15 Manual Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers

Manual software testing remains a critical component in the software development lifecycle. Despite the rise of automated testing tools, manual testing is indispensable for its ability to catch nuanced issues that automated tests might overlook. It involves the meticulous process of manually executing test cases without the use of automation tools, ensuring that the software behaves as expected in real-world scenarios.

This article offers a curated selection of interview questions designed to assess your understanding and proficiency in manual software testing. By reviewing these questions and their answers, you will be better prepared to demonstrate your expertise and problem-solving abilities in your upcoming interviews.

Manual Software Testing Interview Questions and Answers

1. Describe the difference between Verification and Validation in software testing.

Verification is a static process involving reviews, inspections, and walkthroughs to ensure software design and architecture meet specified requirements and standards. It answers, “Are we building the product right?” and is typically performed during development without executing code.

Validation is a dynamic process involving actual testing by executing code to ensure the final product meets user needs. It answers, “Are we building the right product?” and is performed after development, including functional, system, and user acceptance testing.

2. Explain Boundary Value Analysis and provide an example.

Boundary Value Analysis (BVA) focuses on creating test cases for boundary values of input domains, as errors are more likely at boundaries. For example, in a system accepting values between 1 and 100, BVA test cases would include values like 1, 2, 100, 99, 0, and 101.

3. What is Exploratory Testing and when would you use it?

Exploratory testing involves simultaneous learning, test design, and execution without predefined test cases. It’s useful in early development stages, for complex applications, under time constraints, for ad-hoc testing, and during regression testing.

4. How do you handle incomplete or ambiguous requirements?

Handling incomplete or ambiguous requirements involves seeking clarification from stakeholders, analyzing available requirements, creating prototypes, implementing iterative feedback loops, documenting assumptions, and managing risks.

5. How would you test a login page manually?

To test a login page manually, consider various test cases for functionality, security, and usability. Focus on positive and negative test cases, boundary values, empty fields, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, usability, performance, security, and session management.

6. How do you ensure test coverage?

Ensuring test coverage involves creating a detailed test plan, mapping test cases to requirements, using test management tools, and conducting peer reviews and walkthroughs.

7. How would you manually test an API?

Manually testing an API involves understanding documentation, setting up the testing environment, making requests, validating responses, testing edge cases, checking performance, and ensuring security.

8. What is the importance of End-to-End Testing?

End-to-End Testing verifies the complete system flow, ensuring all integrated components work together. It validates system integrity, user experience, detects regression issues, and mitigates risks.

9. How do you perform Cross-Browser Testing manually?

Cross-browser testing ensures a web application behaves consistently across different browsers. Steps include identifying target browsers, preparing test cases, setting up the environment, executing tests, documenting issues, and retesting after fixes.

10. How would you test a mobile application manually?

Testing a mobile application manually involves functional, usability, performance, compatibility, security, localization, and network testing.

11. What are some common challenges in Manual Software Testing and how do you overcome them?

Manual software testing challenges include human error, time consumption, repetitive tasks, lack of coverage, and inconsistent execution. Overcome these with training, prioritization, automation, test case management tools, and peer reviews.

12. How do you perform Usability Testing?

Usability testing evaluates a product by testing it on users to identify issues, collect data, and determine satisfaction. Steps include planning, recruiting participants, designing tasks, conducting tests, analyzing data, reporting findings, and iterating.

13. Describe how you would handle a situation where a bug is not reproducible.

For a non-reproducible bug, gather detailed information, check for environmental issues, review recent changes, collaborate with developers, monitor and log, and document findings.

14. How do you ensure that your test cases are maintainable and reusable?

Ensure test cases are maintainable and reusable by using modular design, clear documentation, test data management, consistent naming conventions, version control, parameterization, and regular review and refactoring.

15. What steps would you take to test a web application’s responsiveness?

To test a web application’s responsiveness, identify target devices, use responsive design tools, test on real devices, check layout and content adaptation, test navigation and interactions, evaluate performance, conduct cross-browser testing, and consider automated tools.