procedures define test conditions, data to be used for testing and expected results, including database updates, file outputs, report results. Generally speaking…
Test cases and scenarios are designed to represent both typical and unusual situations that may occur in the application.
Test engineers define unit test requirements and unit test cases. Test engineers also execute unit test cases.
It is the test team that, with assistance of developers and clients, develops test cases and scenarios for integration and system testing.
Test scenarios are executed through the use of test procedures or scripts.
Test procedures or scripts define a series of steps necessary to perform one or more test scenarios.
Test procedures or scripts include the specific data that will be used for testing the process or transaction.
Test procedures or scripts may cover multiple test scenarios.
Test scripts are mapped back to the requirements and traceability matrices are used to ensure each test is within scope.
Test data is captured and base lined, prior to testing. This data serves as the foundation for unit and system testing and used to exercise system functionality in a controlled environment.
Some output data is also base-lined for future comparison. Base-lined data is used to support future application maintenance via regression testing.
A pretest meeting is held to assess the readiness of the application and the environment and data to be tested. A test readiness document is created to indicate the status of the entrance criteria of the release.
Inputs for this process:
Approved Test Strategy Document.
Test tools, or automated test tools, if applicable.
Previously developed scripts, if applicable.
Test documentation problems uncovered as a result of testing.
A good understanding of software complexity and module path coverage, derived from general and detailed design documents, e.g. software design document, source code and software complexity data.
Outputs for this process:
Approved documents of test scenarios, test cases, test conditions and test data.
Reports of software design issues, given to software developers for correction.

86. How do you execute tests?

Answer: Execution of tests is completed by following the test documents in a methodical manner. As each test procedure is performed, an entry is recorded in a test execution log to note the execution of the procedure and whether or not the test procedure uncovered any defects. Checkpoint meetings are held throughout the execution phase. Checkpoint meetings are held daily, if required, to address and discuss testing issues, status and activities.The output from the execution of test procedures is known as test results. Test results are evaluated by test engineers to determine whether the expected results have been obtained. All discrepancies/anomalies are logged and discussed with the software team lead, hardware test lead, programmers, software engineers and documented for further investigation and resolution. Every company has a different process for logging and reporting bugs/defects uncovered during testing.A pass/fail criteria is used to determine the severity of a problem, and results are recorded in a test summary report. The severity of a problem, found during system testing, is defined in accordance to the customer’s risk assessment and recorded in their selected tracking tool.Proposed fixes are delivered to the testing environment, based on the severity of the problem. Fixes are regression tested and flawless fixes are migrated to a new baseline. Following completion of the test, members of the test team prepare a summary report. The summary report is reviewed by the Project Manager, Software QA Manager and/or Test Team Lead.
After a particular level of testing has been certified, it is the responsibility of the Configuration Manager to coordinate the migration of the release software components to the next test level, as documented in the Configuration Management Plan. The software is only migrated to the production environment after the Project Manager’s formal acceptance.

87. What testing approaches can you tell me about?

Answer: Each of the followings represents a different testing approach:
Black box testing,
White box testing,
Unit testing,
Incremental testing,
Integration testing,
Functional testing,
System testing,
End-to-end testing,
Sanity testing,
Regression testing,
Acceptance testing,
Load testing,
Performance testing,
Usability testing,
Install/uninstall testing,
Recovery testing,
Security testing,
Compatibility testing,
Exploratory testing, ad-hoc testing,
User acceptance testing,
Comparison testing,
Alpha testing,
Beta testing, and
Mutation testing.

88. How do you divide the application into different sections to create scripts?
Answer: First of all, the application is divided in different parts when a business analyst writes the requirement document (or Use Cases or Design Document), he/she writes EACH requirement document for EACH module. Let us say, if there are 12 different modules in an application that a business analyst has written the requirements for, then a tester would write the test cases for each module, which means in 12 different sections. This is the standard practice. There might be scenarios where you might have to break down scripts into sub-categories. For example, if a tester is writing a script for Login Page, he/she might write one for positive and negative testing and another sub-set of test cases would be for error message when the wrong information is entered. In short, the test cases are divided according to the modules.
(The following questions were asked to Padma in one of her interviews very recently)

89. What is your goal?
(This question is asked to check how ambitious you are as far as your career is concerned, whether you like the job you are doing and so on. Therefore, no matter what, you should stick to your QA job at this point and say that you love this so much and your goal is some thing similar to the one below)

Answer: My goal is to be QA Lead (or QA Manager) in near future.

90. What are you expecting from our company?

Answer: My expectation from you company would be I will have more challenges and new things to learn and whatever the skills I have to contribute, hopefully, I will be able to contribute if they are in any way helpful to enhance productivity of the company.

