You've used your killer resume to land an interview with a great company. Now how should you go about preparing?
Of the 300+ software engineers I interviewed for Google (and previously Microsoft), some of them really shone, and others seemed ill-prepared. Many of the ill-prepared ones still got offers because they're obviously stars, but it's safer and less stressful to prepare yourself beforehand. Below are some tips that I've gathered over time:
1. Practice using the same medium (e.g. paper and pencil) and time limits (e.g. 30 minutes) as the real interview.
Google and Microsoft both use whiteboard coding questions, yet often candidates practice by coding alone at home on a computer with a compiler. During the actual interview, they stand at the whiteboard and forget how to initialize an array, without their trusty syntax highlighter. Or they are so nervous having another person watch them that they panic and can't think straight.
In real life, if you plan to swim the English Channel, would you limit your practice to laps at the local swimming pool? No, you would go test out the ocean waves, the salt water. Do the same here.
Ask your recruiter the format of the interview and any coding questions. If the company gives the candidates an hour alone in a room with an editor and no compiler, practice that at home. If the company does whiteboard questions with an interviewer watching you, ask an engineer friend to be your mock interviewer. It's fine if the friend is a less experienced engineer than you -- they'll still bring out your nervousness about making mistakes in front of others, so you can practice getting used to that.
If you know me in real life and want me to do a mock interview for you, my going rate is dinner at Fuki Sushi if you're in industry, or at Pizza My Heart if you're a strapped-for-money student.
2. During the interview, don't obsess over little mistakes that happen.
On more than one occasion, when I gave a star candidate a coding question, he zeroed in on the most optimally performant solution, identified the boundary cases, and began writing well-designed code. Midway through the problem, he makes a little error -- getting the order of operations wrong on the first try, or having an off-by-1 error, or forgetting to declare a variable.
When I point it out, the candidate responds with horror and then becomes so nervous that it impacts his performance during the rest of the interview.
The fear is unfounded. An awesome candidate making a little error is like a concert violinist playing a challenging Brahms concerto and hitting two wrong notes. Sure, the audience could tell that he made mistakes, but they don't get confused as to whether he's actually at Twinkle-Twinkle-Little-Star level.
Even if you completely bomb one question, many interviewers ask you multiple questions and will forgive a single mishap. Even bombing an entire interview is recoverable if the other interviews go well.
Recently one of my coworkers (a tech lead for another project) interviewed a candidate and was very curt because he found the candidate's communication style irritating. The candidate proved himself during the interview, and the tech lead ended up being the strongest proponent for this candidate. He advocated harder for that candidate than he has for anyone else in a year.
When things don't go well, just keep at it and don't give up hope.
3. Don't be rude to your interviewer.
This should be obvious, but I have been surprised. One engineering candidate said to me, "Wow, I can't believe you're really my interviewer! You look so young!! I thought you were 18! Once you told me your credentials, I understand now, but at first I thought, 'This person is interviewing me?!?!'"
That wasn't so smart.
Other things that I recommend against saying:
* "Wow, you're really my interviewer? You look so old!"
* "Wow, you're really my interviewer? You look so fat!"
Another time, the candidate's cell phone rang 15 minutes into the interview. She let it go, and we were both distracted by it ringing for the next 20 seconds. 5 minutes later, it happened again. Another 5 minutes later, it rang for a third time.
She finally reached for her purse and fumbled inside it for the phone. "It's about time", I thought, "she should've turned it off before coming in here." She dug the phone out of the purse and then proceeded to take the phone call right there in the middle of the interview.
The only justification is if there is a family emergency, and in that case, warn your interviewer explicitly at the start of the interview.
4. Don't hijack the interview.
I've had a couple of candidates who came into the interview with the mindset that they MUST tell me all about their recent project Zoolander. I start the interview and they break in with, "I want to tell you about Zoolander. 10 years ago, this project started as a side feature..." and then go on for 5 minutes without taking a breath.
Sometimes they decide that they must tell every interviewer about Zoolander, repeating the same description over and over during the day.
Your interviewer has specific questions that they need to get through. If you hijack the interview, they may not have enough data from their own questions to be able to endorse your hiring. They may also think that you would be difficult to work with.
If you really want to talk about a project, ask your interviewer, "I think project Zoolander really shows off my abilities. Can you or another interviewer fit in 10 minutes for me to explain it?" The interviewer can then refit their plan for the interview, instead of suddenly having their schedule be shanghaied.
5. When answering questions expecting a specific answer, give a high-level summary first.
Sometimes I ask a question expecting a short answer, "How many people worked with you on project Zoolander?" The candidate then gives me an audiobook, "Well, there was Jimmy -- he did the UI and I had to mentor him quite a bit on it. Then there was Mary who ran the backend servers. She worked remotely from Pennsylvania. Two years later, we got another backend person David..."
Three minutes later, the candidate is still talking, and I still don't know the answer of how many people worked on the project.
Give an answer first, and then expound. "There were 3 when I joined, and 12 when I left. First there was Jimmy ..."
Better yet, give the answer and offer to expound. "There were 3 when I joined, and 12 when I left. Would you like me to tell you what each one did?"
6. (Not as important) Wear something comfortable to your interview. Business casual is the most typical.
People sometimes wonder how they should dress. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable. If you still want a recommendation, I say a button-down shirt or even a T-shirt. A suit can come off as too formal in some companies (e.g. Google).
This point is not as important, because people won't really care. You should ask your recruiter about what to wear, since this differs by country and East Coast / West Coast. A company like Google is more casual, so if you come in a three-piece suit, your interviewers may raise an eyebrow. If you've got the goods in terms of engineering skills, it's not a dealbreaker though. One candidate came to an interview wearing a gothic mesh shirt with holes through which his nipples were clearly visible. He still got the job. (I don't recommend taking this risk.)
A final story
I'd like to leave you with a story of an unfortunate interview. Draw hope that no matter how your interview goes, you will likely be more lucky than this candidate.
At Microsoft, we always offered drinks to our candidates, and one candidate "Jeff" took a pepsi. We got into my office, and he set it down on the desk. We started discussing his experiences and then launched into the whiteboard coding question, and he didn't get around to opening his pepsi.
We stood at the whiteboard, and Jeff started to write a line of code. He stopped to think about the overall algorithm, and absentmindedly took a step back in order to see the entire whiteboard. In doing so, he inadvertently knocked against the desk, and the pepsi fell off the edge.
This pepsi was still unopened. Thus, when it hit the ground, it exploded on impact.
Pepsi sprayed in foamy gusts in all directions from the can. It was a slow-motion moment as beige spots of soda splashed onto my white walls, my bookshelf, my keyboard. We both stood there frozen, our hands halfway out (too slow to catch the pepsi), looking at the dripping liquid coating the entire inside of my office.
We took a 5-minute break to get paper towels and mop up the mess. (Though my books always stuck together after that day, and my walls were never the same again.)
We then returned to the whiteboard question. Jeff was nervous by this time (do you blame him?). He wrote some code, erased it, wrote more. He erased using his fingers against the board instead of using the eraser. Then sweat formed on his forehead, and he wiped it off using the same hand. By the end of the interview, his face was covered in streaks of red, green, and blue whiteboard marker.
I said, "I think you have some marker on your hands. I'll show you the restroom." and let the bathroom mirror show him the problem.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing
Hiring the right people is extremely crucial to Fog Creek Software. In our field, there are three types of people. At one end of the scale, there are the unwashed masses, lacking even the most basic skills for this job. They are easy to ferret out and eliminate, often just by reviewing a resume and asking two or three quick questions. At the other extreme, are the brilliant superstars who write lisp compilers for fun, in a weekend, in Assembler for the Palm Pilot. And in the middle, you have a large number of "maybes" who seem like they might just be able to contribute something. The trick is telling the difference between the superstars and the maybes, because at Fog Creek Software we only hire the superstars. Here are some techniques for doing that.
First of all, the #1 cardinal criteria for getting hired at Fog Creek:
Smart, and
Gets Things Done.
That's it. That's all we're looking for. Memorize that. Recite it to yourself before you go to bed every night. Our goal is to hire people with aptitude, not a particular skill set. Any skill set that people can bring to the job will be technologically obsolete in a couple of years, anyway, so it's better to hire people that are going to be able to learn any new technology rather than people who happen to know SQL programming right this minute.
Smart is hard to define, but as we look at some possible interview questions we'll see how you can ferret it out. Gets Things Done is crucial. People who are Smart but don't Get Things Done often have PhDs and work in big companies where nobody listens to them because they are completely impractical. They would rather mull over something academic about a problem rather than ship on time. These kind of people can be identified because they love to point out the theoretical similarity between two widely divergent concepts. For example, they will say "Spreadsheets are really just a special case of programming language" and then go off for a week and write a thrilling, brilliant white paper about the theoretical computational linguistic attributes of a spreadsheet as a programming language. Smart, but not useful.
Now, people who Get Things Done but are not Smart will do stupid things, seemingly without thinking about them, and somebody else will have to come clean up their mess later. This makes them liabilities to the company because not only don't they contribute, but they soak up good people's time. They are the kind of people who copy big chunks of code around rather than writing a subroutine, because it gets the job done, just not in the smartest way.
The most important rule about interviewing:
Make A Decision
At the conclusion of the interview, you have to be ready to make a sharp decision about the candidate. There are only two possible outcomes to this decision: Hire or No Hire. Turn to your computer and send immediate feedback to the recruiter. The subject line should be the name of the candidate. The first line of the email should be Hire or No Hire. Then you should spend about 2 paragraphs backing up your decision.
There is no other possible answer. Never say, "Hire, but not in my group." This is rude and implies that the candidate is not smart enough to work with you, but maybe he's smart enough for those losers over in that other group. If you find yourself tempted to say "Hire, but not in my group," simply translate that mechanically to "No Hire" and you'll be OK. Even if you have a candidate that would be brilliant at doing 1 particular thing, but wouldn't be very good in another group, that's a No Hire. Things change so often and so rapidly that we need people that can succeed anywhere. If for some reason you find an idiot savant that is really, really, really good at SQL but completely incapable of ever learning any other topic, No Hire. They don't have a future at Fog Creek.
Never say "Maybe, I can't tell." If you can't tell, that means No Hire. It's really easier than you'd think. Can't tell? Just say no! Similarly, if you are on the fence, that means No Hire. Never say, "Well, Hire, I guess, but I'm a little bit concerned about..." That's a No Hire as well.
An important thing to remember about interviewing is this: it is much better to reject a good candidate than to accept a bad candidate. A bad candidate will cost a lot of money and effort and waste other people's time fixing all their bugs. If you have any doubts whatsoever, No Hire.
While you are conducting the interview, don't worry that if you reject a lot of people, Fog Creek won't be able to find anyone to hire. That's not your problem. It's the recruiter's problem, it's H.R.'s problem, it's Joel's problem, but it's not your problem. Keep asking yourself which is worse - that we grow into a big, lousy software company with lots of coconuts, or that we stay small but high quality? Of course, it's important to seek out good candidates and everybody should see it as a part of their mission to find and recruit smart people who get things done. But once you're actually interviewing someone, pretend that Fog Creek has plenty of great candidates. Never lower your standards no matter how hard it seems to find great candidates.
But how do you make this difficult decision? You just have to keep asking yourself during the interview: is this person smart? Does this person get things done? In order to be able to tell, you're going to have to ask the right questions.
Just for fun, here is the worst interview question on Earth: "What's the difference between varchar and varchar2 in Oracle 8i?" This is a terrible question. There is no possible, imaginable correlation between people that know that particular piece of useless trivia and people that Fog Creek wants to hire. Who cares what the difference is? You can find out online in about 15 seconds!
Actually, there are some even worse questions. I'll get to that later.
So now we get to the fun part: interview questions. My list of interview questions comes from my first job at Microsoft. There are actually hundreds of famous Microsoft interview questions. Everybody has a set of questions that they really like. You, too, will develop a particular set of questions and a personal interviewing style which helps you make the Hire/No Hire decision. Here are some techniques that I have used that have been successful.
Before the interview, I read over the candidates resume and jot down an interview plan on a scrap of paper. That's just a list of questions that I want to ask. Here's a typical plan for interviewing a programmer:
1. Introduction
2. Question about recent project candidate worked on
3. Impossible Question
4. C Function
5. Are you satisfied?
6. Design Question
7. The Challenge
8. Do you have any questions?
Before the interview, I am very, very careful to avoid anything that might give me some preconceived notions about the candidate. If you think that someone is smart before they even walk into the room, just because they have a Ph.D. from MIT, then nothing they can say in 1 hour is going to overcome that initial prejudice. If you think they are a bozo, nothing they can say will overcome that initial impression. An interview is like a very, very delicate scale -- it's very hard to judge someone based on a 1 hour interview and it may seem like a very close call. But if you know a little bit about the candidate beforehand, it's like a big weight on one side of the scale, and the interview is useless. Once, right before an interview, a recruiter came into my office. "You're going to love this guy," she said. BOY did this make me mad. What I should have said was, "well, if you're so sure I'm going to love him, why don't you just hire him instead of wasting my time going through this interview." But I was young and naïve, so I interviewed him. When he said not-so-smart things, I thought to myself, "gee, must be the exception that proves the rule." I looked at everything he said through rose-colored glasses. I wound up saying Hire even though he was a crappy candidate. You know what? Everybody else who interviewed him said No Hire. So: don't listen to recruiters; don't ask around about the person before you interview them; and never, ever talk to the other interviewers about the candidate until you've both made your decisions independently. It's the scientific method!
The Introduction phase of the interview is intended to put the candidate at ease. I spend about 30 seconds telling the person who I am and how the interview will work. I always reassure the candidate that we are interested in how he goes about solving problems, not the actual answer. By the way, in doing the interview, you should make sure that you are not sitting across a desk from the candidate. This creates a formal barrier which will not place the candidate at ease. It is better to move the desk against a wall, or to go around and sit on the other side of the desk with the candidate; this does help put the candidate at ease. This results in a better interview because it is less distorted by nervousness.
Part 2 is a question about some recent project that the candidate worked on. For interviewing college kids, ask them about their senior thesis, if they had one, or about a course they took that involved a long project that they really enjoyed. For example, sometimes I will ask, "what class did you take last semester that you liked the most? It doesn't have to be computer-related." Actually I am usually pretty happy if they choose a non-computer related course. Sometimes you look at their schedule, and it looks like they are taking the bare minimum number of Comp Sci courses, but every elective is something related to Music. Then they will tell you that their favorite course was Object Oriented Databases. Yeah, right. I'd be happier if they admitted that they just liked music more than computers, instead of sucking up.
When interviewing experienced candidates, you can talk about their previous job.
In this question, I'm looking for one thing: passion. When you find a project that the person worked on recently, these are all good signs:
* They get very excited talking about it; they tend to talk more quickly and get animated. This shows that when they are interesting in something, they will be passionate about it. There are far too many people around that can work on something and not really care one way or the other. Even if they are passionately negative, this can be just as good a sign. "I was working on installing Foo Bar Mark II for my previous employer, but he was such a dope!" These are good candidates that we want to hire. Bad candidates just don't care and will not get enthusiastic at all during the interview. A really good sign that a candidate is passionate about something is that when they are talking about it, they will forget for a moment that they are in an interview. Sometimes a candidate comes in who is very nervous about being in an interview situation -- this is normal so I always overlook that. But then when you get them talking about Computational Monochromatic Art they will get extremely excited and lose all signs of nervousness. Good. I like passionate people who really care. (To see an example of Computational Monochromatic Art try unplugging your monitor.)
* They are careful to explain things. I have rejected candidates because when they talked about their previous project, they couldn't explain it in terms that a normal person could understand. Often engineering majors will just assume that everyone knows what Bates Theorem is or what Peano's Axioms are. If they start doing this, stop them for a minute and say, "could you do me a favor, just for the sake of the exercise, could you please explain this in terms my grandmother could understand." At this point many people will still continue to use jargon and will completely fail to make themselves understood. GONG!
* If the project was a team project, look for signs that they took a leadership role. A candidate might say: "we were working on X, but the boss said Y and the client said Z." I'll ask, "so what did you do?" A good answer to this might be "I got together with the other members of the team and wrote a proposal..." A bad answer might be, "Well, there was nothing I could do. It was an impossible situation." Remember, Smart and Gets Things Done. A good way to tell if somebody Gets Things Done is to see if historically they have tended to get things done in the past. In fact, you can even ask them directly to give you an example from their recent past when they took a leadership role and got something done -- overcame some institutional inertia, for example.
OK, the third thing on that list is the impossible question. This is fun. The idea is to ask a question that they have no possible way of answering, just to see how they handle it. "How many optometrists are there in Seattle?" "How many tons does the Washington Monument weigh?" "How many gas stations are in Los Angeles?" "How many piano tuners are there in New York?"
