Common Interview Questions for Test Analysts

1. What is the difference between a use case and test case?

They are both instances of using the product. But they differ in terms of perspective and scope. A use case is describing a user achieving a general goal, and a test case is listing the particular steps to test a function which could be part of the general goal. For example, users to sign up at Facebook could be a use case, and the corresponding test cases could be testing signup button, testing personal information text boxes...



2. Which phase of SDLC does the tester begin to write test cases?

Ideally, the early the better which makes it the planning phase. This is mainly because of early tests prevents errors in the later stage.

3. What is the difference between functional documents and business documents?

Functional documents include the technical details of the software developed and usually maintained by the developers' team. Whereas business documents are kept by the product owners to keep track of the business requirements.


4. Who are the different stakeholders involved in different phases of SDLC?

Requirements– Business Analyst
Design – System Architect
Coding – Software Developer
Testing – Tester
Implementation – Operational Team
Maintenance – Production Support Team


5. Why do we need a separate environment for the developers and testers?

Because end users may not use the same environment as the developers, so testers have to make sure the product works properly in the users' environment, not the developers'.


6. What is the role of a Business Analyst in different phases of SDLC?

Requirements– Requirements gathering and analysis
Design – Document changes to the requirements
Coding – Keep in touch with the developers
Testing – Judging for user acceptance testing
Implementation – Forward beta version to users


7. What is the role of a Developer in different phases of SDLC?

Requirements– Offering technical suggestions
Design – Generating development strategy
Coding – Coding
Testing – Work with testers to fix bugs
Implementation – Fix bugs found in beta version


8. What is the role of a Test Analyst in different phases of SDLC?

Requirements– Offering technical suggestions
Design – Generating test strategy
Coding – Understanding codes
Testing – Testing
Implementation – Helping beta version


9. What is the role of a Customer in different phases of SDLC?

Requirements– Express their needs
Design –
Coding –
Testing – Helping with user acceptance testing
Implementation – Helping with beta version testing


10. What is the testing process followed in a company ideally?

Requirements analysis > Test planning > Test case development > Environment setup > Test execution > Test cycle closure


11. What are the activities performed in test design and test execution?

In test design, test conditions and test cases are specified according to the testing strategy.
During test execution, testers will run the test cases and report bugs or defects found. They will also follow up the bug fixing and retest. In this stage, testers have to work closely with developers and product owners.


12. Explain the difference between an SDLC and STLC?

SDLC is the whole picture of developing a software with multiple parties involved. STLC is actually part of SDLC that mainly focus on work related to testing.


13. What is test scenario, test condition and test case?

Test scenario and test condition are almost the same by describing the overall objective of a series of test cases. Test case is the detailed step by step instruction of verifying a particular situation.


14. What is the process to write a manual test case?

Understand the requirement > try it out manually > define the test condition > describe step by step execution > provide expected results and other criteria


15. What is a test cycle and why it is important to carry out testing in cycles?

It is a framework to carry out a structured series of testing including smoke testing, sanity testing, regression testing, system testing, integration testing, and end to end testing. The advantage of using such framework is to guarantee quality, uniformity, and efficiency.  

16. Explain Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) in simple terms.

It is a document that maps and traces user requirement with test cases.