91. What did you learn from your previous companies?

Answer: I learned a lot from the previous companies wherever I have worked. Wherever I have worked, I found out the there is always something to learn. Different companies have different ways of working. The environment and technology always differ from one company to another company. I have never found one company’s environment matching with another company. For example, if one company is using documents called requirement documents, then the other company might be using Use Cases and some companies might be using Design Document and so on. Therefore, in my experience, there are always new things to learn in every company and we can always contribute these thing in the next company if they help to be more productive.

92. What do you want to be in next 2 years?

Answer: I want to be QA Lead in another two years.

Why QA Lead? Why not something else?

Answer: QA is the only thing I love doing it. I love this job and want to progress in this sector. I want to know how to manage QA process, how to handle different jobs and so on. Since the next step is the QA Lead, that would preferably be one I will targeting for.

93. Why do you want to work for this company?

Answer: (This is a tricky question. They want to know what really interests you and you have to be careful when you answer this question. You must admire the line of that company. For example, if you are being interviewed by a pharmaceutical company, then tell them that you are always interested in the medical applications and the better part of your company is that it has exciting products that I am really curious to learn. That’s why I would feel really great if I am given the opportunity to work in your company)

94. Did you get any compliments from your previous employers? What were those situations?

Answer: Yes. I did. There were many occasions where I had compliments. For example, I was testing an application going a little bit off my test cases. After I finished executing my test cases, I always think in a way what a real user would possibally click in various parts of the application. So I was just clicking back and forth and at one specific scenario, the application simply broke and displayed an error message. That scenario was not in the test cases. The manager really appreciated me and thanked for finding this kind of critical defect. Answer: Yes. I did. There were many occasions where I had compliments. For example, I was testing an application going a little bit off my test cases. After I finished executing my test cases, I always think in a way what a real user would possibally click in various parts of the application. So I was just clicking back and forth and at one specific scenario, the application simply broke and displayed an error message. That scenario was not in the test cases. The manager really appreciated me and thanked for finding this kind of critical defect.

What are your strengths?

Answer: I am a very detailed oriented person. I have the sense of urgency. I can prioritize my job according to the deadline. I am very much dedicated towards my job. I am honest. I have the skills and expertise in QA process. These are some of my strengths.

What is your weakness?

Answer: I think my weakness is that whenever I am given some responsibilities and there is a deadline for it, I work day and night, 7 days a week. This is probably bad for my family life, but I can’t sleep unless I am done with my assignments.
(Note: You should think of your weakness where because of your weakness (like the one above), still the employer benefits. DON’T SAY anything negative thing, like “I cannot work long hours, it is hard for me pick up things, it is difficult for me to understand requirement documents etc)

What is your salary requirement?
$70k (negotiable), or ($35 per hour)

Please provide information (an example) of your experience testing Linux and UNIX environments (including type of system tested, how tested, actual commands and steps used for test) Testing applications using Linux and UNIX.

Answer: I have tested applications using UNIX. For every backend testing I have done in the past, I have used UNIX platform while performing backend testing. For example, when the data is fed into the system in the front end, that data goes to the database after the batch processing. From the database, the data is now sent to the ETL system (in XML format) for data manipulation as per our need (ETL is a software tool of Ab Initio company which is used to manipulate data in the data warehouse). In the ETL system, we manipulate those data according to our need), for example, it could be income statement of the company, balance sheet, monthly reports, and so on. In order to produce income statement, we need to run a job in ETL. To run this job, we use UNIX. In the same way, different types of jobs are created for each need (creating balance sheet is another job, creating reports is next job etc) then I had to run different jobs in the ETL system. Once we run the job, the running job finally creates an output file which is now validated by us tester. This output file can be in text format or GUI format. Thus, this is the scenario where I had to use UNIX. (I have used Linux much, however, since UNIX and Linux are the same thing, I should have no problem in using Linux)

Some of the commands I used while testing using UNIX are;

Ls –l ———>to check the file list
Pwd———-> to see which directory I am in
Cd ———–>change the directory
Cd .. ———>change the directory one level up
Mkdir ———>make a directory
Rmdir ———>Delete the directory
setenv name v ——>Set environment
kill% ——–>Kill the running job
vi ———>editor Used to write scripts
more——-> to see the contents page by page
cat —–>list contents of the file
chmod ——–>change permission
cp ——–>copy
rm —–>delete a file