* Smart candidates will realize that you are not quizzing them on their knowledge, and they will enthusiastically leap into trying to figure out some back-of-the-envelope answer. "Well, lets see, the population of LA is about 7 million; each person in LA has about 2.5 cars..." Of course it's OK if they are radically wrong. The important thing is that they leapt into the question enthusiastically. They may try to figure out the capacity of a gas station. "Gee, it takes 4 minutes to tank up, gas stations have about 10 pumps and are open about 18 hours a day..." They may try to figure it out by area. Sometimes they will surprise you with their creativity or ask for a Los Angeles yellow pages. All good signs.
* Not-so-smart candidates will get flustered and upset. They will just stare at you like you landed from Mars. You have to coach them. "Well, if you were building a new city the size of Los Angeles, how many gas stations would you put in it?" You can give them little hints. "How long does it take to fill up a tank of gas?" Still, with not-smart candidates, you will have to drag them along while they sit there stupidly and wait for you to rescue them. These people are not problem solvers and we don't want them working for us.
For programming questions, I ask candidates to write a small function in C. Here are some typical problems I would ask:
1. Reverse a string in place
2. Reverse a linked list
3. Count all the bits that are on in a byte
4. Binary search
5. Find the longest run in a string
6. atoi
7. itoa (great, because they have to use a stack or strrev)
You don't want to give them any problems that take more than about 5 lines of code; you won't have time for that.
Let's look at a couple of these in detail. #1: reverse a string in place. Every candidate I've ever interviewed in my life has done this wrong the first time. Without exception, they try to allocate another buffer and reverse the string into that buffer. The trouble is, who allocates the buffer? Who frees the buffer? In giving this question to dozens of candidates I found out an interesting fact. Most people who think that they know C really do not understand memory or pointers. They just don't get it. It's amazing that these people are working as programmers, but they are. With this question, here are some ways to judge the candidate:
* Is their function fast? Look at how many times they call strlen. I've seen O(n^2) algorithms for strrev when it should be O(n), because they are calling strlen again and again in a loop.
* Do they use pointer arithmetic? This is a good sign. Many "C programmers" just don't know how to make pointer arithmetic work. Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't reject a candidate just because he lacked a particular skill. However, I've discovered that understanding pointers in C is not a skill, it's an aptitude. In Freshman year CompSci, there are always about 200 kids at the beginning of the semester, all of whom wrote complex adventure games in BASIC for their Atari 800s when they were 4 years old. They are having a good ol'; time learning Pascal in college, until one day their professor introduces pointers, and suddenly, they don't get it. They just don't understand anything any more. 90% of the class goes off and becomes PoliSci majors, then they tell their friends that there weren't enough good looking members of the appropriate sex in their CompSci classes, that's why they switched. For some reason most people seem to be born without the part of the brain that understands pointers. This is an aptitude thing, not a skill thing – it requires a complex form of doubly-indirected thinking that some people just can't do.
For #3, you can see how well they learned the bitwise operators in C.... but this is a skill, not an aptitude, so you can help them with these. The interesting thing is to watch them write a subroutine that counts all the bits in a byte, then ask them to make it much, much faster. Really smart candidates will create a lookup table (after all, it's only got 256 entries) that they only have to create once. With good candidates, you can have a really interesting conversation about the different space/speed tradeoffs. Press them further: tell them you don't want to spend any time building the lookup table during initialization. Brilliant candidates might even suggest a caching scheme where bits are counted the first time they are used, and then stored in a lookup table so they don't have to be counted if they are used again. Really, really brilliant candidates will try to devise a way to compute the table using some kind of a shortcut taking advantage of the patterns that occur.
When you watch somebody write code, here are some techniques that may be helpful:
* Always reassure them that you understand that it's hard to write code without an editor, and you will forgive them if their paper gets really messy. Also you understand that it's hard to write bug-free code without a compiler, and you will take that into account.
* Some signs of a good programmer: good programmers have a habit of writing their { and then skipping down to the bottom of the page and writing their }s right away, then filling in the blank later. They also tend to have some kind of a variable naming convention, primitive though it may be... Good programmers tend to use really short variable names for loop indices. If they name their loop index CurrentPagePositionLoopCounter it is sure sign that they have not written a lot of code in their life. Occasionally, you will see a C programmer write something like if (0==strlen(x)), putting the constant on the left hand side of the == . This is a really good sign. It means that they were stung once too many times by confusing = and == and have forced themselves to learn a new habit to avoid that trap.
* Good programmers plan before they write code, especially when there are pointers involved. For example, if you ask them to reverse a linked list, good candidates will always make a little drawing on the side and draw all the pointers and where they go. They have to. It is humanly impossible to write code to reverse a linked list without drawing little boxes with arrows between them. Bad programmers will start writing code right away.
Inevitably, you will see a bug in their function. So we come to question 5: Are you satisfied with that code? You may want to ask, "OK, so where's the bug?" The quintessential Open Ended Question From Hell. All programmers make mistakes, there's nothing wrong with that, they just have to be able to find them. With the string functions, they'll almost always forget to null-terminate the new string. With almost any function, they are likely to have off-by-one errors. They will forget semicolons sometimes. Their function won't work correctly on 0 length strings, or it will GPF if malloc fails... Very, very rarely, you will find a candidate that doesn't have any bugs the first time. In this case, this question is even more fun. When you say, "There's a bug in that code," they will review their code carefully, and then you get to see if they can be diplomatic yet firm in asserting that the code is perfect... In general, it's always a good idea to ask the candidate if they are satisfied with their answer before moving on. Be Regis.
Part 6: the design question. Ask the candidate to design something. Jabe Blumenthal, the original designer of Excel, liked to ask candidates to design a house. According to Jabe, he's had candidates who would go up to the whiteboard and immediately draw a square. A square! These were immediate No Hires. In design questions, what are you looking for?
* Good candidates will try to get more information out of you about the problem. Who is the house for? As a policy, I will not hire someone who leaps into the design without asking more about who it's for. Often I am so annoyed that I will give them a hard time by interrupting them in the middle and saying, "actually, you forgot to ask this, but this is a house for a family of 48-foot tall blind giraffes."
* Not-so-smart candidates think that design is like painting: you get a blank slate, and you can do whatever you want. Smart candidates understand that design is a difficult series of trade-offs. A great design question: design a trash can for a city street corner. Think of all the trade offs! It has to be easy to empty, but impossible to steal; it has to be easy to put things into, but hard for things to fly out of on a windy day; it has to be solid, yet inexpensive; in some cities, it has to be specially designed so that terrorists can't hide a bomb in it.
* Creative candidates will often surprise you with an interesting, non-obvious answer. One of my favorite questions is Design a Spice Rack for Blind People. Inevitably, candidates will put Braille somewhere on the spice bottles, and it usually winds up being on top of the lid for various reasons which you'll discover after you've asked this question 100 times. I had one candidate who decided that it would be better to put the spices in a drawer, because it is more comfortable to scan Braille with your fingertips horizontal than vertical. (Try it!) This was so creative it surprised me -- in dozens of interviews, I had never heard that answer. And it really took a major creative "leap" outside of the bounds of the problem. On the strength of that answer alone, and no negatives, I hired the candidate, who went on to be one of the best program managers on the Excel team.
* Look for closure. This is part of Get Things Done. Sometimes candidates will drift back and forth, unable to make a decision, or they will try to avoid hard questions. Sometimes they will leave difficult decisions unanswered and try to move on. Not good. Good candidates have a tendency to try to naturally keep things moving forward, even when you try to hold them back. If the conversation ever starts going around in circles, and the candidate says something like "well, we can talk about this all day, but we've got to do something, so let's go with decision X" that's a really good sign.
Which brings us to #7, The Challenge. This is fun. Throughout the interview, you look for the candidate to say something that is absolutely, positively, unarguably correct. Then you say, "wait a minute, wait a minute," and spend about 2 minutes playing devil's advocate. Argue with them when you are sure they are right.
* Weak candidates will give in. No Hire.
* Strong candidates will find a way to persuade you. They will have a whole laundry list of Dale Carnegie techniques to win you over. "Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you," they will say. But they will stand their ground. Hire.
Admittedly, in an interview situation, you are not equal parties. Thus there is a risk that the candidate will be afraid to argue with you because you are in a position of power over him. BUT, good candidates will tend to get fairly passionate about the argument, and they may momentarily forget that they are in an interview, and they will get very involved in trying to convince you. These are the people we want to hire.
Finally, you should ask the candidate if they have any questions. Some people like to look to see if the candidate will ask intelligent questions, which is a standard technique in the interviewing books. Personally, I don't care what questions they ask; by this point I've already made my decision. The trouble is, candidates have to see about 5-6 people in one day, and it's hard for them to ask 5-6 people different, brilliant questions, so if they don't have any questions, fine.
I always, always leave about 5 minutes a the end of the interview to sell Fog Creek. This is very important even if you are not going to hire them. If you've been lucky enough to find a really good candidate, you want to do everything you can at this point to make sure that they want to come to Fog Creek. Even if they are a bad candidate, you want to get them excited about Fog Creek Software so that they go away with a positive impression of the company. Think of it this way: these people are not just potential hires; they are also customers. They are also salesmen for our recruiting effort: if they think that Fog Creek is a great place to work, they will encourage their friends to apply.
Ah, I just remembered that I promised to give you some more examples of really bad questions to avoid.
First of all, avoid the illegal questions. Anything related to race, religion, gender, national origin, age, military service eligibility, veteran status, sexual orientation, or physical handicap is just illegal. If their resume says they were in the Army in 1990, don't ask them, even to make pleasant conversation, if they were in the Gulf war. It's against the law. If their resume says that they attended the Technion in Haifa, don't ask them, even conversationally, if they are Israeli. It's against the law. There's a pretty good discussion of what's illegal here. (But the rest of the interview questions at that site are pretty stupid).
Next, avoid any questions which might make it seem like we care about, or are discriminating based on, things which we don't actually care about or discriminate based on. The best example of this I can think of is asking someone if they have kids or if they are married. This might give the false impression that we think that people with kids aren't going to devote enough time to their work or that they are going to run off and take maternity leave.
Finally, avoid brain teaser questions like the one where you have to arrange 6 equal length matches to make exactly 4 identical perfect triangles. If it's an "aha!" question, you don't get any information about "smart/get things done" by figuring out if they happen to make the mental leap or not.
Interviewing is more of an art than a science, but if you remember the Smart/Gets Thing Done principle you will be in good shape. When you get a chance, ask some of your co-workers what their favorite questions are and what kinds of answers they look for. In the Building 16 cafeteria in Redmond this is a perennial favorite topic of lunchtime conversation.
Discuss at joel.reddit.com
Students: Fog Creek Software has awesome summer internships in New York City. You get free housing, free lunches, lots of free New York activities, and a chance to write great code with great developers. And a competitive salary. Apply today: we only have four open positions and usually get hundreds of applications, which will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.
About the Author: I'm your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. For my day job, I run Fog Creek Software, makers of FogBugz - the smart bug tracking software with the stupid name, and Fog Creek Copilot - the easiest way to provide remote tech support over the Internet, with nothing to install or configure.
Enter your email address to receive a (very occasional) email whenever I write a major new article. You can unsubscribe at any time, of course.
First of all, the #1 cardinal criteria for getting hired at Fog Creek:
Smart, and
Gets Things Done.
That's it. That's all we're looking for. Memorize that. Recite it to yourself before you go to bed every night. Our goal is to hire people with aptitude, not a particular skill set. Any skill set that people can bring to the job will be technologically obsolete in a couple of years, anyway, so it's better to hire people that are going to be able to learn any new technology rather than people who happen to know SQL programming right this minute.
Smart is hard to define, but as we look at some possible interview questions we'll see how you can ferret it out. Gets Things Done is crucial. People who are Smart but don't Get Things Done often have PhDs and work in big companies where nobody listens to them because they are completely impractical. They would rather mull over something academic about a problem rather than ship on time. These kind of people can be identified because they love to point out the theoretical similarity between two widely divergent concepts. For example, they will say "Spreadsheets are really just a special case of programming language" and then go off for a week and write a thrilling, brilliant white paper about the theoretical computational linguistic attributes of a spreadsheet as a programming language. Smart, but not useful.
Now, people who Get Things Done but are not Smart will do stupid things, seemingly without thinking about them, and somebody else will have to come clean up their mess later. This makes them liabilities to the company because not only don't they contribute, but they soak up good people's time. They are the kind of people who copy big chunks of code around rather than writing a subroutine, because it gets the job done, just not in the smartest way.
The most important rule about interviewing:
Make A Decision
At the conclusion of the interview, you have to be ready to make a sharp decision about the candidate. There are only two possible outcomes to this decision: Hire or No Hire. Turn to your computer and send immediate feedback to the recruiter. The subject line should be the name of the candidate. The first line of the email should be Hire or No Hire. Then you should spend about 2 paragraphs backing up your decision.
There is no other possible answer. Never say, "Hire, but not in my group." This is rude and implies that the candidate is not smart enough to work with you, but maybe he's smart enough for those losers over in that other group. If you find yourself tempted to say "Hire, but not in my group," simply translate that mechanically to "No Hire" and you'll be OK. Even if you have a candidate that would be brilliant at doing 1 particular thing, but wouldn't be very good in another group, that's a No Hire. Things change so often and so rapidly that we need people that can succeed anywhere. If for some reason you find an idiot savant that is really, really, really good at SQL but completely incapable of ever learning any other topic, No Hire. They don't have a future at Fog Creek.
Never say "Maybe, I can't tell." If you can't tell, that means No Hire. It's really easier than you'd think. Can't tell? Just say no! Similarly, if you are on the fence, that means No Hire. Never say, "Well, Hire, I guess, but I'm a little bit concerned about..." That's a No Hire as well.
An important thing to remember about interviewing is this: it is much better to reject a good candidate than to accept a bad candidate. A bad candidate will cost a lot of money and effort and waste other people's time fixing all their bugs. If you have any doubts whatsoever, No Hire.
While you are conducting the interview, don't worry that if you reject a lot of people, Fog Creek won't be able to find anyone to hire. That's not your problem. It's the recruiter's problem, it's H.R.'s problem, it's Joel's problem, but it's not your problem. Keep asking yourself which is worse - that we grow into a big, lousy software company with lots of coconuts, or that we stay small but high quality? Of course, it's important to seek out good candidates and everybody should see it as a part of their mission to find and recruit smart people who get things done. But once you're actually interviewing someone, pretend that Fog Creek has plenty of great candidates. Never lower your standards no matter how hard it seems to find great candidates.
But how do you make this difficult decision? You just have to keep asking yourself during the interview: is this person smart? Does this person get things done? In order to be able to tell, you're going to have to ask the right questions.
Just for fun, here is the worst interview question on Earth: "What's the difference between varchar and varchar2 in Oracle 8i?" This is a terrible question. There is no possible, imaginable correlation between people that know that particular piece of useless trivia and people that Fog Creek wants to hire. Who cares what the difference is? You can find out online in about 15 seconds!
Actually, there are some even worse questions. I'll get to that later.
So now we get to the fun part: interview questions. My list of interview questions comes from my first job at Microsoft. There are actually hundreds of famous Microsoft interview questions. Everybody has a set of questions that they really like. You, too, will develop a particular set of questions and a personal interviewing style which helps you make the Hire/No Hire decision. Here are some techniques that I have used that have been successful.
Before the interview, I read over the candidates resume and jot down an interview plan on a scrap of paper. That's just a list of questions that I want to ask. Here's a typical plan for interviewing a programmer:
1. Introduction
2. Question about recent project candidate worked on
3. Impossible Question
4. C Function
5. Are you satisfied?
6. Design Question
7. The Challenge
8. Do you have any questions?
Before the interview, I am very, very careful to avoid anything that might give me some preconceived notions about the candidate. If you think that someone is smart before they even walk into the room, just because they have a Ph.D. from MIT, then nothing they can say in 1 hour is going to overcome that initial prejudice. If you think they are a bozo, nothing they can say will overcome that initial impression. An interview is like a very, very delicate scale -- it's very hard to judge someone based on a 1 hour interview and it may seem like a very close call. But if you know a little bit about the candidate beforehand, it's like a big weight on one side of the scale, and the interview is useless. Once, right before an interview, a recruiter came into my office. "You're going to love this guy," she said. BOY did this make me mad. What I should have said was, "well, if you're so sure I'm going to love him, why don't you just hire him instead of wasting my time going through this interview." But I was young and naïve, so I interviewed him. When he said not-so-smart things, I thought to myself, "gee, must be the exception that proves the rule." I looked at everything he said through rose-colored glasses. I wound up saying Hire even though he was a crappy candidate. You know what? Everybody else who interviewed him said No Hire. So: don't listen to recruiters; don't ask around about the person before you interview them; and never, ever talk to the other interviewers about the candidate until you've both made your decisions independently. It's the scientific method!
