A manual test engineer is a software professional responsible for testing software and ensuring it meets the desired quality standards. Manual Test Engineers play a vital role in making the final product meet the desired requirements and also ensure that the end-user experience is polished and free of bugs.
Manual Testing Engineers do a lot of explorative and step-by-step testing to bring out the flaws that might have crept into the software. Their work is essential before the launch of the software. They are the final and most crucial step in certifying software quality.
The need for skilled manual testers is continuously rising as software becomes more complicated. The following manual test engineer interview questions and answers can help a candidate better prepare for interviews regarding the Manual Testing Engineer roles.
Testing Fundamentals
The fundamentals are constantly tested in interviews. The candidate should have a firm grasp of the fundamental concepts of the testing process. The interview questions for manual testing mentioned below are some of the fundamentals that can be asked.
Question 1: What Is the Importance of Manual Testing in the Software Development Life Cycle?
One of the top answers to this manual testing interview question is mentioned below.
Answer: Manual testing is crucial in software development in the early and later stages. It enables early-stage testing and provides the much-needed user experience for further software development. Manual testing brings the essential human element and creativity to software development.
Question 2: Explain the Difference Between Verification and Validation in Testing.
Answer: Verification and validation differ in terms of the aspects being tested. Verification checks whether the software meets the specified requirements and predetermined standards, whereas validation focuses more on whether the software satisfies the user and their expectations.
This is an essential manual testing interview question.
Question 3: What Are the Fundamental Principles and Best Practices of Manual Testing?
Answer: The fundamental principles include test planning and strategy, execution and documentation, exploratory testing, regression testing, user experience validation, and defect management. The best practices are to be clear in the testing process, create priorities, do smoke tests, and maintain clear documentation of the errors and the testing stages.
Question 4: How Do You Approach Test Case Design and Test Coverage?
Answer: Adopting a systematic approach is very important for testing. Analyzing the requirements and then designing scenarios for testing is the preliminary step. After that, covering all functional and non-functional aspects of testing and continuing to optimize test cases is essential.
Question 5: Can You Discuss the Advantages and Limitations of Manual Testing?
This is a basic manual testing interview question designed to test your conceptual understanding.
Answer:
The advantages of manual testing include-
- Exploratory Testing
- Cost Effectiveness
- Usability Testing
- Non-Functional Testing
Some of the disadvantages are-
- Time-Consuming
- Non-Scalable
- Prone to human error
- Repetitive and Tedious
Test Planning and Execution
Question 6: How Do You Create a Comprehensive Test Plan for a Project?
Answer: Creating a comprehensive test plan for a project involves steps like-
- Understanding the requirements
- Defining the scope
- Defining and optimizing the test cases
- Planning testing environments
- Making a schedule for testing
- Monitor and Document progress
Question 7: What Factors Do You Consider When Prioritizing Test Cases?
Answer: There are several things to consider while deciding the priority for test cases. Some factors are-
- Criticality of functions
- Risk Analysis
- Frequency of Use
- User experience
- Legal Requirements
Question 8: Can You Describe Your Approach to Test Execution and Defect Reporting?
This is among the common execution-based manual testing engineering interview questions and answers.
Answer: It is vital to have a holistic approach to test execution and defect reporting. Regression and ad-hoc testing are essential to ensure that every aspect of the software can be tested. For defect reporting, the conciseness of the report is of prime importance.
The defect being reported should be reproducible. It is also necessary to describe the severity of the defect.
Question 9: How Do You Ensure Effective Test Environment Setup and Configuration?
Answer: Test environments depend on the software type and components being tested. Strategies like sandbox testing, version control, and emulating the final user environment are some of the things that can ensure effective environments for testing.
Maintaining proper documentation and continuous monitoring of the testing environment is also necessary.
Question 10: What Strategies Do You Use to Ensure Adequate Test Coverage?
Answer: Some strategies that ensure adequate test coverage are-
- Risk-Based Testing
- Non-Functional Testing
- Regression Testing
- Exploratory Testing
- Guessing of Errors
- Feedback and Collaboration
- Focusing on Requirements
Test Design Techniques
There are many techniques used in the process of test design. As such, this topic opens the way to many questions considering the advantages, disadvantages, and differences between the various types.
Given below are the top answers to manual testing interview questions containing the topics that are most frequently asked.
Question 11: Can You Explain Boundary Value Analysis and Equivalence Partitioning?
Answer: These black-box testing techniques make effective test cases and utilize critical input values. Boundary value analysis focuses on testing the values at the edge of partitions. This is because errors and defects most commonly occur at the edges of acceptable ranges.
On the other hand, Equivalence partitioning is a technique that separates user input data into classes or equivalent partitions from which test cases can be derived. Data is usually separated into valid and invalid equivalent classes.
Question 12: How Do You Apply Decision Table Testing in Your Test Design?