How do you do risk assessment? (This question was asked to Mona in her interview) Answer: (This is what Mona answered): The risks by understanding the infrastructure of the application, hard drive and system capabilities etc. Also added “Risk and Mitigation Strategy” column within the test plan. The major risk for the company was system getting crashed upon receiving several hits by the users . Company did not set any metrics at the development phase as to what it can handle. I told him that i noted mitigation stretegy to deal with each known risk within the test plan.CLICK HERE FOR MORE QUESTIONS………… What is SQL and how is it used? The following are the some of the things that a tester has to know (but may not be asked in the interview)What is a cookie? (You must know how to clean cookies) A small text file of information that certain Web sites attach to a user’s hard drive while the user is browsing the Web site. A Cookie can contain information such as user ID, user preferences, archive shopping cart information, etc. Cookies can contain Personally Identifiable Information. Does a tester have to know about cookie? Yes. A tester has to know HOW TO CLEAN cookies (Does not have to know the difinition). Why do we need to clean cookies? A tester can clean cookies by opening Internet Explorer browser and Firefox browser (whatever you are using). We need to clean cookies BECAUSE: When we get a new build (what is a build? See qaquestions.com), we must clean cookies. (Remember, once the developers fix the defects, the configuration team makes a build and this process continues until the product (application) is ready to handover to the customer). If we don’t clean cookies, then there is a possibility that we may get the same error which was already fixed by the developer. Why? Because the error is sitting inyour computer hard drive and the computer feels easy to get the same information from the hard drive rather than going to the server and pulling new thing for the same thing. For example, let us say, when you were testing a page, there was a button called “OK”. The client decided that “OK” is NOT the right button here, therefore, that button name was changed from “OK” to “Continue”. Accordingly, you wrote a defect saying that “OK” button should be changed to “Continue” button. Now, this defect is fixed (the developer changed the “OK” button to “Continue”). Now, you started testing, there is a possibility that you might see “OK” button again. Why? Because you DID NOT clean your cookies. Therefore, you must clean your cookies before you starting testing a new build. How to clean cookies? Cookies are cleaned in the browsers like IE (Internet Explorer), Firefox, Safari (for MAC and windows both), Netscape and so on.

However, the mostly used (90%) browser is IE (Internet Explorer) Here is how you clean cookies in IE (Internet Explorer): 1. Open IE (Internet Explorer)

2. On the menu, click Tools–>Internet Options–>Click Delete button (It is in General Tab)

(You will see different buttons now, for example, Delete Files, Delete Cookies, Delete History, Delete Forms, Delete Passwords,

Delete All).

3. Click Delete All button. Now the cookies are cleaned in IE. Here is how you can clean cookies in Fire Fox: 1. Open Firefox Brower.

2. Click Tools.

3. Click Error Console.

4. Click Clear. Now the cookies are cleaned in Firefox. What are different types of protocols? -Generally, a Tester does NOT necessarily have to know different types of protocols. This is Network Engineers job. However, if you want to know more for your knowledge, you can visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_network_protocols. What is Web Architecture? -A tester does not necessarily have to know this unless you are a very Senior Tester testing networks and doing some kind of development. However, if you want to know more about it, please visit: http://www.objs.com/survey/WebArch.htm Does a Tester need SQL? Answer: Yes. For a Tester, SQL is needed. I had the same question in mind becore I came to the actual implication-what is SQL used for? And now, I know that when we do the backend testing (see qaquestions.com for details), we need to write SQL queries to retrieve the data from the database and compare this data to the one with reports or output. Another scenario is, if something goes wrong in the application, for example, if there is an error, then we might have to write SQL queries to retrieve the data from the database and check what went wrong. Let’s say, we need to check in the Error Log table what went wrong. To check this, we open the database, go to Error Log table and find out that happened. In the Error Log table, there are many records, so which one is your error then? To find out which one is yours, we need to write SQL queries. Example, you logged in to the application with User ID=devin99 and password=sn992jj. Now, to retrieve your record, you can write a query some thing like this: select * from Error_Log where userID=devin99; This query will retriev your record only so that you can see what happened.

What is a ‘Show Stopper’?