The Introduction phase of the interview is intended to put the candidate at ease. I spend about 30 seconds telling the person who I am and how the interview will work. I always reassure the candidate that we are interested in how he goes about solving problems, not the actual answer. By the way, in doing the interview, you should make sure that you are not sitting across a desk from the candidate. This creates a formal barrier which will not place the candidate at ease. It is better to move the desk against a wall, or to go around and sit on the other side of the desk with the candidate; this does help put the candidate at ease. This results in a better interview because it is less distorted by nervousness.
Part 2 is a question about some recent project that the candidate worked on. For interviewing college kids, ask them about their senior thesis, if they had one, or about a course they took that involved a long project that they really enjoyed. For example, sometimes I will ask, "what class did you take last semester that you liked the most? It doesn't have to be computer-related." Actually I am usually pretty happy if they choose a non-computer related course. Sometimes you look at their schedule, and it looks like they are taking the bare minimum number of Comp Sci courses, but every elective is something related to Music. Then they will tell you that their favorite course was Object Oriented Databases. Yeah, right. I'd be happier if they admitted that they just liked music more than computers, instead of sucking up.
When interviewing experienced candidates, you can talk about their previous job.
In this question, I'm looking for one thing: passion. When you find a project that the person worked on recently, these are all good signs:
* They get very excited talking about it; they tend to talk more quickly and get animated. This shows that when they are interesting in something, they will be passionate about it. There are far too many people around that can work on something and not really care one way or the other. Even if they are passionately negative, this can be just as good a sign. "I was working on installing Foo Bar Mark II for my previous employer, but he was such a dope!" These are good candidates that we want to hire. Bad candidates just don't care and will not get enthusiastic at all during the interview. A really good sign that a candidate is passionate about something is that when they are talking about it, they will forget for a moment that they are in an interview. Sometimes a candidate comes in who is very nervous about being in an interview situation -- this is normal so I always overlook that. But then when you get them talking about Computational Monochromatic Art they will get extremely excited and lose all signs of nervousness. Good. I like passionate people who really care. (To see an example of Computational Monochromatic Art try unplugging your monitor.)
* They are careful to explain things. I have rejected candidates because when they talked about their previous project, they couldn't explain it in terms that a normal person could understand. Often engineering majors will just assume that everyone knows what Bates Theorem is or what Peano's Axioms are. If they start doing this, stop them for a minute and say, "could you do me a favor, just for the sake of the exercise, could you please explain this in terms my grandmother could understand." At this point many people will still continue to use jargon and will completely fail to make themselves understood. GONG!
* If the project was a team project, look for signs that they took a leadership role. A candidate might say: "we were working on X, but the boss said Y and the client said Z." I'll ask, "so what did you do?" A good answer to this might be "I got together with the other members of the team and wrote a proposal..." A bad answer might be, "Well, there was nothing I could do. It was an impossible situation." Remember, Smart and Gets Things Done. A good way to tell if somebody Gets Things Done is to see if historically they have tended to get things done in the past. In fact, you can even ask them directly to give you an example from their recent past when they took a leadership role and got something done -- overcame some institutional inertia, for example.
OK, the third thing on that list is the impossible question. This is fun. The idea is to ask a question that they have no possible way of answering, just to see how they handle it. "How many optometrists are there in Seattle?" "How many tons does the Washington Monument weigh?" "How many gas stations are in Los Angeles?" "How many piano tuners are there in New York?"
* Smart candidates will realize that you are not quizzing them on their knowledge, and they will enthusiastically leap into trying to figure out some back-of-the-envelope answer. "Well, lets see, the population of LA is about 7 million; each person in LA has about 2.5 cars..." Of course it's OK if they are radically wrong. The important thing is that they leapt into the question enthusiastically. They may try to figure out the capacity of a gas station. "Gee, it takes 4 minutes to tank up, gas stations have about 10 pumps and are open about 18 hours a day..." They may try to figure it out by area. Sometimes they will surprise you with their creativity or ask for a Los Angeles yellow pages. All good signs.
* Not-so-smart candidates will get flustered and upset. They will just stare at you like you landed from Mars. You have to coach them. "Well, if you were building a new city the size of Los Angeles, how many gas stations would you put in it?" You can give them little hints. "How long does it take to fill up a tank of gas?" Still, with not-smart candidates, you will have to drag them along while they sit there stupidly and wait for you to rescue them. These people are not problem solvers and we don't want them working for us.
For programming questions, I ask candidates to write a small function in C. Here are some typical problems I would ask:
1. Reverse a string in place
2. Reverse a linked list
3. Count all the bits that are on in a byte
4. Binary search
5. Find the longest run in a string
6. atoi
7. itoa (great, because they have to use a stack or strrev)
You don't want to give them any problems that take more than about 5 lines of code; you won't have time for that.
Let's look at a couple of these in detail. #1: reverse a string in place. Every candidate I've ever interviewed in my life has done this wrong the first time. Without exception, they try to allocate another buffer and reverse the string into that buffer. The trouble is, who allocates the buffer? Who frees the buffer? In giving this question to dozens of candidates I found out an interesting fact. Most people who think that they know C really do not understand memory or pointers. They just don't get it. It's amazing that these people are working as programmers, but they are. With this question, here are some ways to judge the candidate:
* Is their function fast? Look at how many times they call strlen. I've seen O(n^2) algorithms for strrev when it should be O(n), because they are calling strlen again and again in a loop.
* Do they use pointer arithmetic? This is a good sign. Many "C programmers" just don't know how to make pointer arithmetic work. Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't reject a candidate just because he lacked a particular skill. However, I've discovered that understanding pointers in C is not a skill, it's an aptitude. In Freshman year CompSci, there are always about 200 kids at the beginning of the semester, all of whom wrote complex adventure games in BASIC for their Atari 800s when they were 4 years old. They are having a good ol'; time learning Pascal in college, until one day their professor introduces pointers, and suddenly, they don't get it. They just don't understand anything any more. 90% of the class goes off and becomes PoliSci majors, then they tell their friends that there weren't enough good looking members of the appropriate sex in their CompSci classes, that's why they switched. For some reason most people seem to be born without the part of the brain that understands pointers. This is an aptitude thing, not a skill thing – it requires a complex form of doubly-indirected thinking that some people just can't do.
For #3, you can see how well they learned the bitwise operators in C.... but this is a skill, not an aptitude, so you can help them with these. The interesting thing is to watch them write a subroutine that counts all the bits in a byte, then ask them to make it much, much faster. Really smart candidates will create a lookup table (after all, it's only got 256 entries) that they only have to create once. With good candidates, you can have a really interesting conversation about the different space/speed tradeoffs. Press them further: tell them you don't want to spend any time building the lookup table during initialization. Brilliant candidates might even suggest a caching scheme where bits are counted the first time they are used, and then stored in a lookup table so they don't have to be counted if they are used again. Really, really brilliant candidates will try to devise a way to compute the table using some kind of a shortcut taking advantage of the patterns that occur.
When you watch somebody write code, here are some techniques that may be helpful:
* Always reassure them that you understand that it's hard to write code without an editor, and you will forgive them if their paper gets really messy. Also you understand that it's hard to write bug-free code without a compiler, and you will take that into account.
* Some signs of a good programmer: good programmers have a habit of writing their { and then skipping down to the bottom of the page and writing their }s right away, then filling in the blank later. They also tend to have some kind of a variable naming convention, primitive though it may be... Good programmers tend to use really short variable names for loop indices. If they name their loop index CurrentPagePositionLoopCounter it is sure sign that they have not written a lot of code in their life. Occasionally, you will see a C programmer write something like if (0==strlen(x)), putting the constant on the left hand side of the == . This is a really good sign. It means that they were stung once too many times by confusing = and == and have forced themselves to learn a new habit to avoid that trap.
* Good programmers plan before they write code, especially when there are pointers involved. For example, if you ask them to reverse a linked list, good candidates will always make a little drawing on the side and draw all the pointers and where they go. They have to. It is humanly impossible to write code to reverse a linked list without drawing little boxes with arrows between them. Bad programmers will start writing code right away.
Inevitably, you will see a bug in their function. So we come to question 5: Are you satisfied with that code? You may want to ask, "OK, so where's the bug?" The quintessential Open Ended Question From Hell. All programmers make mistakes, there's nothing wrong with that, they just have to be able to find them. With the string functions, they'll almost always forget to null-terminate the new string. With almost any function, they are likely to have off-by-one errors. They will forget semicolons sometimes. Their function won't work correctly on 0 length strings, or it will GPF if malloc fails... Very, very rarely, you will find a candidate that doesn't have any bugs the first time. In this case, this question is even more fun. When you say, "There's a bug in that code," they will review their code carefully, and then you get to see if they can be diplomatic yet firm in asserting that the code is perfect... In general, it's always a good idea to ask the candidate if they are satisfied with their answer before moving on. Be Regis.
Part 6: the design question. Ask the candidate to design something. Jabe Blumenthal, the original designer of Excel, liked to ask candidates to design a house. According to Jabe, he's had candidates who would go up to the whiteboard and immediately draw a square. A square! These were immediate No Hires. In design questions, what are you looking for?
* Good candidates will try to get more information out of you about the problem. Who is the house for? As a policy, I will not hire someone who leaps into the design without asking more about who it's for. Often I am so annoyed that I will give them a hard time by interrupting them in the middle and saying, "actually, you forgot to ask this, but this is a house for a family of 48-foot tall blind giraffes."
* Not-so-smart candidates think that design is like painting: you get a blank slate, and you can do whatever you want. Smart candidates understand that design is a difficult series of trade-offs. A great design question: design a trash can for a city street corner. Think of all the trade offs! It has to be easy to empty, but impossible to steal; it has to be easy to put things into, but hard for things to fly out of on a windy day; it has to be solid, yet inexpensive; in some cities, it has to be specially designed so that terrorists can't hide a bomb in it.
* Creative candidates will often surprise you with an interesting, non-obvious answer. One of my favorite questions is Design a Spice Rack for Blind People. Inevitably, candidates will put Braille somewhere on the spice bottles, and it usually winds up being on top of the lid for various reasons which you'll discover after you've asked this question 100 times. I had one candidate who decided that it would be better to put the spices in a drawer, because it is more comfortable to scan Braille with your fingertips horizontal than vertical. (Try it!) This was so creative it surprised me -- in dozens of interviews, I had never heard that answer. And it really took a major creative "leap" outside of the bounds of the problem. On the strength of that answer alone, and no negatives, I hired the candidate, who went on to be one of the best program managers on the Excel team.
* Look for closure. This is part of Get Things Done. Sometimes candidates will drift back and forth, unable to make a decision, or they will try to avoid hard questions. Sometimes they will leave difficult decisions unanswered and try to move on. Not good. Good candidates have a tendency to try to naturally keep things moving forward, even when you try to hold them back. If the conversation ever starts going around in circles, and the candidate says something like "well, we can talk about this all day, but we've got to do something, so let's go with decision X" that's a really good sign.
Which brings us to #7, The Challenge. This is fun. Throughout the interview, you look for the candidate to say something that is absolutely, positively, unarguably correct. Then you say, "wait a minute, wait a minute," and spend about 2 minutes playing devil's advocate. Argue with them when you are sure they are right.
* Weak candidates will give in. No Hire.
* Strong candidates will find a way to persuade you. They will have a whole laundry list of Dale Carnegie techniques to win you over. "Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you," they will say. But they will stand their ground. Hire.
Admittedly, in an interview situation, you are not equal parties. Thus there is a risk that the candidate will be afraid to argue with you because you are in a position of power over him. BUT, good candidates will tend to get fairly passionate about the argument, and they may momentarily forget that they are in an interview, and they will get very involved in trying to convince you. These are the people we want to hire.
Finally, you should ask the candidate if they have any questions. Some people like to look to see if the candidate will ask intelligent questions, which is a standard technique in the interviewing books. Personally, I don't care what questions they ask; by this point I've already made my decision. The trouble is, candidates have to see about 5-6 people in one day, and it's hard for them to ask 5-6 people different, brilliant questions, so if they don't have any questions, fine.
I always, always leave about 5 minutes a the end of the interview to sell Fog Creek. This is very important even if you are not going to hire them. If you've been lucky enough to find a really good candidate, you want to do everything you can at this point to make sure that they want to come to Fog Creek. Even if they are a bad candidate, you want to get them excited about Fog Creek Software so that they go away with a positive impression of the company. Think of it this way: these people are not just potential hires; they are also customers. They are also salesmen for our recruiting effort: if they think that Fog Creek is a great place to work, they will encourage their friends to apply.
Ah, I just remembered that I promised to give you some more examples of really bad questions to avoid.
First of all, avoid the illegal questions. Anything related to race, religion, gender, national origin, age, military service eligibility, veteran status, sexual orientation, or physical handicap is just illegal. If their resume says they were in the Army in 1990, don't ask them, even to make pleasant conversation, if they were in the Gulf war. It's against the law. If their resume says that they attended the Technion in Haifa, don't ask them, even conversationally, if they are Israeli. It's against the law. There's a pretty good discussion of what's illegal here. (But the rest of the interview questions at that site are pretty stupid).
Next, avoid any questions which might make it seem like we care about, or are discriminating based on, things which we don't actually care about or discriminate based on. The best example of this I can think of is asking someone if they have kids or if they are married. This might give the false impression that we think that people with kids aren't going to devote enough time to their work or that they are going to run off and take maternity leave.
Finally, avoid brain teaser questions like the one where you have to arrange 6 equal length matches to make exactly 4 identical perfect triangles. If it's an "aha!" question, you don't get any information about "smart/get things done" by figuring out if they happen to make the mental leap or not.
Interviewing is more of an art than a science, but if you remember the Smart/Gets Thing Done principle you will be in good shape. When you get a chance, ask some of your co-workers what their favorite questions are and what kinds of answers they look for. In the Building 16 cafeteria in Redmond this is a perennial favorite topic of lunchtime conversation.
Discuss at joel.reddit.com
Students: Fog Creek Software has awesome summer internships in New York City. You get free housing, free lunches, lots of free New York activities, and a chance to write great code with great developers. And a competitive salary. Apply today: we only have four open positions and usually get hundreds of applications, which will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.
About the Author: I'm your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. For my day job, I run Fog Creek Software, makers of FogBugz - the smart bug tracking software with the stupid name, and Fog Creek Copilot - the easiest way to provide remote tech support over the Internet, with nothing to install or configure.
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Interview Tips & Job Search Strategies
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Monday, December 10, 2007
Software Testing Interview Questions Part 3 »
16. What is bug life cycle?
A: — New: when tester reports a defect
Open: when developer accepts that it is a bug or if the developer rejects the defect, then the status is turned into “Rejected”
Fixed: when developer make changes to the code to rectify the bug…
Closed/Reopen: when tester tests it again. If the expected result shown up, it is turned into “Closed” and if the problem resists again, it’s “Reopen
17. What is deferred status in defect life cycle?
A: — Deferred status means the developer accepted the bus, but it is scheduled to rectify in the next build
18. What is smoke test?
A; — Testing the application whether it’s performing its basic functionality properly or not, so that the test team can go ahead with the application
19. Do you use any automation tool for smoke testing?
A: - Definitely can use.
20. What is Verification and validation?
A: — Verification is static. No code is executed. Say, analysis of requirements etc. Validation is dynamic. Code is executed with scenarios present in test cases.
21. What is test plan and explain its contents?
A: — Test plan is a document which contains the scope for testing the application and what to be tested, when to be tested and who to test.
22. Advantages of automation over manual testing?
A: — Time, resource and Money
23. What is ADhoc testing?
A: — AdHoc means doing something which is not planned.
24. What is mean by release notes?
A: — It’s a document released along with the product which explains about the product. It also contains about the bugs that are in deferred status.
25. Scalability testing comes under in which tool?
A: — Scalability testing comes under performance testing. Load testing, scalability testing both r same.
26. What is the difference between Bug and Defect?
A: — Bug: Deviation from the expected result. Defect: Problem in algorithm leads to failure.
A Mistake in code is called Error.
Due to Error in coding, test engineers are getting mismatches in application is called defect.
If defect accepted by development team to solve is called Bug.
27. What is hot fix?
A: — A hot fix is a single, cumulative package that includes one or more files that are used to address a problem in a software product. Typically, hot fixes are made to address a specific customer situation and may not be distributed outside the customer organization.
Bug found at the customer place which has high priority.
28. What is the difference between functional test cases and compatability testcases?
A: — There are no Test Cases for Compatibility Testing; in Compatibility Testing we are Testing an application in different Hardware and software. If it is wrong plz let me know.
29. What is Acid Testing??
A: — ACID Means:
ACID testing is related to testing a transaction.
A-Atomicity
C-Consistent
I-Isolation
D-Durable
Mostly this will be done database testing.
30. What is the main use of preparing a traceability matrix?
A: — To Cross verify the prepared test cases and test scripts with user requirements.