Answer: For decision table testing, the identification of positive and negative conditions surrounding testing should be listed in the tables, and the outcomes generated in those conditions should be recorded.
Test cases should be generated according to various scenarios, and the boundary values should also be covered. The Decision Table ensures a structured and comprehensive approach to software testing.
Question 13: What Is Exploratory Testing, and When Do You Use It?
This interview question for manual testing analyzes the candidate’s conceptual knowledge of the field.
Answer: Exploratory testing is a technique that utilizes the creativity of the tester, their experience, and their knowledge. Test cases are designed and executed individually in exploratory testing as the tester conceives them. It utilizes the tester’s creativity and skill in designing the test cases.
Question 14: Can You Discuss Your Experience With Error Guessing and Error Seeding?
Answer: Candidates should use their experience to formulate an answer here. Including different types of errors that they seeded to strengthen the testing process, the errors they guessed, and why they thought that error would be present are ideally included in the response.)
Question 15: How Do You Validate and Verify Software Requirements Through Testing?
Answer: The first phase is designing various test cases to thoroughly test the software and ensure it meets all the software requirements. Regression testing and defect reporting are what follow. Validation reviews should also be done with the concerned stakeholders at various stages of the testing process.
Defect Management and Reporting
Defect management and reporting is an essential component of the testing process and also shows how well a tester can integrate into the whole development and release process.
Given below are some basic manual testing interview questions that can be asked on this topic.
Question 16: How Do You Identify, Classify, and Report Software Defects?
Answer: For this purpose, the expected results are compared with the actual results to identify the defects. Other discrepancies and unexpected behaviour are also identified.
The defects are classified into critical, medium, and low severity levels. After this, a report is prepared full with the details of the defects, after ensuring that the defects are reproducible. The defect reports are then communicated to the management team.
Question 17: Can You Describe Your Approach to Defect Triaging and Prioritization?
Answer: A candidate should reflect on their experience to describe their approach. It is better to keep the response in points, and not over-describe any specifics. They should also avoid including the definitions of triaging and prioritization.
Question 18: How Do You Ensure Effective Communication With Development Teams Regarding Identified Defects?
Answer: Regularly scheduled meetings with the development teams are necessary to maintain proper communication.
Detailed reports should be prepared and communicated with the development team. Appropriate classifications are also necessary, and the severe defects can be significant issues during meetings or be the subject of more frequent meetings.
Question 19: Can You Discuss Your Experience With Defect-Tracking Tools and Metrics?
Answer: Candidates should use their experience to formulate an answer. Mention of the tools they have used in the past and how they contributed to the testing process is appreciated.
Question 20: How Do You Contribute to Root Cause Analysis and Defect Prevention Activities?
Answer: Candidates should mention the collaboration with developers, how they identified patterns in the defects, and how they used data-driven insights to make improvements and suggestions to the whole team.
Test Documentation and Reporting
Question 21: How Do You Create and Maintain Test Cases and Test Scripts?
Answer: Creation and maintenance of test cases require-
- Analyzing the requirements of the project
- Factoring various scenarios for the testing process, including both positive and negative.
- Using version control and frequently revisiting cases.
- Seeking feedback
- Ensuring that test cases and scenarios are reproducible and traceable.
Question 22: Can You Discuss Your Experience With Test Case Management Tools?
Answer: Candidates should use their experience in formulating an answer. Discussing at least 2 to 3 tools gives off a better impression. They should refrain from indulging too much in the information of the projects and show the connection between the project and the tools.)
Question 23: What Information Should Be Included in a Comprehensive Test Report?
Answer: A well-prepared and comprehensive test report should contain the following details-
- Scope of the testing
- Details about the testing environment
- Defect Summary
- Traceability details
- Testing results and logs
- A concise summary of the testing efforts
Question 24: How Do You Ensure Test Documentation Is Accurate and Up-To-Date?
Answer: Frequent reviews of the documentation and ensuring traceability and reproducibility of the test cases are necessary to ensure the accuracy of the documentation. Version control systems also ensure homogeneity across test cases and scenarios.
Question 25: Can You Describe Your Experience With Test Metrics and Measurement Techniques?
(Candidates should indulge in their experience relating to these arenas. Involving objective results generated by their contributions and why they thought which technique was appropriate is expected.)
Test Process Improvement
Optimizing the test processes is an essential component of the job description of a Manual Testing Engineer. The following Manual Test Engineer interview questions and answers deal with the problem of improving the test processes.
Question 26: How Do You Contribute to Continuous Improvement in the Testing Process?
Answer: Continuous improvement is a product of a lot of factors coming together. Taking frequent reviews, setting up a feedback loop between the testers and developers, and frequently analyzing the metrics and the defects are the primary ways to improve the testing process continuously.
Question 27: Can You Discuss Your Experience With Test Automation and Its Benefits?
A top answer to this manual testing interview question should include the candidate’s experience with the test cases that they automated and their reasoning for the same presented benefits. Some benefits of automated testing include increased test coverage and reduced manual effort.