A show stopper is a defect or bug that stops the user for further action (testing). It has no work around. In other words, it stops every thing and the user cannot go any futher. This is called show stopper in software industry languague. (This is not an interview questions, but you have to know this terminology)

ASP.NET Interview Questions

2008-12-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

Describe the role of inetinfo.exe, aspnet_isapi.dll andaspnet_wp.exe in the page loading process.
inetinfo.exe is theMicrosoft IIS server running, handling ASP.NET requests among other things.When an ASP.NET request is received (usually a file with .aspx extension), the ISAPI filter aspnet_isapi.dll takes care of it by passing the request tothe actual worker process aspnet_wp.exe.
What’s the difference between Response.Write() andResponse.Output.Write()?
Response.Output.Write() allows you to write formatted output.
What methods are fired during the page load?
Init() - when the page is instantiated
Load() - when the page is loaded into server memory
PreRender() - the brief moment before the page is displayed to the user as HTML
Unload() - when page finishes loading.
When during the page processing cycle is ViewState available?
After the Init() and before the Page_Load(), or OnLoad() for a control.
What namespace does the Web page belong in the .NET Framework class hierarchy?
System.Web.UI.Page
Where do you store the information about the user’s locale?
System.Web.UI.Page.Culture
What’s the difference between Codebehind="MyCode.aspx.cs" andSrc="MyCode.aspx.cs"?
CodeBehind is relevant to Visual Studio.NET only.
What’s a bubbled event?
When you have a complex control, like DataGrid, writing an event processing routine for each object (cell, button, row, etc.) is quite tedious. The controls can bubble up their eventhandlers, allowing the main DataGrid event handler to take care of its constituents.
Suppose you want a certain ASP.NET function executed on MouseOver for a certain button. Where do you add an event handler?
Add an OnMouseOver attribute to the button. Example: btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onmouseover","someClientCodeHere();");
What data types do the RangeValidator control support?
Integer, String, and Date.
Explain the differences between Server-side and Client-side code?
Server-side code executes on the server. Client-side code executes in the client's browser.
What type of code (server or client) is found in a Code-Behind class?
The answer is server-side code since code-behind is executed on the server. However, during the code-behind's execution on the server, it can render client-side code such as JavaScript to be processed in the clients browser. But just to be clear, code-behind executes on the server, thus making it server-side code.
Should user input data validation occur server-side or client-side? Why?
All user input data validation should occur on the server at a minimum. Additionally, client-side validation can be performed where deemed appropriate and feasable to provide a richer, more responsive experience for the user.
What is the difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect? Why would I choose one over the other?
Server.Transfer transfers page processing from one page directly to the next page without making a round-trip back to the client's browser. This provides a faster response with a little less overhead on the server. Server.Transfer does not update the clients url history list or current url. Response.Redirect is used to redirect the user's browser to another page or site. This performas a trip back to the client where the client's browser is redirected to the new page. The user's browser history list is updated to reflect the new address.
Can you explain the difference between an ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO Recordset?
Valid answers are:
· A DataSet can represent an entire relational database in memory, complete with tables, relations, and views.
· A DataSet is designed to work without any continuing connection to the original data source.
· Data in a DataSet is bulk-loaded, rather than being loaded on demand.
· There's no concept of cursor types in a DataSet.
· DataSets have no current record pointer You can use For Each loops to move through the data.
· You can store many edits in a DataSet, and write them to the original data source in a single operation.
· Though the DataSet is universal, other objects in ADO.NET come in different versions for different data sources.
What is the Global.asax used for?
The Global.asax (including the Global.asax.cs file) is used to implement application and session level events.
What are the Application_Start and Session_Start subroutines used for?
This is where you can set the specific variables for the Application and Session objects.
Can you explain what inheritance is and an example of when you might use it?
When you want to inherit (use the functionality of) another class. Example: With a base class named Employee, a Manager class could be derived from the Employee base class.
Whats an assembly?
Assemblies are the building blocks of the .NET framework. Overview of assemblies from MSDN
Describe the difference between inline and code behind.
Inline code written along side the html in a page. Code-behind is code written in a separate file and referenced by the .aspx page.
Explain what a diffgram is, and a good use for one?
The DiffGram is one of the two XML formats that you can use to render DataSet object contents to XML. A good use is reading database data to an XML file to be sent to a Web Service.
Whats MSIL, and why should my developers need an appreciation of it if at all?
MSIL is the Microsoft Intermediate Language. All .NET compatible languages will get converted to MSIL. MSIL also allows the .NET Framework to JIT compile the assembly on the installed computer.
Which method do you invoke on the DataAdapter control to load your generated dataset with data?
The Fill() method.
Can you edit data in the Repeater control?
No, it just reads the information from its data source.
Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater control?
ItemTemplate.
How can you provide an alternating color scheme in a Repeater control?
Use the AlternatingItemTemplate.
What property must you set, and what method must you call in your code, in order to bind the data from a data source to the Repeater control?
You must set the DataSource property and call the DataBind method.
What base class do all Web Forms inherit from?
The Page class.
Name two properties common in every validation control?
ControlToValidate property and Text property.
Which property on a Combo Box do you set with a column name, prior to setting the DataSource, to display data in the combo box?
DataTextField property.
Which control would you use if you needed to make sure the values in two different controls matched?
CompareValidator control.
How many classes can a single .NET DLL contain?
It can contain many classes.