To monitor the changes, enhance occurred during the development of the project.
Traceability matrix is prepared in order to cross check the test cases designed against each requirement, hence giving an opportunity to verify that all the requirements are covered in testing the application.
A: — New: when tester reports a defect
Open: when developer accepts that it is a bug or if the developer rejects the defect, then the status is turned into “Rejected”
Fixed: when developer make changes to the code to rectify the bug…
Closed/Reopen: when tester tests it again. If the expected result shown up, it is turned into “Closed” and if the problem resists again, it’s “Reopen
17. What is deferred status in defect life cycle?
A: — Deferred status means the developer accepted the bus, but it is scheduled to rectify in the next build
18. What is smoke test?
A; — Testing the application whether it’s performing its basic functionality properly or not, so that the test team can go ahead with the application
19. Do you use any automation tool for smoke testing?
A: - Definitely can use.
20. What is Verification and validation?
A: — Verification is static. No code is executed. Say, analysis of requirements etc. Validation is dynamic. Code is executed with scenarios present in test cases.
21. What is test plan and explain its contents?
A: — Test plan is a document which contains the scope for testing the application and what to be tested, when to be tested and who to test.
22. Advantages of automation over manual testing?
A: — Time, resource and Money
23. What is ADhoc testing?
A: — AdHoc means doing something which is not planned.
24. What is mean by release notes?
A: — It’s a document released along with the product which explains about the product. It also contains about the bugs that are in deferred status.
25. Scalability testing comes under in which tool?
A: — Scalability testing comes under performance testing. Load testing, scalability testing both r same.
26. What is the difference between Bug and Defect?
A: — Bug: Deviation from the expected result. Defect: Problem in algorithm leads to failure.
A Mistake in code is called Error.
Due to Error in coding, test engineers are getting mismatches in application is called defect.
If defect accepted by development team to solve is called Bug.
27. What is hot fix?
A: — A hot fix is a single, cumulative package that includes one or more files that are used to address a problem in a software product. Typically, hot fixes are made to address a specific customer situation and may not be distributed outside the customer organization.
Bug found at the customer place which has high priority.
28. What is the difference between functional test cases and compatability testcases?
A: — There are no Test Cases for Compatibility Testing; in Compatibility Testing we are Testing an application in different Hardware and software. If it is wrong plz let me know.
29. What is Acid Testing??
A: — ACID Means:
ACID testing is related to testing a transaction.
A-Atomicity
C-Consistent
I-Isolation
D-Durable
Mostly this will be done database testing.
30. What is the main use of preparing a traceability matrix?
A: — To Cross verify the prepared test cases and test scripts with user requirements.
To monitor the changes, enhance occurred during the development of the project.
Traceability matrix is prepared in order to cross check the test cases designed against each requirement, hence giving an opportunity to verify that all the requirements are covered in testing the application.
Software Testing Interview Questions Part 4 »
31. If we have no SRS, BRS but we have test cases does u execute the test cases blindly or do u follow any other process?
A: — Test case would have detail steps of what the application is supposed to do. SO
1) Functionality of application is known.
2) In addition you can refer to Backend, I mean look into the Database. To gain more knowledge of the application
32. How to execute test case?
A: — There are two ways:
1. Manual Runner Tool for manual execution and updating of test status.
2. Automated test case execution by specifying Host name and other automation pertaining details.
33. Difference between re testing and regression testing?
A: — Retesting: –
Re-execution of test cases on same application build with different input values is retesting.
Regression Testing:
Re-execution of test cases on modifies form of build is called regression testing…
34. What is the difference between bug log and defect tracking?
A; — Bug log is a document which maintains the information of the bug where as bug tracking is the process.
35. Who will change the Bug Status as Differed?
A: — Bug will be in open status while developer is working on it Fixed after developer completes his work if it is not fixed properly the tester puts it in reopen After fixing the bug properly it is in closed state.
Developer
36. wht is smoke testing and user interface testing ?
A: — ST:
Smoke testing is non-exhaustive software testing, as pertaining that the most crucial functions of a program work, but not bothering with finer details. The term comes to software testing from a similarly basic type of hardware testing.
UIT:
I did a bit or R n D on this…. some says it’s nothing but Usability testing. Testing to determine the ease with which a user can learn to operate, input, and interpret outputs of a system or component.
Smoke testing is nothing but to check whether basic functionality of the build is stable or not?
I.e. if it possesses 70% of the functionality we say build is stable.
User interface testing: We check all the fields whether they are existing or not as per the format we check spelling graphic font sizes everything in the window present or not|
37. what is bug, deffect, issue, error?
A: — Bug: — Bug is identified by the tester.
Defect:– Whenever the project is received for the analysis phase ,may be some requirement miss to get or understand most of the time Defect itself come with the project (when it comes).
Issue: — Client site error most of the time.
Error: — When anything is happened wrong in the project from the development side i.e. called as the error, most of the time this knows by the developer.
Bug: a fault or defect in a system or machine
Defect: an imperfection in a device or machine;
Issue: An issue is a major problem that will impede the progress of the project and cannot be resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help
Error:
Error is the deviation of a measurement, observation, or calculation from the truth
38. What is the diff b/w functional testing and integration testing?
A: — functional testing is testing the whole functionality of the system or the application whether it is meeting the functional specifications
Integration testing means testing the functionality of integrated module when two individual modules are integrated for this we use top-down approach and bottom up approach
39. what type of testing u perform in organization while u do System Testing, give clearly?
A: — Functional testing
User interface testing
Usability testing
Compatibility testing
Model based testing
Error exit testing
User help testing
Security testing
Capacity testing
Performance testing
Sanity testing
Regression testing
Reliability testing
Recovery testing
Installation testing
Maintenance testing
Accessibility testing, including compliance with:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C)
40. What is the main use of preparing Traceability matrix and explain the real time usage?
A: — A traceability matrix is created by associating requirements with the work products that satisfy them. Tests are associated with the requirements on which they are based and the product tested to meet the requirement.
A traceability matrix is a report from the requirements database or repository.
41. How can u do the following 1) Usability testing 2) scalability Testing
A:–
UT:
Testing the ease with which users can learn and use a product.
ST:
It’s a Web Testing defn.allows web site capability improvement.
PT:
Testing to determine whether the system/software meets the specified portability requirements.
42. What does u mean by Positive and Negative testing & what is the diff’s between them. Can anyone explain with an example?
A: — Positive Testing: Testing the application functionality with valid inputs and verifying that output is correct
Negative testing: Testing the application functionality with invalid inputs and verifying the output.
Difference is nothing but how the application behaves when we enter some invalid inputs suppose if it accepts invalid input the application
Functionality is wrong
Positive test: testing aimed to show that s/w work i.e. with valid inputs. This is also called as “test to pass’
Negative testing: testing aimed at showing s/w doesn’t work. Which is also know as ‘test to fail” BVA is the best example of -ve testing.
43. what is change request, how u use it?
A: — Change Request is a attribute or part of Defect Life Cycle.
Now when u as a tester finds a defect n report to ur DL…he in turn informs the Development Team.
The DT says it’s not a defect it’s an extra implementation or says not part of req’ment. Its newscast has to pay.
Here the status in ur defect report would be Change Request
I think change request controlled by change request control board (CCB). If any changes required by client after we start the project, it has to come thru that CCB and they have to approve it. CCB got full rights to accept or reject based on the project schedule and cost.
44. What is risk analysis, what type of risk analysis u did in u r project?
A: — Risk Analysis:
A systematic use of available information to determine how often specified events and unspecified events may occur and the magnitude of their likely consequences
OR
procedure to identify threats & vulnerabilities, analyze them to ascertain the exposures, and highlight how the impact can be eliminated or reduced
Types :
1.QUANTITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS
2.QUALITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS
45. What is API ?
A:– Application program interface
A: — Test case would have detail steps of what the application is supposed to do. SO
1) Functionality of application is known.
2) In addition you can refer to Backend, I mean look into the Database. To gain more knowledge of the application
32. How to execute test case?
A: — There are two ways:
1. Manual Runner Tool for manual execution and updating of test status.
2. Automated test case execution by specifying Host name and other automation pertaining details.
33. Difference between re testing and regression testing?
A: — Retesting: –
Re-execution of test cases on same application build with different input values is retesting.
Regression Testing:
Re-execution of test cases on modifies form of build is called regression testing…
34. What is the difference between bug log and defect tracking?
A; — Bug log is a document which maintains the information of the bug where as bug tracking is the process.
35. Who will change the Bug Status as Differed?
A: — Bug will be in open status while developer is working on it Fixed after developer completes his work if it is not fixed properly the tester puts it in reopen After fixing the bug properly it is in closed state.
Developer
36. wht is smoke testing and user interface testing ?
A: — ST:
Smoke testing is non-exhaustive software testing, as pertaining that the most crucial functions of a program work, but not bothering with finer details. The term comes to software testing from a similarly basic type of hardware testing.
UIT:
I did a bit or R n D on this…. some says it’s nothing but Usability testing. Testing to determine the ease with which a user can learn to operate, input, and interpret outputs of a system or component.
Smoke testing is nothing but to check whether basic functionality of the build is stable or not?
I.e. if it possesses 70% of the functionality we say build is stable.
User interface testing: We check all the fields whether they are existing or not as per the format we check spelling graphic font sizes everything in the window present or not|
37. what is bug, deffect, issue, error?
A: — Bug: — Bug is identified by the tester.
Defect:– Whenever the project is received for the analysis phase ,may be some requirement miss to get or understand most of the time Defect itself come with the project (when it comes).
Issue: — Client site error most of the time.
Error: — When anything is happened wrong in the project from the development side i.e. called as the error, most of the time this knows by the developer.
Bug: a fault or defect in a system or machine
Defect: an imperfection in a device or machine;
Issue: An issue is a major problem that will impede the progress of the project and cannot be resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help
Error:
Error is the deviation of a measurement, observation, or calculation from the truth
38. What is the diff b/w functional testing and integration testing?
A: — functional testing is testing the whole functionality of the system or the application whether it is meeting the functional specifications
Integration testing means testing the functionality of integrated module when two individual modules are integrated for this we use top-down approach and bottom up approach
39. what type of testing u perform in organization while u do System Testing, give clearly?
A: — Functional testing
User interface testing
Usability testing
Compatibility testing
Model based testing
Error exit testing
User help testing
Security testing
Capacity testing
Performance testing
Sanity testing
Regression testing
Reliability testing
Recovery testing
Installation testing
Maintenance testing
Accessibility testing, including compliance with:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C)
40. What is the main use of preparing Traceability matrix and explain the real time usage?
A: — A traceability matrix is created by associating requirements with the work products that satisfy them. Tests are associated with the requirements on which they are based and the product tested to meet the requirement.
A traceability matrix is a report from the requirements database or repository.
41. How can u do the following 1) Usability testing 2) scalability Testing
A:–
UT:
Testing the ease with which users can learn and use a product.
ST:
It’s a Web Testing defn.allows web site capability improvement.
PT:
Testing to determine whether the system/software meets the specified portability requirements.
42. What does u mean by Positive and Negative testing & what is the diff’s between them. Can anyone explain with an example?
A: — Positive Testing: Testing the application functionality with valid inputs and verifying that output is correct
Negative testing: Testing the application functionality with invalid inputs and verifying the output.
Difference is nothing but how the application behaves when we enter some invalid inputs suppose if it accepts invalid input the application
Functionality is wrong
Positive test: testing aimed to show that s/w work i.e. with valid inputs. This is also called as “test to pass’
Negative testing: testing aimed at showing s/w doesn’t work. Which is also know as ‘test to fail” BVA is the best example of -ve testing.
43. what is change request, how u use it?
A: — Change Request is a attribute or part of Defect Life Cycle.
Now when u as a tester finds a defect n report to ur DL…he in turn informs the Development Team.
The DT says it’s not a defect it’s an extra implementation or says not part of req’ment. Its newscast has to pay.
Here the status in ur defect report would be Change Request
I think change request controlled by change request control board (CCB). If any changes required by client after we start the project, it has to come thru that CCB and they have to approve it. CCB got full rights to accept or reject based on the project schedule and cost.
44. What is risk analysis, what type of risk analysis u did in u r project?
A: — Risk Analysis:
A systematic use of available information to determine how often specified events and unspecified events may occur and the magnitude of their likely consequences
OR
procedure to identify threats & vulnerabilities, analyze them to ascertain the exposures, and highlight how the impact can be eliminated or reduced
Types :
1.QUANTITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS
2.QUALITATIVE RISK ANALYSIS
45. What is API ?
A:– Application program interface
35 QA Testing Interview Questions »
1. What is SQA Activities?
2. How can we perform testing without expected results?
3. Which of the following statements about regression testing are true?
a. Regression Testing must consist of a fixed set of tests to create a baseline
b. Regression Testing should be used to detect defects in new features
c. Regression Testing can be run on every build
d. Regression Testing should be targeted to areas of high risk and known code change
e. Regression Testing, when automated, is highly effective in preventing defects
4. How do you conduct boundary analyst testing for “ok”pushbutton
5. What is an exit and entry criteria in a Test Plan ?
6. To whom you send test deliverables?
7. What is configuration Management?
8. Who writes the Business requirements? What you do when you have the BRD?
9. What we normally check for in the Database Testing?
10. What is walk through and inspection?
11. What are the key elements for creating test plan?
12. How do you ensure the quality of the product?
13. What is the job of Quality assurance engineer? Difference between the testing & Quality Assurance job.
14. Can any one send information regarding manual testing. I know just how to use winrunner load runner tool with sample flight reservation application. can any one send me the information how to test web logic and web sphere.
15. What are the demerits of winrunner?
16. How you used white box and block box technologies in your application?
17. What is the role of QA in a project development?
18. How can u test the white page ?
19. How do you scope, organize, and execute a test project?
20. What is the role of QA in a company that produces software?
21. Describe to me when you would consider employing a failure mode and defect analysis?
22. In general, how do you see automation fitting into the overall process of testing?
23. How do you decide when you have ‘tested enough?’
24. Describe to the basic elements you put in a defect report?
25. What is use case? What is the difference between test cases and use cases?
26. What is the importance of a requirements traceability in a product testing?
27. If the actual result doesn’t match with expected result in this situation what should we do?
28. Explain about Metrics and types of metrics like schedule variance , effort variance?
29. What is the difference between functional testing & black box testing?
30. What is heuristic checklist used in Unit Testing?
31. What is the difference between System Testing,Integration Testing & System Integration Testing?
32. How to calculate the estimate for test case design and review?
33. What is Requirements Traceability ? What is the purpose of it ? Explain types of traceability matrices ?
34. What are the contents of Risk management Plan? Have you ever prepared a Risk Management Plan ?
35. What metrics used to measure the size of the software?
2. How can we perform testing without expected results?
3. Which of the following statements about regression testing are true?
a. Regression Testing must consist of a fixed set of tests to create a baseline
b. Regression Testing should be used to detect defects in new features
c. Regression Testing can be run on every build
d. Regression Testing should be targeted to areas of high risk and known code change
e. Regression Testing, when automated, is highly effective in preventing defects
4. How do you conduct boundary analyst testing for “ok”pushbutton
5. What is an exit and entry criteria in a Test Plan ?
6. To whom you send test deliverables?
7. What is configuration Management?
8. Who writes the Business requirements? What you do when you have the BRD?
9. What we normally check for in the Database Testing?
10. What is walk through and inspection?
11. What are the key elements for creating test plan?
12. How do you ensure the quality of the product?
13. What is the job of Quality assurance engineer? Difference between the testing & Quality Assurance job.
14. Can any one send information regarding manual testing. I know just how to use winrunner load runner tool with sample flight reservation application. can any one send me the information how to test web logic and web sphere.
15. What are the demerits of winrunner?
16. How you used white box and block box technologies in your application?
17. What is the role of QA in a project development?
18. How can u test the white page ?
19. How do you scope, organize, and execute a test project?
20. What is the role of QA in a company that produces software?
21. Describe to me when you would consider employing a failure mode and defect analysis?
22. In general, how do you see automation fitting into the overall process of testing?
23. How do you decide when you have ‘tested enough?’
24. Describe to the basic elements you put in a defect report?
25. What is use case? What is the difference between test cases and use cases?
26. What is the importance of a requirements traceability in a product testing?
27. If the actual result doesn’t match with expected result in this situation what should we do?
28. Explain about Metrics and types of metrics like schedule variance , effort variance?
29. What is the difference between functional testing & black box testing?
30. What is heuristic checklist used in Unit Testing?
31. What is the difference between System Testing,Integration Testing & System Integration Testing?
32. How to calculate the estimate for test case design and review?
33. What is Requirements Traceability ? What is the purpose of it ? Explain types of traceability matrices ?
34. What are the contents of Risk management Plan? Have you ever prepared a Risk Management Plan ?
35. What metrics used to measure the size of the software?
Software Testing Interview Questions Part 5 »
46. High severity, low priority bug?
A: — A page is rarely accessed, or some activity is performed rarely but that thing outputs some important Data incorrectly, or corrupts the data, this will be a bug of H severity L priority
47. If project wants to release in 3months what type of Risk analysis u do in Test plan?
A:– Use risk analysis to determine where testing should be focused. 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. This requires judgment skills, common sense, and experience. (If warranted, formal methods are also available.) Considerations can include:
• 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
48. Test cases for IE 6.0 ?
A:– Test cases for IE 6.0 i.e Internet Explorer 6.0:—
1)First I go for the Installation side, means that –
+ is it working with all versions of Windows ,Netscape or other softwares in other words we can say that IE must check with all hardware and software parts.