Question 28: How Do You Implement Risk-Based Testing in Your Projects?
Answer: Risk-based testing is implemented by following some steps, such as-
- Identifications of the risks
- Prioritization of the risks
- Designing cases around the risks
- Regression Testing
- Documentation of the outcomes.
Question 29: Can You Describe Your Approach to Test Estimation and Resource Allocation?
Answer: A good approach always starts with factoring in what the requirement of the testing is. According to the requirements, the resources are considered and allocated in a documented schedule based on the resources’ skills and the testing’s priorities. After that, continuous tweaking is done to the whole process to get improved outcomes.
Question 30: How Do You Stay Updated With the Latest Trends and Advancements in Manual Testing?
Answer: Networking with industry professionals, testing forums, and collaboration with other professionals are the primary ways to stay updated on the latest trends in manual testing. Seminars and conferences are a significant way to stay updated on the advancements in manual testing.
Collaboration and Teamwork
Teamwork is an important skill tested to see whether you could become a well-oiled component of the organization.
Some common interview questions for manual testing in this domain that can be asked in an interview are-
Question 31: How Do You Collaborate With Developers and Other Stakeholders During the Testing Process?
Answer: Collaboration can be done in many ways, but it is essential to follow some fundamentals, such as frequent peer reviews, joint debugging meetings, clear communications between testers and developers, etc. Communications and collaboration platforms also streamline the process of effective collaboration.
Question 32: Can You Discuss Your Experience Working In Agile or Scrum Development Environments?
Answer: Candidates should reflect on their experience to formulate a response. A good answer should include how complex the development process was in the scrum environment and how they contributed to the continuous development and improvement of the testing process)
Question 33: How Do You Contribute to a Positive Team Culture and Knowledge Sharing?
Answer: Frequent peer reviews, communication outside of work, team building exercises, etc., promote strong bonds within the team. Knowledge sharing can be done through progress meetings, ad-hoc testing meetings, etc. A good feedback culture boosts productivity and also promotes a positive team culture.
Question 34: Can You Describe a Time When You Successfully Resolved Conflicts Within a Testing Team?
Answer: The response should be focused on how the candidate addressed each person’s grievances and created win-win solutions for everyone. Highlighting how they mediated the situation and brought it under control is appreciated.)
Question 35: How Do You Handle Time Constraints and Manage Competing Priorities in Your Testing Work?
Answer: Analyzing priorities and making comprehensive test plans after considering the requirements is an excellent way to handle time constraints. For competing priorities, collaborating with the stakeholders is vital to get a clear idea of the time and resources required to complete different tasks of different priorities.
Test Environment and Test Data Management
Controlling the test environment and managing the data involved in the testing process are essential skills for any manual tester. A firm grasp of this domain displays your competency as a tester.
Some of the Manual Test Engineer interview questions and answers that can be asked concerning these domains are given below.
Question 36: How Do You Set Up and Manage Test Environments for Different Projects?
Answer: Managing different test environments requires maintaining cleanliness and a proper log of the requirements of different test cases. For test data management, data must be appropriately recorded with a methodology that can be traced back to the test cases effectively. Automation tools for environment provisioning are also helpful and ensure accurate version control.
Question 37: Can You Discuss Your Experience With Test Data Preparation and Management?
Answer Candidates should use their experience to formulate an answer. Mention of the steps they took to prepare for the test and how they managed and logged the data is expected. Include data anonymization, versioning, referential integrity, etc.
Question 38: What Challenges Have You Encountered in the Test Environment Setup, and How Did You Overcome Them?
Answer: A good answer mentions challenges such as maintaining data integrity, keeping it masked, isolation of data, managing similar test environments, security issues, etc. It is preferable to keep the answer in the issue format followed by the solution.
Question 39: Can you describe your experience with configuration management of test environments?
Answer: The candidate should use their experience to their advantage. It is preferable to mention the steps that should always be taken before testing to maintain a standard for the same. Include steps like version control, change management, CI/CD, etc. Documenting all the changes and the configurations is also very important.
Question 40: How Do You Ensure Test Data Privacy and Security in Your Testing Activities?
Answer: Steps that can be taken to ensure data privacy and security in testing activities include-
- Anonymizing and Masking the data.
- Stringent data auditing
- Encryption of highly sensitive data
- Access control protocols
Conclusion
The types of Manual Test Engineer interview questions and answers presented in this article adequately summarize the domains from which questions can be asked in interviews for Manual Testing engineer roles. One should have a solid foundational knowledge of testing and a complete flowchart of the testing process in their mind.
Other than that, it is essential that interviewees remain confident in their answers and do not stretch any answers into the abstracts. Doing so displays that you are confident in your answers and have a clear answer in your mind.
If you follow all these steps, you should be able to get an edge over the competition and secure a manual Testing Engineer job in such heavy competition.
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