Web Service Questions

What is the transport protocol you use to call a Web service?
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is the preferred protocol.
True or False: A Web service can only be written in .NET?
False
What does WSDL stand for?
Web Services Description Language.
Where on the Internet would you look for Web services?
http://www.uddi.org
True or False: To test a Web service you must create a Windows application or Web application to consume this service?
False, the web service comes with a test page and it provides HTTP-GET method to test.

State Management Questions

What is ViewState?
ViewState allows the state of objects (serializable) to be stored in a hidden field on the page. ViewState is transported to the client and back to the server, and is not stored on the server or any other external source. ViewState is used the retain the state of server-side objects between postabacks.
What is the lifespan for items stored in ViewState?
Item stored in ViewState exist for the life of the current page. This includes postbacks (to the same page).
What does the "EnableViewState" property do? Why would I want it on or off?
It allows the page to save the users input on a form across postbacks. It saves the server-side values for a given control into ViewState, which is stored as a hidden value on the page before sending the page to the clients browser. When the page is posted back to the server the server control is recreated with the state stored in viewstate.
What are the different types of Session state management options available with ASP.NET?
ASP.NET provides In-Process and Out-of-Process state management. In-Process stores the session in memory on the web server. This requires the a "sticky-server" (or no load-balancing) so that the user is always reconnected to the same web server. Out-of-Process Session state management stores data in an external data source. The external data source may be either a SQL Server or a State Server service. Out-of-Process state management requires that all objects stored in session are serializable.

C# Interview Questions

2008-12-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

This is a list of questions I have gathered from other sources and created myself over a period of time from my experience, many of which I felt where incomplete or simply wrong. I have finally taken the time to go through each question and correct them to the best of my ability. However, please feel free to post feedback to challenge, improve, or suggest new questions. I want to thank those of you that have contributed quality questions and corrections thus far.

There are some question in this list that I do not consider to be good questions for an interview. However, they do exist on other lists available on the Internet so I felt compelled to keep them easy access.

General Questions

Does C# support multiple-inheritance?
No.
Who is a protected class-level variable available to?
It is available to any sub-class (a class inheriting this class).
Are private class-level variables inherited?
Yes, but they are not accessible. Although they are not visible or accessible via the class interface, they are inherited.
Describe the accessibility modifier “protected internal”.
It is available to classes that are within the same assembly and derived from the specified base class.
What’s the top .NET class that everything is derived from?
System.Object.
What does the term immutable mean?
The data value may not be changed. Note: The variable value may be changed, but the original immutable data value was discarded and a new data value was created in memory.
What’s the difference between System.String and System.Text.StringBuilder classes?
System.String is immutable. System.StringBuilder was designed with the purpose of having a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performed.
What’s the advantage of using System.Text.StringBuilder over System.String?
StringBuilder is more efficient in cases where there is a large amount of string manipulation. Strings are immutable, so each time a string is changed, a new instance in memory is created.
Can you store multiple data types in System.Array?
No.
What’s the difference between the System.Array.CopyTo() and System.Array.Clone()?
The Clone() method returns a new array (a shallow copy) object containing all the elements in the original array. The CopyTo() method copies the elements into another existing array. Both perform a shallow copy. A shallow copy means the contents (each array element) contains references to the same object as the elements in the original array. A deep copy (which neither of these methods performs) would create a new instance of each element's object, resulting in a different, yet identacle object.
How can you sort the elements of the array in descending order?
By calling Sort() and then Reverse() methods.
What’s the .NET collection class that allows an element to be accessed using a unique key?
HashTable.
What class is underneath the SortedList class?
A sorted HashTable.
Will the finally block get executed if an exception has not occurred?
Yes.
What’s the C# syntax to catch any possible exception?
A catch block that catches the exception of type System.Exception. You can also omit the parameter data type in this case and just write catch {}.
Can multiple catch blocks be executed for a single try statement?
No. Once the proper catch block processed, control is transferred to the finally block (if there are any).
Explain the three services model commonly know as a three-tier application.
Presentation (UI), Business (logic and underlying code) and Data (from storage or other sources).