2) Secondly go for the Text Part means that all the Text part appears in frequent and smooth manner.
3) Thirdly go for the Images Part means that all the Images appears in frequent and smooth manner.
4) URL must run in a better way.
5) Suppose Some other language used on it then URL take the Other Characters, Other than Normal Characters.
6)Is it working with Cookies frequently or not.
7) Is it Concerning with different script like JScript and VBScript.
8) HTML Code work on that or not.
9) Troubleshooting works or not.
10) All the Tool bars are work with it or not.
11) If Page has Some Links, than how much is the Max and Min Limit for that.
12) Test for Installing Internet Explorer 6 with Norton Protected Recycle Bin enabled .
13) Is it working with the Uninstallation Process.
14) Last but not the least test for the Security System for the IE 6.0
49. Where you involve in testing life cycle ,what type of test you perform ?
A:– Generally test engineers involved from entire test life cycle i.e, test plan, test case preparation, execution, reporting. Generally system testing, regression testing, adhoc testing
etc.
50. what is Testing environment in your company ,means hwo testing process start ?
A:– testing process is going as follows
quality assurance unit
quality assurance manager
testlead
test engineer
51. who prepares the use cases?
A:– In Any company except the small company Business analyst prepares the use cases
But in small company Business analyst prepares along with team lead
52. What methodologies have you used to develop test cases?
A:– generally test engineers uses 4 types of methodologies
1. Boundary value analysis
2.Equivalence partition
3.Error guessing
4.cause effect graphing
53. Why we call it as a regression test nor retest?
A:– If we test whether defect is closed or not i.e Retesting But here we are checking the impact also regression means repeated times
54. Is automated testing better than manual testing. If so, why?
A:– Automated testing and manual testing have advantages as well as disadvantages
Advantages: It increase the efficiency of testing process speed in process
reliable
Flexible
disadvantage’s
Tools should have compatibility with our development or deployment tools needs lot of time initially If the requirements are changing continuously Automation is not suitable
Manual: If the requirements are changing continuously Manual is suitable Once the build is stable with manual testing then only we go 4 automation
Disadvantages:
It needs lot of time
We can not do some type of testing manually
E.g Performances
55. what is the exact difference between a product and a project.give an example ?
A:– Project Developed for particular client requirements are defined by client Product developed for market Requirements are defined by company itself by conducting market survey
Example
Project: the shirt which we are interested stitching with tailor as per our specifications is project
Product: Example is “Ready made Shirt” where the particular company will imagine particular measurements they made the product
Mainframes is a product
Product has many mo of versions
but project has fewer versions i.e depends upon change request and enhancements
56. Define Brain Stromming and Cause Effect Graphing? With Eg?
A:– BS:
A learning technique involving open group discussion intended to expand the range of available ideas
OR
A meeting to generate creative ideas. At PEPSI Advertising, daily, weekly and bi-monthly brainstorming sessions are held by various work groups within the firm. Our monthly I-
Power brainstorming meeting is attended by the entire agency staff.
OR
Brainstorming is a highly structured process to help generate ideas. It is based on the principle that you cannot generate and evaluate ideas at the same time. To use brainstorming, you must first gain agreement from the group to try brainstorming for a fixed interval (eg six minutes).
CEG :
A testing technique that aids in selecting, in a systematic way, a high-yield set of test cases that logically relates causes to effects to produce test cases. It has a beneficial side effect in pointing out incompleteness and ambiguities in specifications.
57. Actually by using severity u should know which one u need to solve so what is the need of priority?
A:– I guess severity reflects the seriousness of the bug where as priority refers to which bug should rectify first. of course if the severity is high the same case is with priority in normal.
severity decided by the tester where as priority decided by developers. which one need to solve first knows through priority not with severity. how serious of the bug knows through
severity.
severity is nothing impact of that bug on the application. Priority is nothing but importance to resolve the bug yeah of course by looking severity we can judge but sometimes high severity bug doesn’t have high priority At the same time High priority bug don’t have high severity
So we need both severity and priority
58. What do u do if the bug that u found is not accepted by the developer and he is saying its not reproducible. Note:The developer is in the on site location ?
A:– once again we will check that condition with all reasons. then we will attach screen shots with strong reasons. then we will explain to the project manager and also explain to the client when they contact us
Sometimes bug is not reproducible it is because of different environment suppose development team using other environment and you are using different environment at this situation there is chance of bug not reproducing. At this situation please check the environment in the base line documents that is functional documents if the environment which we r using is correct we will raise it as defect We will take screen shots and sends them with test procedure also
59. what is the difference between three tier and two tier application?
A:– Client server is a 2-tier application. In this, front end or client is connected to
‘Data base server’ through ‘Data Source Name’,front end is the monitoring level.
Web based architecture is a 3-tier application. In this, browser is connected to web server through TCP/IP and web server is connected to Data base server,browser is the monitoring level. In general, Black box testers are concentrating on monitoring level of any type of application.
All the client server applications are 2 tier architectures.
Here in these architecture, all the “Business Logic” is stored in clients and “Data” is stored in Servers. So if user request anything, business logic will b performed at client, and the data is retrieved from Server(DB Server). Here the problem is, if any business logic changes, then we
need to change the logic at each any every client. The best ex: is take a super market, i have branches in the city. At each branch i have clients, so business logic is stored in clients, but the actual data is store in servers.If assume i want to give some discount on some items, so i
need to change the business logic. For this i need to goto each branch and need to change the business logic at each client. This the disadvantage of Client/Server architecture.
So 3-tier architecture came into picture:
Here Business Logic is stored in one Server, and all the clients are dumb terminals. If user requests anything the request first sent to server, the server will bring the data from DB Sever and send it to clients. This is the flow for 3-tier architecture.
Assume for the above. Ex. if i want to give some discount, all my business logic is there in Server. So i need to change at one place, not at each client. This is the main advantage of 3-tier architecture.
A: — A page is rarely accessed, or some activity is performed rarely but that thing outputs some important Data incorrectly, or corrupts the data, this will be a bug of H severity L priority
47. If project wants to release in 3months what type of Risk analysis u do in Test plan?
A:– Use risk analysis to determine where testing should be focused. 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. This requires judgment skills, common sense, and experience. (If warranted, formal methods are also available.) Considerations can include:
• 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
48. Test cases for IE 6.0 ?
A:– Test cases for IE 6.0 i.e Internet Explorer 6.0:—
1)First I go for the Installation side, means that –
+ is it working with all versions of Windows ,Netscape or other softwares in other words we can say that IE must check with all hardware and software parts.
2) Secondly go for the Text Part means that all the Text part appears in frequent and smooth manner.
3) Thirdly go for the Images Part means that all the Images appears in frequent and smooth manner.
4) URL must run in a better way.
5) Suppose Some other language used on it then URL take the Other Characters, Other than Normal Characters.
6)Is it working with Cookies frequently or not.
7) Is it Concerning with different script like JScript and VBScript.
8) HTML Code work on that or not.
9) Troubleshooting works or not.
10) All the Tool bars are work with it or not.
11) If Page has Some Links, than how much is the Max and Min Limit for that.
12) Test for Installing Internet Explorer 6 with Norton Protected Recycle Bin enabled .
13) Is it working with the Uninstallation Process.
14) Last but not the least test for the Security System for the IE 6.0
49. Where you involve in testing life cycle ,what type of test you perform ?
A:– Generally test engineers involved from entire test life cycle i.e, test plan, test case preparation, execution, reporting. Generally system testing, regression testing, adhoc testing
etc.
50. what is Testing environment in your company ,means hwo testing process start ?
A:– testing process is going as follows
quality assurance unit
quality assurance manager
testlead
test engineer
51. who prepares the use cases?
A:– In Any company except the small company Business analyst prepares the use cases
But in small company Business analyst prepares along with team lead
52. What methodologies have you used to develop test cases?
A:– generally test engineers uses 4 types of methodologies
1. Boundary value analysis
2.Equivalence partition
3.Error guessing
4.cause effect graphing
53. Why we call it as a regression test nor retest?
A:– If we test whether defect is closed or not i.e Retesting But here we are checking the impact also regression means repeated times
54. Is automated testing better than manual testing. If so, why?
A:– Automated testing and manual testing have advantages as well as disadvantages
Advantages: It increase the efficiency of testing process speed in process
reliable
Flexible
disadvantage’s
Tools should have compatibility with our development or deployment tools needs lot of time initially If the requirements are changing continuously Automation is not suitable
Manual: If the requirements are changing continuously Manual is suitable Once the build is stable with manual testing then only we go 4 automation
Disadvantages:
It needs lot of time
We can not do some type of testing manually
E.g Performances
55. what is the exact difference between a product and a project.give an example ?
A:– Project Developed for particular client requirements are defined by client Product developed for market Requirements are defined by company itself by conducting market survey
Example
Project: the shirt which we are interested stitching with tailor as per our specifications is project
Product: Example is “Ready made Shirt” where the particular company will imagine particular measurements they made the product
Mainframes is a product
Product has many mo of versions
but project has fewer versions i.e depends upon change request and enhancements
56. Define Brain Stromming and Cause Effect Graphing? With Eg?
A:– BS:
A learning technique involving open group discussion intended to expand the range of available ideas
OR
A meeting to generate creative ideas. At PEPSI Advertising, daily, weekly and bi-monthly brainstorming sessions are held by various work groups within the firm. Our monthly I-
Power brainstorming meeting is attended by the entire agency staff.
OR
Brainstorming is a highly structured process to help generate ideas. It is based on the principle that you cannot generate and evaluate ideas at the same time. To use brainstorming, you must first gain agreement from the group to try brainstorming for a fixed interval (eg six minutes).
CEG :
A testing technique that aids in selecting, in a systematic way, a high-yield set of test cases that logically relates causes to effects to produce test cases. It has a beneficial side effect in pointing out incompleteness and ambiguities in specifications.
57. Actually by using severity u should know which one u need to solve so what is the need of priority?
A:– I guess severity reflects the seriousness of the bug where as priority refers to which bug should rectify first. of course if the severity is high the same case is with priority in normal.
severity decided by the tester where as priority decided by developers. which one need to solve first knows through priority not with severity. how serious of the bug knows through
severity.
severity is nothing impact of that bug on the application. Priority is nothing but importance to resolve the bug yeah of course by looking severity we can judge but sometimes high severity bug doesn’t have high priority At the same time High priority bug don’t have high severity
So we need both severity and priority
58. What do u do if the bug that u found is not accepted by the developer and he is saying its not reproducible. Note:The developer is in the on site location ?
A:– once again we will check that condition with all reasons. then we will attach screen shots with strong reasons. then we will explain to the project manager and also explain to the client when they contact us
Sometimes bug is not reproducible it is because of different environment suppose development team using other environment and you are using different environment at this situation there is chance of bug not reproducing. At this situation please check the environment in the base line documents that is functional documents if the environment which we r using is correct we will raise it as defect We will take screen shots and sends them with test procedure also
59. what is the difference between three tier and two tier application?
A:– Client server is a 2-tier application. In this, front end or client is connected to
‘Data base server’ through ‘Data Source Name’,front end is the monitoring level.
Web based architecture is a 3-tier application. In this, browser is connected to web server through TCP/IP and web server is connected to Data base server,browser is the monitoring level. In general, Black box testers are concentrating on monitoring level of any type of application.
All the client server applications are 2 tier architectures.
Here in these architecture, all the “Business Logic” is stored in clients and “Data” is stored in Servers. So if user request anything, business logic will b performed at client, and the data is retrieved from Server(DB Server). Here the problem is, if any business logic changes, then we
need to change the logic at each any every client. The best ex: is take a super market, i have branches in the city. At each branch i have clients, so business logic is stored in clients, but the actual data is store in servers.If assume i want to give some discount on some items, so i
need to change the business logic. For this i need to goto each branch and need to change the business logic at each client. This the disadvantage of Client/Server architecture.
So 3-tier architecture came into picture:
Here Business Logic is stored in one Server, and all the clients are dumb terminals. If user requests anything the request first sent to server, the server will bring the data from DB Sever and send it to clients. This is the flow for 3-tier architecture.
Assume for the above. Ex. if i want to give some discount, all my business logic is there in Server. So i need to change at one place, not at each client. This is the main advantage of 3-tier architecture.
Software Testing Interview Questions Part 6 »
60. What is Impact analysis? How to do impact analysis in yr project?
A: — Impact analysis means when we r doing regressing testing at that time we r checking that the bug fixes r working properly, and by fixing these bug other components are working as per their requirements r they got disturbed.
61. HOW TO TEST A WEBSITE BY MANUAL TESTING?
A: — Web Testing
During testing the websites the following scenarios should be considered.
Functionality
Performance
Usability
Server side interface
Client side compatibility
Security
Functionality:
In testing the functionality of the web sites the following should be tested.
Links
Internal links
External links
Mail links
Broken links
Forms
Field validation
Functional chart
Error message for wrong input
Optional and mandatory fields
Database
Testing will be done on the database integrity.
Cookies
Testing will be done on the client system side, on the temporary internet files.
Performance:
Performance testing can be applied to understand the web site’s scalability, or to benchmark the performance in the environment of third party products such as servers and middle ware for potential purchase.
Connection speed:
Tested over various Networks like Dial up, ISDN etc
Load
What is the no. of users per time?
Check for peak loads & how system behaves.
Large amount of data accessed by user.
Stress
Continuous load
Performance of memory, cpu, file handling etc.
Usability :
Usability testing is the process by which the human-computer interaction characteristics of a system are measured, and weaknesses are identified for correction. Usability can be defined as the degree to which a given piece of software assists the person sitting at the keyboard to accomplish a task, as opposed to becoming an additional impediment to such accomplishment. The broad goal of usable systems is often assessed using several
Criteria:
Ease of learning
Navigation
Subjective user satisfaction
General appearance
Server side interface:
In web testing the server side interface should be tested.
This is done by Verify that communication is done properly.
Compatibility of server with software, hardware, network and database should be tested.
The client side compatibility is also tested in various platforms, using various browsers etc.
Security:
The primary reason for testing the security of an web is to identify potential vulnerabilities and subsequently repair them.
The following types of testing are described in this section:
Network Scanning
Vulnerability Scanning
Password Cracking
Log Review
Integrity Checkers
Virus Detection
Performance Testing
Performance testing is a rigorous usability evaluation of a working system under realistic conditions to identify usability problems and to compare measures such as success
rate, task time and user satisfaction with requirements. The goal of performance testing is not to find bugs, but to eliminate bottlenecks and establish a baseline for future regression testing.
To conduct performance testing is to engage in a carefully controlled process of measurement and analysis. Ideally, the software under test is already stable enough so that this process can proceed smoothly. A clearly defined set of expectations is essential for meaningful performance testing.
For example, for a Web application, you need to know at least two things:
expected load in terms of concurrent users or HTTP connections
acceptable response time
Load testing:
Load testing is usually defined as the process of exercising the system under test by feeding it the largest tasks it can operate with. Load testing is sometimes called volume testing, or longevity/endurance testing
Examples of volume testing:
testing a word processor by editing a very large document
testing a printer by sending it a very large job
testing a mail server with thousands of users mailboxes
Examples of longevity/endurance testing:
testing a client-server application by running the client in a loop against the server over an extended period of time
Goals of load testing:
Expose bugs that do not surface in cursory testing, such as memory management bugs, memory leaks, buffer overflows, etc. Ensure that the application meets the performance baseline established during Performance testing. This is done by running regression tests against the application at a specified maximum load.
Although performance testing and load testing can seen similar, their goals are different. On one hand, performance testing uses load testing techniques and tools for measurement and benchmarking purposes and uses various load levels whereas load testing operates at a predefined load level, the highest load that the system can accept while still functioning properly.
Stress testing:
Stress testing is a form of testing that is used to determine the stability of a given system or entity. This is designed to test the software with abnormal situations. Stress testing attempts to find the limits at which the system will fail through abnormal quantity or frequency of inputs.
Stress testing tries to break the system under test by overwhelming its resources or by taking resources away from it (in which case it is sometimes called negative testing).
The main purpose behind this madness is to make sure that the system fails and recovers gracefully — this quality is known as recoverability.
Stress testing does not break the system but instead it allows observing how the system reacts to failure. Stress testing observes for the following.
Does it save its state or does it crash suddenly?
Does it just hang and freeze or does it fail gracefully?
Is it able to recover from the last good state on restart?
Etc.
Compatability Testing
A Testing to ensure compatibility of an application or Web site with different browsers, OS and hardware platforms. Different versions, configurations, display resolutions, and Internet connect speeds all can impact the behavior of the product and introduce costly and embarrassing bugs. We test for compatibility using real test environments. That is testing how will the system performs in the particular software, hardware or network environment. Compatibility testing can be performed manually or can be driven by an automated functional or reg The purpose of compatibility testing is to reveal issues related to the product& interaction session test suite.with other software as well as hardware. The product compatibility is evaluated by first identifying the hardware/software/browser components that the product is designed to support. Then a hardware/software/browser matrix is designed that indicates the configurations on which the product will be tested. Then, with input from the client, a testing script is designed that will be sufficient to evaluate compatibility between the product and the hardware/software/browser matrix. Finally, the script is executed against the matrix,and any anomalies are investigated to determine exactly where the incompatibility lies.
Some typical compatibility tests include testing your application:
On various client hardware configurations
Using different memory sizes and hard drive space
On various Operating Systems
In different network environments
With different printers and peripherals (i.e. zip drives, USBs, etc.)
62. which comes first test strategy or test plan?
A:– Test strategy comes first ans this is the high level document…. and approach for the testing starts from test strategy and then based on this the test lead prepares the
test plan….
63. what is the difference between web based application and client server application as a testers point of view?
A:– According to Tester’s Point of view——
1) Web Base Application (WBA)is a 3 tier application ;Browser,Back end and Server.
Client server Application(CSA) is a 2 tier Application ;Front End ,Back end .
2) In the WBA tester test for the Script error like java script error VB script error etc, that shown at the page. In the CSA tester does not test for any script error.
3) Because in the WBA once changes perform reflect at every machine so tester has less work for test. Whereas in the CSA every time application need to be instal hence ,it maybe possible that some machine has some problem for that Hardware testing as well as software testing is needed.
63. What is the significance of doing Regression testing?
A:– To check for the bug fixes. And this fix should not disturb other functionality
To Ensure the newly added functionality or existing modified functionality or developer fixed bug arises any new bug or affecting any other side effect. this is called regression test and ensure already PASSED TEST CASES would not arise any new bug.
64. What are the diff ways to check a date field in a website?
A:– There are different ways like :–
1) you can check the field width for minimum and maximum.
2) If that field only take the Numeric Value then check it’ll only take Numeric no other type.
3) If it takes the date or time then check for other.
4) Same way like Numeric you can check it for the Character,Alpha Numeric aand all.
5) And the most Important if you click and hit the enter key then some time pag e may give the error of javascript, that is the big fault on the page .
6) Check the field for the Null value ..
ETC…………………
The date field we can check in different ways Possitive testing: first we enter the date in given format
Negative Testing: We enter the date in invalid format suppose if we enter date like 30/02/2006 it should display some error message and also we use to check the numeric or text
A: — Impact analysis means when we r doing regressing testing at that time we r checking that the bug fixes r working properly, and by fixing these bug other components are working as per their requirements r they got disturbed.
61. HOW TO TEST A WEBSITE BY MANUAL TESTING?
A: — Web Testing
During testing the websites the following scenarios should be considered.
Functionality
Performance
Usability
Server side interface
Client side compatibility
Security
Functionality:
In testing the functionality of the web sites the following should be tested.
Links
Internal links
External links
Mail links
Broken links
Forms
Field validation
Functional chart
Error message for wrong input
Optional and mandatory fields
Database
Testing will be done on the database integrity.
Cookies
Testing will be done on the client system side, on the temporary internet files.
Performance:
Performance testing can be applied to understand the web site’s scalability, or to benchmark the performance in the environment of third party products such as servers and middle ware for potential purchase.
Connection speed:
Tested over various Networks like Dial up, ISDN etc
Load
What is the no. of users per time?
Check for peak loads & how system behaves.
Large amount of data accessed by user.
Stress
Continuous load
Performance of memory, cpu, file handling etc.
Usability :
Usability testing is the process by which the human-computer interaction characteristics of a system are measured, and weaknesses are identified for correction. Usability can be defined as the degree to which a given piece of software assists the person sitting at the keyboard to accomplish a task, as opposed to becoming an additional impediment to such accomplishment. The broad goal of usable systems is often assessed using several
Criteria:
Ease of learning
Navigation
Subjective user satisfaction
General appearance
Server side interface:
In web testing the server side interface should be tested.
This is done by Verify that communication is done properly.
Compatibility of server with software, hardware, network and database should be tested.
The client side compatibility is also tested in various platforms, using various browsers etc.
Security:
The primary reason for testing the security of an web is to identify potential vulnerabilities and subsequently repair them.
The following types of testing are described in this section:
Network Scanning
Vulnerability Scanning
Password Cracking
Log Review
Integrity Checkers
Virus Detection
Performance Testing
Performance testing is a rigorous usability evaluation of a working system under realistic conditions to identify usability problems and to compare measures such as success
rate, task time and user satisfaction with requirements. The goal of performance testing is not to find bugs, but to eliminate bottlenecks and establish a baseline for future regression testing.
To conduct performance testing is to engage in a carefully controlled process of measurement and analysis. Ideally, the software under test is already stable enough so that this process can proceed smoothly. A clearly defined set of expectations is essential for meaningful performance testing.
For example, for a Web application, you need to know at least two things:
expected load in terms of concurrent users or HTTP connections
acceptable response time
Load testing:
Load testing is usually defined as the process of exercising the system under test by feeding it the largest tasks it can operate with. Load testing is sometimes called volume testing, or longevity/endurance testing
Examples of volume testing:
testing a word processor by editing a very large document
testing a printer by sending it a very large job
testing a mail server with thousands of users mailboxes
Examples of longevity/endurance testing:
testing a client-server application by running the client in a loop against the server over an extended period of time
Goals of load testing:
Expose bugs that do not surface in cursory testing, such as memory management bugs, memory leaks, buffer overflows, etc. Ensure that the application meets the performance baseline established during Performance testing. This is done by running regression tests against the application at a specified maximum load.
Although performance testing and load testing can seen similar, their goals are different. On one hand, performance testing uses load testing techniques and tools for measurement and benchmarking purposes and uses various load levels whereas load testing operates at a predefined load level, the highest load that the system can accept while still functioning properly.
Stress testing:
Stress testing is a form of testing that is used to determine the stability of a given system or entity. This is designed to test the software with abnormal situations. Stress testing attempts to find the limits at which the system will fail through abnormal quantity or frequency of inputs.
Stress testing tries to break the system under test by overwhelming its resources or by taking resources away from it (in which case it is sometimes called negative testing).
The main purpose behind this madness is to make sure that the system fails and recovers gracefully — this quality is known as recoverability.
Stress testing does not break the system but instead it allows observing how the system reacts to failure. Stress testing observes for the following.
Does it save its state or does it crash suddenly?
Does it just hang and freeze or does it fail gracefully?
Is it able to recover from the last good state on restart?
Etc.
Compatability Testing
A Testing to ensure compatibility of an application or Web site with different browsers, OS and hardware platforms. Different versions, configurations, display resolutions, and Internet connect speeds all can impact the behavior of the product and introduce costly and embarrassing bugs. We test for compatibility using real test environments. That is testing how will the system performs in the particular software, hardware or network environment. Compatibility testing can be performed manually or can be driven by an automated functional or reg The purpose of compatibility testing is to reveal issues related to the product& interaction session test suite.with other software as well as hardware. The product compatibility is evaluated by first identifying the hardware/software/browser components that the product is designed to support. Then a hardware/software/browser matrix is designed that indicates the configurations on which the product will be tested. Then, with input from the client, a testing script is designed that will be sufficient to evaluate compatibility between the product and the hardware/software/browser matrix. Finally, the script is executed against the matrix,and any anomalies are investigated to determine exactly where the incompatibility lies.
Some typical compatibility tests include testing your application:
On various client hardware configurations
Using different memory sizes and hard drive space
On various Operating Systems
In different network environments
With different printers and peripherals (i.e. zip drives, USBs, etc.)
62. which comes first test strategy or test plan?
A:– Test strategy comes first ans this is the high level document…. and approach for the testing starts from test strategy and then based on this the test lead prepares the
test plan….
63. what is the difference between web based application and client server application as a testers point of view?
A:– According to Tester’s Point of view——
1) Web Base Application (WBA)is a 3 tier application ;Browser,Back end and Server.
Client server Application(CSA) is a 2 tier Application ;Front End ,Back end .
2) In the WBA tester test for the Script error like java script error VB script error etc, that shown at the page. In the CSA tester does not test for any script error.
3) Because in the WBA once changes perform reflect at every machine so tester has less work for test. Whereas in the CSA every time application need to be instal hence ,it maybe possible that some machine has some problem for that Hardware testing as well as software testing is needed.
63. What is the significance of doing Regression testing?
A:– To check for the bug fixes. And this fix should not disturb other functionality
To Ensure the newly added functionality or existing modified functionality or developer fixed bug arises any new bug or affecting any other side effect. this is called regression test and ensure already PASSED TEST CASES would not arise any new bug.
64. What are the diff ways to check a date field in a website?
A:– There are different ways like :–
1) you can check the field width for minimum and maximum.
2) If that field only take the Numeric Value then check it’ll only take Numeric no other type.
3) If it takes the date or time then check for other.
4) Same way like Numeric you can check it for the Character,Alpha Numeric aand all.
5) And the most Important if you click and hit the enter key then some time pag e may give the error of javascript, that is the big fault on the page .
6) Check the field for the Null value ..
ETC…………………
The date field we can check in different ways Possitive testing: first we enter the date in given format
Negative Testing: We enter the date in invalid format suppose if we enter date like 30/02/2006 it should display some error message and also we use to check the numeric or text
Interview Questions for Elearning Testers »
1) What is SCORM?
2) What is Sec 508?
3) Have u done any portal testing?
4) DO u have any idea about LMS or LCMS?
5) Have u done any compliance testing
6) Have u done any compatibility testing?
7) What are the critical issues found while testing the projects in your organization?
8) Tell me about the testing procedures used by u in your organization?
9) How do you test a flash file?
10) Have u find any difference while testing a flash file and Html file?
11) What types of testing do u aware of?
12) While doing the compatibility testing have u found any critical issues?
13) While doing the compliance testing has u noticed any critical/ abnormal issues?
14) What is the procedure u use while doing the Regression testing in your projects?
15) Have u done any performance or stress testing in your testing? If yes have u used any automation techniques in that or not?
16) Have u aware of any bug tracking tools for defect tracking?
17) Tell me about the testing scenario’s used in project?
18) Have u written any test cases/test plan? If yes can u tell me one or two instances in that?
19) Have u aware of any Usability and Acceptance testing?
20) Is ur testing is conventional or non-conventional?
21) Have u done any other lang’s courses testing? If yes have u faced in any critical situations?
22) What are things to be more concentrated while testing same projects on different environments?
23) What are AICC standards?
2) What is Sec 508?
3) Have u done any portal testing?
4) DO u have any idea about LMS or LCMS?
5) Have u done any compliance testing
6) Have u done any compatibility testing?
7) What are the critical issues found while testing the projects in your organization?
8) Tell me about the testing procedures used by u in your organization?
9) How do you test a flash file?
10) Have u find any difference while testing a flash file and Html file?
11) What types of testing do u aware of?
12) While doing the compatibility testing have u found any critical issues?
13) While doing the compliance testing has u noticed any critical/ abnormal issues?
14) What is the procedure u use while doing the Regression testing in your projects?
15) Have u done any performance or stress testing in your testing? If yes have u used any automation techniques in that or not?
16) Have u aware of any bug tracking tools for defect tracking?
17) Tell me about the testing scenario’s used in project?
18) Have u written any test cases/test plan? If yes can u tell me one or two instances in that?
19) Have u aware of any Usability and Acceptance testing?
20) Is ur testing is conventional or non-conventional?
21) Have u done any other lang’s courses testing? If yes have u faced in any critical situations?
22) What are things to be more concentrated while testing same projects on different environments?
23) What are AICC standards?
Different Types of Testing Interview Questions asked by Companies »
1. I-soft
What should be done after writing test case??
2.Covansys
Testing
1. What is bidirectional traceability ??? and how it is implemented
2. What is Automation Test frame work ?
3. Define the components present in test strategy
4. Define the components present in test plan
5. Define database testing ?
6. What is the difference between QA and QC ….
7. What is the difference between V&V
8. What are different types of test case that u have written in your project..
9. Have u written Test plan ?….
SQL
1. What is joins and define all the joins …
2. What is Foreign key ?
3. Write an SQL query if u want to select the data from one block which intern reflects in another block ?
Unix
1. Which command is used to run an interface?
2. How will you see the hidden file ?
3. What is the command used to set the date and timings …
4. Some basic commands like copy, move,delete ?
5. Which command used to the go back to the home directory ….
6. Which command used to view the the current directory
3. Virtusa
Testing
1. Tell me about Yourself?
2. Testing process followed in your company …
3. Testing Methodology
4. Where u maintains the Repositories?
5. What is CVS?
6. Bug Tool used?
7. How will you prepare traceability matrix if there is no Business Doc and Functional Doc?
8. How will you validate the functionality of the Test cases, if there is no business requirement document or user requirement document as such…
9. Testing process followed in your company?
10. Tell me about CMM LEVEL -4 …what are steps that to be followed to achieve the CMM -IV standards?
11. What is Back End testing?
12. What is Unit Testing?
13. How will u write test cases for an given scenario…i.e. main page, login screen, transaction, Report Verification?
14. How will u write traceability matrix?
15. What is CVS and why it is used?
16. What will be specified in the Defect Report…?
17. What is Test summary Report…?
18. What is Test Closure report…?
19. Explain Defect life cycle…
20. What will be specified in the Test Case…
21. What are the Testing methodologies that u have followed in your project ?
22. What kind of testing that u have been involved in and explain about it….
23. What is UAT Testing?
24. What is joins and what are the different types of joins in SQL and explain the same?
25. What is Foreign Key in SQL…?
KLA Tencor
1. Bug life cycle?
2. Explain about the Project. …And draw the architecture of your project?
3. What are the different types of severity?
4. Defect tracking tools used?
5. what are the responsibilities of an tester?
6. Give some example how will you write the test cases if an scenario involves Login screen.
Aztec
1. What are the different types of testing followed …..
2. What are the different levels of testing used during testing the application?
4. What type of testing will be done in Installation testing or system testing?
5. What is meant by CMMI …what are different types of CMM Level?
6. Explain about the components involved in CMM-4 level
7. Explain about Performance testing ?
8. What is Traceability matrix and how it is done ?
9. How can you differentiate Severity and Priority based on technical and business point of view.
10. What is the difference between Test life cycle and defect life cycle ?
11. How will u ensure that you have covered all the functionality while writing test cases if there is no functional spec and there is no KT about the application?
Kinds of Testing
WHAT KINDS OF TESTING SHOULD BE CONSIDERED?
1. Black box testing: not based on any knowledge of internal design or code.Tests are based on requirements and functionality
2. 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, and conditions.
3. 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.
4. Incremental integration testing: continuous testing of an application as new functionality is added; requires that various aspects of an applications 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.
6. 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 networked. This type of testing is especially relevant to client/server and distributed systems.
7. Functional testing: black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application; testers should do this type of testing. This does not mean that the programmers should not check their code works before releasing it(which of course applies to any stage of testing).
8. System testing: black –box type testing that is based on overall requirements specifications; covers all combined parts of system.
9. 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 database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems if appropriate.
10. 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 5minutes warrant further testing in item current state.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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 system’s response time degrades or fails.
14. 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 repletion of certain actions or inputs input of large numerical values, large complex queries to a database system, etc.
15. Performance testing: term often used interchangeable with ‘stress’ and ‘load’ testing. Ideally ‘performance’ testing (and another ‘type’ of testing) is defined in requirements documentation or QA or test plans.
16. Usability testing: testing for ‘user-friendlinesses’. Clearly this is subjective,and will depend on the targeted end-ser 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.
17. Install/uninstall testing: testing of full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall processes.
18. Recovery testing: testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures or other catastrophic problems.
19. Security testing: testing how well system protects against unauthorized internal or external access, damage, etc, any require sophisticated testing techniques.
20. Compatibility testing: testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/operating/system/network/etc environment.
21. Exploratory testing: often taken to mean a creative, informal software test that is not based on formal test plans of test cases; testers may be learning the software as they test it.
22. Ad-hoc testing: similar to exploratory testing, but often taken to mean that the testers have significant understanding of the software testing it.