Class Questions

What is the syntax to inherit from a class in C#?
Place a colon and then the name of the base class.
Example: class MyNewClass : MyBaseClass
Can you prevent your class from being inherited by another class?
Yes. The keyword “sealed” will prevent the class from being inherited.
Can you allow a class to be inherited, but prevent the method from being over-ridden?
Yes. Just leave the class public and make the method sealed.
What’s an abstract class?
A class that cannot be instantiated. An abstract class is a class that must be inherited and have the methods overridden. An abstract class is essentially a blueprint for a class without any implementation.
When do you absolutely have to declare a class as abstract?
1. When the class itself is inherited from an abstract class, but not all base abstract methods have been overridden.
2. When at least one of the methods in the class is abstract.
What is an interface class?
Interfaces, like classes, define a set of properties, methods, and events. But unlike classes, interfaces do not provide implementation. They are implemented by classes, and defined as separate entities from classes.
Why can’t you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface?
They all must be public, and are therefore public by default.
Can you inherit multiple interfaces?
Yes. .NET does support multiple interfaces.
What happens if you inherit multiple interfaces and they have conflicting method names?
It’s up to you to implement the method inside your own class, so implementation is left entirely up to you. This might cause a problem on a higher-level scale if similarly named methods from different interfaces expect different data, but as far as compiler cares you’re okay.
To Do: Investigate
What’s the difference between an interface and abstract class?
In an interface class, all methods are abstract - there is no implementation. In an abstract class some methods can be concrete. In an interface class, no accessibility modifiers are allowed. An abstract class may have accessibility modifiers.
What is the difference between a Struct and a Class?
Structs are value-type variables and are thus saved on the stack, additional overhead but faster retrieval. Another difference is that structs cannot inherit.

Method and Property Questions

What’s the implicit name of the parameter that gets passed into the set method/property of a class?
Value. The data type of the value parameter is defined by whatever data type the property is declared as.
What does the keyword “virtual” declare for a method or property?
The method or property can be overridden.
How is method overriding different from method overloading?
When overriding a method, you change the behavior of the method for the derived class. Overloading a method simply involves having another method with the same name within the class.
Can you declare an override method to be static if the original method is not static?
No. The signature of the virtual method must remain the same. (Note: Only the keyword virtual is changed to keyword override)
What are the different ways a method can be overloaded?
Different parameter data types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters.
If a base class has a number of overloaded constructors, and an inheriting class has a number of overloaded constructors; can you enforce a call from an inherited constructor to a specific base constructor?
Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the appropriate constructor) in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inherited class.

Events and Delegates

What’s a delegate?
A delegate object encapsulates a reference to a method.
What’s a multicast delegate?
A delegate that has multiple handlers assigned to it. Each assigned handler (method) is called.

XML Documentation Questions

Is XML case-sensitive?
Yes.
What’s the difference between // comments, /* */ comments and /// comments?
Single-line comments, multi-line comments, and XML documentation comments.
How do you generate documentation from the C# file commented properly with a command-line compiler?
Compile it with the /doc switch.

Debugging and Testing Questions

What debugging tools come with the .NET SDK?
1. CorDBG – command-line debugger. To use CorDbg, you must compile the original C# file using the /debug switch.
2. DbgCLR – graphic debugger. Visual Studio .NET uses the DbgCLR.
What does assert() method do?
In debug compilation, assert takes in a Boolean condition as a parameter, and shows the error dialog if the condition is false. The program proceeds without any interruption if the condition is true.
What’s the difference between the Debug class and Trace class?
Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug builds, use Trace class for both debug and release builds.
Why are there five tracing levels in System.Diagnostics.TraceSwitcher?
The tracing dumps can be quite verbose. For applications that are constantly running you run the risk of overloading the machine and the hard drive. Five levels range from None to Verbose, allowing you to fine-tune the tracing activities.
Where is the output of TextWriterTraceListener redirected?
To the Console or a text file depending on the parameter passed to the constructor.
How do you debug an ASP.NET Web application?
Attach the aspnet_wp.exe process to the DbgClr debugger.
What are three test cases you should go through in unit testing?
1. Positive test cases (correct data, correct output).
2. Negative test cases (broken or missing data, proper handling).
3. Exception test cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly).
Can you change the value of a variable while debugging a C# application?
Yes. If you are debugging via Visual Studio.NET, just go to Immediate window.

ADO.NET and Database Questions

What is the role of the DataReader class in ADO.NET connections?
It returns a read-only, forward-only rowset from the data source. A DataReader provides fast access when a forward-only sequential read is needed.

What are advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft-provided data provider classes in ADO.NET?
SQLServer.NET data provider is high-speed and robust, but requires SQL Server license purchased from Microsoft. OLE-DB.NET is universal for accessing other sources, like Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access and Informix. OLE-DB.NET is a .NET layer on top of the OLE layer, so it’s not as fastest and efficient as SqlServer.NET.
What is the wildcard character in SQL?
Let’s say you want to query database with LIKE for all employees whose name starts with La. The wildcard character is %, the proper query with LIKE would involve ‘La%’.
Explain ACID rule of thumb for transactions.
A transaction must be:
1. Atomic - it is one unit of work and does not dependent on previous and following transactions.
2. Consistent - data is either committed or roll back, no “in-between” case where something has been updated and something hasn’t.
3. Isolated - no transaction sees the intermediate results of the current transaction).
4. Durable - the values persist if the data had been committed even if the system crashes right after.
What connections does Microsoft SQL Server support?
Windows Authentication (via Active Directory) and SQL Server authentication (via Microsoft SQL Server username and password).
Between Windows Authentication and SQL Server Authentication, which one is trusted and which one is untrusted?
Windows Authentication is trusted because the username and password are checked with the Active Directory, the SQL Server authentication is untrusted, since SQL Server is the only verifier participating in the transaction.
What does the Initial Catalog parameter define in the connection string?
The database name to connect to.
What does the Dispose method do with the connection object?
Deletes it from the memory.
To Do: answer better. The current answer is not entirely correct.
What is a pre-requisite for connection pooling?
Multiple processes must agree that they will share the same connection, where every parameter is the same, including the security settings. The connection string must be identical.

Assembly Questions

How is the DLL Hell problem solved in .NET?
Assembly versioning allows the application to specify not only the library it needs to run (which was available under Win32), but also the version of the assembly.
What are the ways to deploy an assembly?
An MSI installer, a CAB archive, and XCOPY command.
What is a satellite assembly?
When you write a multilingual or multi-cultural application in .NET, and want to distribute the core application separately from the localized modules, the localized assemblies that modify the core application are called satellite assemblies.
What namespaces are necessary to create a localized application?
System.Globalization and System.Resources.
What is the smallest unit of execution in .NET?
an Assembly.
When should you call the garbage collector in .NET?
As a good rule, you should not call the garbage collector. However, you could call the garbage collector when you are done using a large object (or set of objects) to force the garbage collector to dispose of those very large objects from memory. However, this is usually not a good practice.
How do you convert a value-type to a reference-type?
Use Boxing.
What happens in memory when you Box and Unbox a value-type?
Boxing converts a value-type to a reference-type, thus storing the object on the heap. Unboxing converts a reference-type to a value-type, thus storing the value on the stack.

Interview Tips

2008-12-21T15:22:00.001-08:00

Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events
What is the most difficult or frustrating part of constant change for you? How do you cope with it?

Adapts to changes in the work environment
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with changes in organizational direction that impacted your work. How did you respond?

Changes approach or method to best fit the situation
Give me a specific example of a time when you had to completely change your direction or approach to a project or problem to fit the situation.

Manages competing demands
Tell me about a situation where you were under a great deal of pressure because of numerous demands competing for your time and attention. How did you resolve the situation?

Attendance/Punctuality

Arrives at meetings and appointments on time
What do you do to ensure that you are on time for meetings and appointments? Tell me about a time when you were late for an important meeting. What did you do?

Ensures work responsibilities are covered when absent
Tell me about a time when you had to be absent from work. How did you arrange for the necessary coverage of your job?

Is consistently at work and on time
How many days did you miss from work in the last year? Can your last employer verify this information?

Customer Service

Manages difficult or emotional customer situations
Tell me about the most difficult customer encounter you've experienced. How did you handle it?

Meets commitments
Give me an example of a time when you were not able to meet a commitment to a customer (internal or external). What did you do?

Responds to requests for service and assistance
What do you understand the term "internal customer service" to mean? Tell me about a time you demonstrated excellent internal customer service.

Solicits customer feedback to improve service
Describe for me a time when you asked for customer feedback and used it to improve service.

Delegation

Gives authority to work independently
When delegating, are you more comfortable giving the person to whom you delegated full authority or closely monitoring progress? Give me an example of when this worked well, and then give me an example when it did not work well.

Sets expectations and monitors delegated activities
Describe how you set expectations when delegating and how you monitor progress.

Dependability

Commits to long hours of work when necessary to reach goals
Give me an example of a time when you had to go above and beyond to meet your project goal.

Completes tasks on time or notifies appropriate person with an alternate plan
Describe a situation in which you knew you would not be able to meet a deadline. What did you do?

Follows instructions, responds to management direction
Tell me about a time when you did not agree with the direction given you. How did you address the conflict?

Takes responsibility for own actions
Tell me about a situation when you did not respond appropriately. What did you do? Tell me about a time when you had difficulty keeping a commitment. How did you handle it?