23. User acceptance testing: determining if software is satisfactory to an end-user or customer.
24. Comparison testing: comparing software weakness and strengths to competing products.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. Mutation testing: 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.
Difference between client server testing and web server testing.
Web systems are one type of client/server. The client is the browser, the server is whatever is on the back end (database, proxy, mirror, etc). This differs from so-called “traditional” client/server in a few ways but both systems are a type of client/server. There is a certain client that connects via some protocol with a server (or set of servers).
Also understand that in a strict difference based on how the question is worded, “testing a Web server” specifically is simply testing the functionality and performance of the Web server itself. (For example, I might test if HTTP Keep-Alives are enabled and if that works. Or I might test if the logging feature is working. Or I might test certain filters, like ISAPI. Or I might test some general characteristics such as the load the server can take.) In the case of “client server testing”, as you have worded it, you might be doing the same general things to some other type of server, such as a database server. Also note that you can be testing the server directly, in some cases, and other times you can be testing it via the interaction of a client.
You can also test connectivity in both. (Anytime you have a client and a server there has to be connectivity between them or the system would be less than useful so far as I can see.) In the Web you are looking at HTTP protocols and perhaps FTP depending upon your site and if your server is configured for FTP connections as well as general TCP/IP concerns. In a “traditional” client/server you may be looking at sockets, Telnet, NNTP, etc.
What should be done after writing test case??
2.Covansys
Testing
1. What is bidirectional traceability ??? and how it is implemented
2. What is Automation Test frame work ?
3. Define the components present in test strategy
4. Define the components present in test plan
5. Define database testing ?
6. What is the difference between QA and QC ….
7. What is the difference between V&V
8. What are different types of test case that u have written in your project..
9. Have u written Test plan ?….
SQL
1. What is joins and define all the joins …
2. What is Foreign key ?
3. Write an SQL query if u want to select the data from one block which intern reflects in another block ?
Unix
1. Which command is used to run an interface?
2. How will you see the hidden file ?
3. What is the command used to set the date and timings …
4. Some basic commands like copy, move,delete ?
5. Which command used to the go back to the home directory ….
6. Which command used to view the the current directory
3. Virtusa
Testing
1. Tell me about Yourself?
2. Testing process followed in your company …
3. Testing Methodology
4. Where u maintains the Repositories?
5. What is CVS?
6. Bug Tool used?
7. How will you prepare traceability matrix if there is no Business Doc and Functional Doc?
8. How will you validate the functionality of the Test cases, if there is no business requirement document or user requirement document as such…
9. Testing process followed in your company?
10. Tell me about CMM LEVEL -4 …what are steps that to be followed to achieve the CMM -IV standards?
11. What is Back End testing?
12. What is Unit Testing?
13. How will u write test cases for an given scenario…i.e. main page, login screen, transaction, Report Verification?
14. How will u write traceability matrix?
15. What is CVS and why it is used?
16. What will be specified in the Defect Report…?
17. What is Test summary Report…?
18. What is Test Closure report…?
19. Explain Defect life cycle…
20. What will be specified in the Test Case…
21. What are the Testing methodologies that u have followed in your project ?
22. What kind of testing that u have been involved in and explain about it….
23. What is UAT Testing?
24. What is joins and what are the different types of joins in SQL and explain the same?
25. What is Foreign Key in SQL…?
KLA Tencor
1. Bug life cycle?
2. Explain about the Project. …And draw the architecture of your project?
3. What are the different types of severity?
4. Defect tracking tools used?
5. what are the responsibilities of an tester?
6. Give some example how will you write the test cases if an scenario involves Login screen.
Aztec
1. What are the different types of testing followed …..
2. What are the different levels of testing used during testing the application?
4. What type of testing will be done in Installation testing or system testing?
5. What is meant by CMMI …what are different types of CMM Level?
6. Explain about the components involved in CMM-4 level
7. Explain about Performance testing ?
8. What is Traceability matrix and how it is done ?
9. How can you differentiate Severity and Priority based on technical and business point of view.
10. What is the difference between Test life cycle and defect life cycle ?
11. How will u ensure that you have covered all the functionality while writing test cases if there is no functional spec and there is no KT about the application?
Kinds of Testing
WHAT KINDS OF TESTING SHOULD BE CONSIDERED?
1. Black box testing: not based on any knowledge of internal design or code.Tests are based on requirements and functionality
2. 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, and conditions.
3. 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.
4. Incremental integration testing: continuous testing of an application as new functionality is added; requires that various aspects of an applications 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.
6. 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 networked. This type of testing is especially relevant to client/server and distributed systems.
7. Functional testing: black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application; testers should do this type of testing. This does not mean that the programmers should not check their code works before releasing it(which of course applies to any stage of testing).
8. System testing: black –box type testing that is based on overall requirements specifications; covers all combined parts of system.
9. 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 database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems if appropriate.
10. 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 5minutes warrant further testing in item current state.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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 system’s response time degrades or fails.
14. 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 repletion of certain actions or inputs input of large numerical values, large complex queries to a database system, etc.
15. Performance testing: term often used interchangeable with ‘stress’ and ‘load’ testing. Ideally ‘performance’ testing (and another ‘type’ of testing) is defined in requirements documentation or QA or test plans.
16. Usability testing: testing for ‘user-friendlinesses’. Clearly this is subjective,and will depend on the targeted end-ser 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.
17. Install/uninstall testing: testing of full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall processes.
18. Recovery testing: testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures or other catastrophic problems.
19. Security testing: testing how well system protects against unauthorized internal or external access, damage, etc, any require sophisticated testing techniques.
20. Compatibility testing: testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/operating/system/network/etc environment.
21. Exploratory testing: often taken to mean a creative, informal software test that is not based on formal test plans of test cases; testers may be learning the software as they test it.
22. Ad-hoc testing: similar to exploratory testing, but often taken to mean that the testers have significant understanding of the software testing it.
23. User acceptance testing: determining if software is satisfactory to an end-user or customer.
24. Comparison testing: comparing software weakness and strengths to competing products.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. Mutation testing: 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.
Difference between client server testing and web server testing.
Web systems are one type of client/server. The client is the browser, the server is whatever is on the back end (database, proxy, mirror, etc). This differs from so-called “traditional” client/server in a few ways but both systems are a type of client/server. There is a certain client that connects via some protocol with a server (or set of servers).
Also understand that in a strict difference based on how the question is worded, “testing a Web server” specifically is simply testing the functionality and performance of the Web server itself. (For example, I might test if HTTP Keep-Alives are enabled and if that works. Or I might test if the logging feature is working. Or I might test certain filters, like ISAPI. Or I might test some general characteristics such as the load the server can take.) In the case of “client server testing”, as you have worded it, you might be doing the same general things to some other type of server, such as a database server. Also note that you can be testing the server directly, in some cases, and other times you can be testing it via the interaction of a client.
You can also test connectivity in both. (Anytime you have a client and a server there has to be connectivity between them or the system would be less than useful so far as I can see.) In the Web you are looking at HTTP protocols and perhaps FTP depending upon your site and if your server is configured for FTP connections as well as general TCP/IP concerns. In a “traditional” client/server you may be looking at sockets, Telnet, NNTP, etc.
Software Testing Interview Questions Part 1 »
1. What are SDLC and STLC?
2. When will you start the testing process?
3. What is Test Plan and Test Case?
4. What is the difference between Integration Testing and System Testing?
5. If an ATM machine is given to you, how will you approach to test it and also check that correct information is updated in the database or not?
6. If a screen is given to you and the enter data in that screen is getting updated into one table. What all kinds of test case you will write and how will u check in the database whether the enter data is updated correctly or not?
7. What are Performance Testing, Stress Testing and Load Testing?
8. What is the most difficult test case you have written?
9. What is the top priority bug you have found out in your previous career?
10. What is functional testing?
11. Testing Methodologies.
2. When will you start the testing process?
3. What is Test Plan and Test Case?
4. What is the difference between Integration Testing and System Testing?
5. If an ATM machine is given to you, how will you approach to test it and also check that correct information is updated in the database or not?
6. If a screen is given to you and the enter data in that screen is getting updated into one table. What all kinds of test case you will write and how will u check in the database whether the enter data is updated correctly or not?
7. What are Performance Testing, Stress Testing and Load Testing?
8. What is the most difficult test case you have written?
9. What is the top priority bug you have found out in your previous career?
10. What is functional testing?
11. Testing Methodologies.
General Testing Interview Questions »
1. What is Win Registry and what it is used for?
2. What is the command to invoke Win Registry?
3. What is IIS?
4. What is XML?
5. Difference between WELL form XML and XML?
6. Automation Tools – Win-Runner
7. How can you perform load and stress testing on a single ATM machine?
8. What are ACID properties?
9. What is replication? How many types of replications are there?
10. Write a query to get ‘Last Day’ of the last month.
11. How can you test a ‘Mouse’?
12. How can you test a ‘Coke’ machine?
13. What are all Test deliverables?
14. What are the various components or folders which exist at ‘Regedit’ and What is all their usage?
15. Explain about ‘Web Server’, ‘Web Service’, IIS and security constraints?
16. What is ‘Log file’ in SQL Server?
17. What are the tuning techniques for SQL Server?
18. What is use of ‘Query Profiler?’
19. How can you assure when testing a ‘Form’ of saving data to db? Without having any specifications.
20. Difference between Remoting and Web services and define each in brief
2. What is the command to invoke Win Registry?
3. What is IIS?
4. What is XML?
5. Difference between WELL form XML and XML?
6. Automation Tools – Win-Runner
7. How can you perform load and stress testing on a single ATM machine?
8. What are ACID properties?
9. What is replication? How many types of replications are there?
10. Write a query to get ‘Last Day’ of the last month.
11. How can you test a ‘Mouse’?
12. How can you test a ‘Coke’ machine?
13. What are all Test deliverables?
14. What are the various components or folders which exist at ‘Regedit’ and What is all their usage?
15. Explain about ‘Web Server’, ‘Web Service’, IIS and security constraints?
16. What is ‘Log file’ in SQL Server?
17. What are the tuning techniques for SQL Server?
18. What is use of ‘Query Profiler?’
19. How can you assure when testing a ‘Form’ of saving data to db? Without having any specifications.
20. Difference between Remoting and Web services and define each in brief
Old Testing Interview Questions »
1. What is Black Box testing and White Box testing
2. What is Regression Testing
3. How the Test Plan and the Test Cases Documents are prepared
4. Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation Testing
5. What is Stress Testing
6. Localization, Globalization issues
7. What is Monkey Testing
8. What are the various Metrics applicable for Testing
9. Web Testing (What are the features that are to be tested)
10. How will you log a bug
11. If given FS, how the Testing estimates are made
12. What do you do if the Functionality of the System is changed after completing the Testing
13. If you come across a bug, which is not reproducible, what will you do
14. If given FS, as a Tester what will you do
15. If Label and a Text Box are to be tested how do u test it? What are the test cases
16. Given the Functional specs how do you gather the data required for your project where no body is there to help you out
17. You got a suggestion and the developer is not taking it as a bug how do you convince him
18. How do you test a Job which is executable in SQL server
19. Testing Tools worked on
2. What is Regression Testing
3. How the Test Plan and the Test Cases Documents are prepared
4. Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation Testing
5. What is Stress Testing
6. Localization, Globalization issues
7. What is Monkey Testing
8. What are the various Metrics applicable for Testing
9. Web Testing (What are the features that are to be tested)
10. How will you log a bug
11. If given FS, how the Testing estimates are made
12. What do you do if the Functionality of the System is changed after completing the Testing
13. If you come across a bug, which is not reproducible, what will you do
14. If given FS, as a Tester what will you do
15. If Label and a Text Box are to be tested how do u test it? What are the test cases
16. Given the Functional specs how do you gather the data required for your project where no body is there to help you out
17. You got a suggestion and the developer is not taking it as a bug how do you convince him
18. How do you test a Job which is executable in SQL server
19. Testing Tools worked on
Testing Interview Questions »
How you make sure that each functionality was covered in Test Cases?
User1
Group 1
Task-1
Task-2
User 2
Group 2
Task3 and Task-4
User 3
Group 3
Task5 and Task 6
Write top 5 test cases for the above in security level.
How you manage your Test Cases?
What is your Approach if you find a bug, while you have release in next one Hour?
What is your Approach when you find 10 Sev-1 bugs in 50 test cases?
What do you do if you have 10 Sev-1 bugs, 20 Sev-2 bugs and 5 Sev-3 bugs in 50 test cases?
Write Test Strategy for Hot mail Login Screen?
If Yahoo CEO asks you to do Performance testing for Yahoo website, what are the inputs you ask from them?
Can you Merge 10 GUI Map files into a Single GUI Map file in Win runner.
User A is changing a GUI Map file. Can User B see the changes made by User A?
Will Rapid Test Script Wizard works in Web testing?
How do you start performance testing?
What are the Outputs for Performance testing?
Tell me the top 4 challenges in your Career?
What is Delegation?
Write Test Strategy for Telephone
Top 5 test cases for Calculator
Top 5 test cases for Elevator
Top 5 test cases for Telephone.
What are the Challenges for Testing?
What is exception handling in Win runner?
How Recovery manager Works in Win runner?
How do you manage scripts in Win runner when your Application is changing frequently?
There is a rendezvous point in Load runner Transaction for 100 users. 50 users are not reached the point. What the 50 users do in this time who reached the rendezvous point?
What are the components in Load runner?
Write the Contents of Test Plan?
What are the Sev-1 Bugs in calculator?
What are Sev-4 bugs in Calculator?
What is Traceability Matrix?
What do you do if you are not able to connect SQL Server?
What is Entry Criteria for Testing?
What is Exit Criteria?
User1
Group 1
Task-1
Task-2
User 2
Group 2
Task3 and Task-4
User 3
Group 3
Task5 and Task 6
Write top 5 test cases for the above in security level.
How you manage your Test Cases?
What is your Approach if you find a bug, while you have release in next one Hour?
What is your Approach when you find 10 Sev-1 bugs in 50 test cases?
What do you do if you have 10 Sev-1 bugs, 20 Sev-2 bugs and 5 Sev-3 bugs in 50 test cases?
Write Test Strategy for Hot mail Login Screen?
If Yahoo CEO asks you to do Performance testing for Yahoo website, what are the inputs you ask from them?
Can you Merge 10 GUI Map files into a Single GUI Map file in Win runner.
User A is changing a GUI Map file. Can User B see the changes made by User A?
Will Rapid Test Script Wizard works in Web testing?
How do you start performance testing?
What are the Outputs for Performance testing?
Tell me the top 4 challenges in your Career?
What is Delegation?
Write Test Strategy for Telephone
Top 5 test cases for Calculator
Top 5 test cases for Elevator
Top 5 test cases for Telephone.
What are the Challenges for Testing?
What is exception handling in Win runner?
How Recovery manager Works in Win runner?
How do you manage scripts in Win runner when your Application is changing frequently?
There is a rendezvous point in Load runner Transaction for 100 users. 50 users are not reached the point. What the 50 users do in this time who reached the rendezvous point?
What are the components in Load runner?
Write the Contents of Test Plan?
What are the Sev-1 Bugs in calculator?
What are Sev-4 bugs in Calculator?
What is Traceability Matrix?
What do you do if you are not able to connect SQL Server?
What is Entry Criteria for Testing?
What is Exit Criteria?
LoadRunner interview questions
1. What is load testing?
Load testing is to test that if the application works fine with the loads that result from large number of simultaneous users, transactions and to determine weather it can handle peak usage periods.
2. What is Performance testing? - Timing for both read and update transactions should be gathered to determine whether system functions are being performed in an acceptable timeframe. This should be done standalone and then in a multi user environment to determine the effect of multiple transactions on the timing of a single transaction.
3. Did u use LoadRunner? What version? - Yes. Version 7.2.
4. Explain the Load testing process?
Step 1: Planning the test. Here, we develop a clearly defined test plan to ensure the test scenarios we develop will accomplish load-testing objectives.
Step 2: Creating Vusers. Here, we create Vuser scripts that contain tasks performed by each Vuser, tasks performed by Vusers as a whole, and tasks measured as transactions.
Step 3: Creating the scenario. A scenario describes the events that occur during a testing session. It includes a list of machines, scripts, and Vusers that run during the scenario. We create scenarios using LoadRunner Controller. We can create manual scenarios as well as goal-oriented scenarios. In manual scenarios, we define the number of Vusers, the load generator machines, and percentage of Vusers to be assigned to each script. For web tests, we may create a goal-oriented scenario where we define the goal that our test has to achieve. LoadRunner automatically builds a scenario for us.
Step 4: Running the scenario.
We emulate load on the server by instructing multiple Vusers to perform tasks simultaneously. Before the testing, we set the scenario configuration and scheduling. We can run the entire scenario, Vuser groups, or individual Vusers.
Step 5: Monitoring the scenario.