Design

Demonstrates attention to detail
Some people are more detail-oriented than others. Give me an example of a time when you had to pay particular attention detail.

Generates creative solutions
Describe a problem you had that required a creative solution that had not been tried before. What was the outcome?

Ethics

Inspires the trust of others
Tell me about a time you were new to a company or work group. What steps did you take to build trust with coworkers and/or staff?

Keeps commitments
Give me an example of a time when you over-committed yourself. How did you handle it?

Treats people with respect
Describe a situation where you worked with someone you did not like or respect. How did you cope with the relationship?

Works with integrity and ethically
Describe what the terms "integrity" and "ethics" mean to you. Tell me about a time when your integrity or ethics were challenged. What did you do?

Initiative

Asks for and offers help when needed
Tell me about a time when you were overwhelmed with work. What did you do?

Seeks increased responsibilities
Tell me about a time when you asked for increased responsibility. What was your reason and how did you approach the other individual(s)?

Takes independent actions and calculated risks
Give me an example of a time when you had to take action or make a decision without the necessary approval. What motivated you and what was the risk?

Undertakes self-development activities
What self-development efforts have you made during the last three years?

Volunteers readily
Tell me about a time when you volunteered to do or assist with a project that was outside the scope of your own job. Why did you do it?

Interpersonal

Focuses on solving conflict, not blaming
Tell me about a time you had a serious conflict with a coworker. How did you handle the situation?

Keeps emotions under control
Describe a situation in which you were very emotional. How did you express yourself? What was the outcome?

Listens to others without interrupting
What techniques have you used to listen effectively? Give me an example of when you applied them in a difficult situation.

Maintains confidentiality
Tell me about a time you had to break a confidence. What was the reason and what did you do?

Remains open to others' ideas and tries new things
Tell me about a situation in which you had to be open to a new idea or change in procedure that you did not think would work. How did you handle it?

Judgment

Displays willingness to make decisions
Describe a time when you were faced with a decision you did not want to make. What did you do?

Exhibits sound and accurate judgment
Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision. What process did you go through to arrive at the decision?

Includes appropriate people in decision-making process
Tell me about a time you had to make a decision that would impact a number of other people. How did you go about it?

Makes timely decisions
Do you tend to make decisions quickly and instinctively or more slowly and methodically? Tell me about a time when your method did not achieve the results you expected. What happened and what did you do?

Leadership

Accepts feedback from others
Tell me about a time when someone gave you constructive feedback. How did you respond? What did you do with the information?

Displays passion and optimism
What are you passionate about? Tell me about a time when you generated enthusiasm and optimism in others because of your passion.

Exhibits confidence in self and others
In what areas are you the most confident? In which do you feel less confident and how are you attempting to overcome them?

Inspires respect and trust
Tell me about a time you had to build respect and trust within a team or work group. What steps did you take and what was the outcome

Motivation

Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles
Give me an example of a time when you faced obstacles that were keeping you from meeting a goal. What did you do?

Measures self against standard of excellence
Tell me about a time when you felt you came up short on your performance. What did you do about it?

Sets and achieves challenging goals
Describe the process you use to set and achieve goals.

Takes calculated risks to accomplish goals
What is the greatest risk you've taken in the last three years and what motivated you to take it?

Communication

Listens and gets clarification
Good listening is part of effective communication. Tell me about a specific time when your listening skills helped you communicate better.

Speaks clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations
Tell me about a time when you had to give instructions to another person who was having difficulty understanding. What did you do?

Professionalism

Accepts responsibility for own actions
Tell me about a time you had to tactfully confront someone about his or her inappropriate action or behavior. How did you do it?

Follows through on commitments
What steps or techniques do you take to ensure you meet your commitments?

Reacts well under pressure
Remaining calm under extreme pressure is a difficult skill for many people. Tell me about a situation when you were able to do this. Describe a situation when you were not able to stay calm under pressure. What happened and what did you do about it?

Treats others with respect and consideration regardless of their status or position
What was the biggest mistake you have made in your work? What did you do about it and what did you learn from it?

Quantity

Completes work in timely manner
What time management techniques do you use to ensure you meet productivity standards or deadlines? Give me a specific example of when you applied the techniques successfully.

Strives to increase productivity
What methods do you use to prioritize your work to ensure all tasks get completed?

Works quickly
Tell me about a time you had to work more quickly than you felt comfortable doing. How did it affect you?

Technical Skills

Assesses own strengths and weaknesses
Can you tell me in general terms how your technical skills meet the requirements for this position? What do you see as your shortcomings?

Strives to continuously build knowledge and skills
What were the two most valuable skills you learned in the last year and how did you apply them?