We monitor scenario execution using the LoadRunner online runtime, transaction, system resource, Web resource, Web server resource, Web application server resource, database server resource, network delay, streaming media resource, firewall server resource, ERP server resource, and Java performance monitors.
Step 6: Analyzing test results. During scenario execution, LoadRunner records the performance of the application under different loads. We use LoadRunner.s graphs and reports to analyze the application.s performance.
5. When do you do load and performance Testing?
We perform load testing once we are done with interface (GUI) testing. Modern system architectures are large and complex. Whereas single user testing primarily on functionality and user interface of a system component, application testing focuses on performance and reliability of an entire system. For example, a typical application-testing scenario might depict 1000 users logging in simultaneously to a system. This gives rise to issues such as what is the response time of the system, does it crash, will it go with different software applications and platforms, can it hold so many hundreds and thousands of users, etc. This is when we set do load and performance testing.
6. What are the components of LoadRunner?
The components of LoadRunner are The Virtual User Generator, Controller, and the Agent process, LoadRunner Analysis and Monitoring, LoadRunner Books Online.
7. What Component of LoadRunner would you use to record a Script?
The Virtual User Generator (VuGen) component is used to record a script. It enables you to develop Vuser scripts for a variety of application types and communication protocols.
8. What Component of LoadRunner would you use to play Back the script in multi user mode?
The Controller component is used to playback the script in multi-user mode. This is done during a scenario run where a vuser script is executed by a number of vusers in a group.
9. What is a rendezvous point?
You insert rendezvous points into Vuser scripts to emulate heavy user load on the server. Rendezvous points instruct Vusers to wait during test execution for multiple Vusers to arrive at a certain point, in order that they may simultaneously perform a task. For example, to emulate peak load on the bank server, you can insert a rendezvous point instructing 100 Vusers to deposit cash into their accounts at the same time.
10. What is a scenario?
A scenario defines the events that occur during each testing session. For example, a scenario defines and controls the number of users to emulate, the actions to be performed, and the machines on which the virtual users run their emulations.
11. Explain the recording mode for web Vuser script?
We use VuGen to develop a Vuser script by recording a user performing typical business processes on a client application. VuGen creates the script by recording the activity between the client and the server. For example, in web based applications, VuGen monitors the client end of the database and traces all the requests sent to, and received from, the database server. We use VuGen to: Monitor the communication between the application and the server; Generate the required function calls; and Insert the generated function calls into a Vuser script.
12. Why do you create parameters?
Parameters are like script variables. They are used to vary input to the server and to emulate real users. Different sets of data are sent to the server each time the script is run. Better simulate the usage model for more accurate testing from the Controller; one script can emulate many different users on the system.
13. What is correlation?Explain the difference between automatic correlation and manual correlation?
Correlation is used to obtain data which are unique for each run of the script and which are generated by nested queries. Correlation provides the value to avoid errors arising out of duplicate values and also optimizing the code (to avoid nested queries). Automatic correlation is where we set some rules for correlation. It can be application server specific. Here values are replaced by data which are created by these rules. In manual correlation, the value we want to correlate is scanned and create correlation is used to correlate.
14. How do you find out where correlation is required? Give few examples from your projects?
Two ways: First we can scan for correlations, and see the list of values which can be correlated. From this we can pick a value to be correlated. Secondly, we can record two scripts and compare them. We can look up the difference file to see for the values which needed to be correlated. In my project, there was a unique id developed for each customer, it was nothing but Insurance Number, it was generated automatically and it was sequential and this value was unique. I had to correlate this value, in order to avoid errors while running my script. I did using scan for correlation.
15. Where do you set automatic correlation options?
Automatic correlation from web point of view can be set in recording options and correlation tab. Here we can enable correlation for the entire script and choose either issue online messages or offline actions, where we can define rules for that correlation. Automatic correlation for database can be done using show output window and scan for correlation and picking the correlate query tab and choose which query value we want to correlate. If we know the specific value to be correlated, we just do create correlation for the value and specify how the value to be created.
16. What is a function to capture dynamic values in the web Vuser script?
Web_reg_save_param function saves dynamic data information to a parameter.
17. When do you disable log in Virtual User Generator, When do you choose standard and extended logs?
Once we debug our script and verify that it is functional, we can enable logging for errors only. When we add a script to a scenario, logging is automatically disabled. Standard Log Option: When you select Standard log, it creates a standard log of functions and messages sent during script execution to use for debugging. Disable this option for large load testing scenarios. When you copy a script to a scenario, logging is automatically disabled Extended Log Option: Select extended log to create an extended log, including warnings and other messages. Disable this option for large load testing scenarios. When you copy a script to a scenario, logging is automatically disabled. We can specify which additional information should be added to the extended log using the Extended log options.
18. How do you debug a LoadRunner script?
VuGen contains two options to help debug Vuser scripts-the Run Step by Step command and breakpoints. The Debug settings in the Options dialog box allow us to determine the extent of the trace to be performed during scenario execution. The debug information is written to the Output window. We can manually set the message class within your script using the lr_set_debug_message function. This is useful if we want to receive debug information about a small section of the script only.
19. How do you write user defined functions in LR? Give me few functions you wrote in your previous project?
Before we create the User Defined functions we need to create the external library (DLL) with the function. We add this library to VuGen bin directory. Once the library is added then we assign user defined function as a parameter. The function should have the following format: __declspec (dllexport) char* (char*, char*)Examples of user defined functions are as follows:GetVersion, GetCurrentTime, GetPltform are some of the user defined functions used in my earlier project.
20. What are the changes you can make in run-time settings?
The Run Time Settings that we make are: a) Pacing - It has iteration count. b) Log - Under this we have Disable Logging Standard Log and c) Extended Think Time - In think time we have two options like Ignore think time and Replay think time. d) General - Under general tab we can set the vusers as process or as multithreading and whether each step as a transaction.
21. Where do you set Iteration for Vuser testing?
We set Iterations in the Run Time Settings of the VuGen. The navigation for this is Run time settings, Pacing tab, set number of iterations.
22. How do you perform functional testing under load?
Functionality under load can be tested by running several Vusers concurrently. By increasing the amount of Vusers, we can determine how much load the server can sustain.
23. What is Ramp up? How do you set this?
This option is used to gradually increase the amount of Vusers/load on the server. An initial value is set and a value to wait between intervals can be specified. To set Ramp Up, go to ‘Scenario Scheduling Options’
24. What is the advantage of running the Vuser as thread?
VuGen provides the facility to use multithreading. This enables more Vusers to be run per
generator. If the Vuser is run as a process, the same driver program is loaded into memory for each Vuser, thus taking up a large amount of memory. This limits the number of Vusers that can be run on a single generator. If the Vuser is run as a thread, only one instance of the driver program is loaded into memory for the given number of Vusers (say 100). Each thread shares the memory of the parent driver program, thus enabling more Vusers to be run per generator.
25. If you want to stop the execution of your script on error, how do you do that?
The lr_abort function aborts the execution of a Vuser script. It instructs the Vuser to stop executing the Actions section, execute the vuser_end section and end the execution. This function is useful when you need to manually abort a script execution as a result of a specific error condition. When you end a script using this function, the Vuser is assigned the status “Stopped”. For this to take effect, we have to first uncheck the .Continue on error. option in Run-Time Settings.
26. What is the relation between Response Time and Throughput?
The Throughput graph shows the amount of data in bytes that the Vusers received from the server in a second. When we compare this with the transaction response time, we will notice that as throughput decreased, the response time also decreased. Similarly, the peak throughput and highest response time would occur approximately at the same time.
27. Explain the Configuration of your systems?
The configuration of our systems refers to that of the client machines on which we run the Vusers. The configuration of any client machine includes its hardware settings, memory, operating system, software applications, development tools, etc. This system component configuration should match with the overall system configuration that would include the network infrastructure, the web server, the database server, and any other components that go with this larger system so as to achieve the load testing objectives.
28. How do you identify the performance bottlenecks?
Performance Bottlenecks can be detected by using monitors. These monitors might be application server monitors, web server monitors, database server monitors and network monitors. They help in finding out the troubled area in our scenario which causes increased response time. The measurements made are usually performance response time, throughput, hits/sec, network delay graphs, etc.
29. If web server, database and Network are all fine where could be the problem?
The problem could be in the system itself or in the application server or in the code written for the application.
30. How did you find web server related issues?
Using Web resource monitors we can find the performance of web servers. Using these monitors we can analyze throughput on the web server, number of hits per second that
occurred during scenario, the number of http responses per second, the number of downloaded pages per second.
31. How did you find database related issues?
By running .Database. monitor and help of .Data Resource Graph. we can find database related issues. E.g. You can specify the resource you want to measure on before running the controller and than you can see database related issues
32. Explain all the web recording options?
33. What is the difference between Overlay graph and Correlate graph?
Overlay Graph: It overlay the content of two graphs that shares a common x-axis. Left Y-axis on the merged graph show.s the current graph.s value & Right Y-axis show the value of Y-axis of the graph that was merged. Correlate Graph: Plot the Y-axis of two graphs against each other. The active graph.s Y-axis becomes X-axis of merged graph. Y-axis of the graph that was merged becomes merged graph.s Y-axis.
34. How did you plan the Load? What are the Criteria?
Load test is planned to decide the number of users, what kind of machines we are going to use and from where they are run. It is based on 2 important documents, Task Distribution Diagram and Transaction profile. Task Distribution Diagram gives us the information on number of users for a particular transaction and the time of the load. The peak usage and off-usage are decided from this Diagram. Transaction profile gives us the information about the transactions name and their priority levels with regard to the scenario we are deciding.
35. What does vuser_init action contain?
Vuser_init action contains procedures to login to a server.
36. What does vuser_end action contain?
Vuser_end section contains log off procedures.
37. What is think time? How do you change the threshold?
Think time is the time that a real user waits between actions. Example: When a user receives data from a server, the user may wait several seconds to review the data before responding. This delay is known as the think time. Changing the Threshold: Threshold level is the level below which the recorded think time will be ignored. The default value is five (5) seconds. We can change the think time threshold in the Recording options of the Vugen.
38. What is the difference between standard log and extended log?
The standard log sends a subset of functions and messages sent during script execution to a log. The subset depends on the Vuser type Extended log sends a detailed script execution messages to the output log. This is mainly used during debugging when we want information about: Parameter substitution. Data returned by the server. Advanced trace.
39. Explain the following functions: - lr_debug_message - The lr_debug_message function sends a debug message to the output log when the specified message class is set.
lr_output_message - The lr_output_message function sends notifications to the Controller Output window and the Vuser log file. lr_error_message - The lr_error_message function sends an error message to the LoadRunner Output window. lrd_stmt - The lrd_stmt function associates a character string (usually a SQL statement) with a cursor. This function sets a SQL statement to be processed. lrd_fetch - The lrd_fetch function fetches the next row from the result set.
40. Throughput - If the throughput scales upward as time progresses and the number of Vusers increase, this indicates that the bandwidth is sufficient. If the graph were to remain relatively flat as the number of Vusers increased, it would be reasonable to conclude that the bandwidth is constraining the volume of data delivered.
41. Types of Goals in Goal-Oriented Scenario - Load Runner provides you with five different types of goals in a goal oriented scenario:
* The number of concurrent Vusers
* The number of hits per second
* The number of transactions per second
* The number of pages per minute
* The transaction response time that you want your scenario
42. Analysis Scenario (Bottlenecks): In Running Vuser graph correlated with the response time graph you can see that as the number of Vusers increases, the average response time of the check itinerary transaction very gradually increases. In other words, the average response time steadily increases as the load increases. At 56 Vusers, there is a sudden, sharp increase in the average response time. We say that the test broke the server. That is the mean time before failure (MTBF). The response time clearly began to degrade when there were more than 56 Vusers running simultaneously.
43. What is correlation? Explain the difference between automatic correlation and manual correlation?
Correlation is used to obtain data which are unique for each run of the script and which are generated by nested queries. Correlation provides the value to avoid errors arising out of duplicate values and also optimizing the code (to avoid nested queries). Automatic correlation is where we set some rules for correlation. It can be application server specific. Here values are replaced by data which are created by these rules. In manual correlation, the value we want to correlate is scanned and create correlation is used to correlate.
44. Where do you set automatic correlation options?
Automatic correlation from web point of view, can be set in recording options and correlation tab. Here we can enable correlation for the entire script and choose either issue online messages or offline actions, where we can define rules for that correlation. Automatic correlation for database, can be done using show output window and scan for correlation and picking the correlate query tab and choose which query value we want to correlate. If we know the specific value to be correlated, we just do create correlation for the value and specify how the value to be created.
45. What is a function to capture dynamic values in the web vuser script?
Web_reg_save_param function saves dynamic data information to a parameter.
Load testing is to test that if the application works fine with the loads that result from large number of simultaneous users, transactions and to determine weather it can handle peak usage periods.
2. What is Performance testing? - Timing for both read and update transactions should be gathered to determine whether system functions are being performed in an acceptable timeframe. This should be done standalone and then in a multi user environment to determine the effect of multiple transactions on the timing of a single transaction.
3. Did u use LoadRunner? What version? - Yes. Version 7.2.
4. Explain the Load testing process?
Step 1: Planning the test. Here, we develop a clearly defined test plan to ensure the test scenarios we develop will accomplish load-testing objectives.
Step 2: Creating Vusers. Here, we create Vuser scripts that contain tasks performed by each Vuser, tasks performed by Vusers as a whole, and tasks measured as transactions.
Step 3: Creating the scenario. A scenario describes the events that occur during a testing session. It includes a list of machines, scripts, and Vusers that run during the scenario. We create scenarios using LoadRunner Controller. We can create manual scenarios as well as goal-oriented scenarios. In manual scenarios, we define the number of Vusers, the load generator machines, and percentage of Vusers to be assigned to each script. For web tests, we may create a goal-oriented scenario where we define the goal that our test has to achieve. LoadRunner automatically builds a scenario for us.
Step 4: Running the scenario.
We emulate load on the server by instructing multiple Vusers to perform tasks simultaneously. Before the testing, we set the scenario configuration and scheduling. We can run the entire scenario, Vuser groups, or individual Vusers.
Step 5: Monitoring the scenario.
We monitor scenario execution using the LoadRunner online runtime, transaction, system resource, Web resource, Web server resource, Web application server resource, database server resource, network delay, streaming media resource, firewall server resource, ERP server resource, and Java performance monitors.
Step 6: Analyzing test results. During scenario execution, LoadRunner records the performance of the application under different loads. We use LoadRunner.s graphs and reports to analyze the application.s performance.
5. When do you do load and performance Testing?
We perform load testing once we are done with interface (GUI) testing. Modern system architectures are large and complex. Whereas single user testing primarily on functionality and user interface of a system component, application testing focuses on performance and reliability of an entire system. For example, a typical application-testing scenario might depict 1000 users logging in simultaneously to a system. This gives rise to issues such as what is the response time of the system, does it crash, will it go with different software applications and platforms, can it hold so many hundreds and thousands of users, etc. This is when we set do load and performance testing.
6. What are the components of LoadRunner?
The components of LoadRunner are The Virtual User Generator, Controller, and the Agent process, LoadRunner Analysis and Monitoring, LoadRunner Books Online.
7. What Component of LoadRunner would you use to record a Script?
The Virtual User Generator (VuGen) component is used to record a script. It enables you to develop Vuser scripts for a variety of application types and communication protocols.
8. What Component of LoadRunner would you use to play Back the script in multi user mode?
The Controller component is used to playback the script in multi-user mode. This is done during a scenario run where a vuser script is executed by a number of vusers in a group.
9. What is a rendezvous point?
You insert rendezvous points into Vuser scripts to emulate heavy user load on the server. Rendezvous points instruct Vusers to wait during test execution for multiple Vusers to arrive at a certain point, in order that they may simultaneously perform a task. For example, to emulate peak load on the bank server, you can insert a rendezvous point instructing 100 Vusers to deposit cash into their accounts at the same time.
10. What is a scenario?
A scenario defines the events that occur during each testing session. For example, a scenario defines and controls the number of users to emulate, the actions to be performed, and the machines on which the virtual users run their emulations.
11. Explain the recording mode for web Vuser script?
We use VuGen to develop a Vuser script by recording a user performing typical business processes on a client application. VuGen creates the script by recording the activity between the client and the server. For example, in web based applications, VuGen monitors the client end of the database and traces all the requests sent to, and received from, the database server. We use VuGen to: Monitor the communication between the application and the server; Generate the required function calls; and Insert the generated function calls into a Vuser script.
12. Why do you create parameters?
Parameters are like script variables. They are used to vary input to the server and to emulate real users. Different sets of data are sent to the server each time the script is run. Better simulate the usage model for more accurate testing from the Controller; one script can emulate many different users on the system.
13. What is correlation?Explain the difference between automatic correlation and manual correlation?
Correlation is used to obtain data which are unique for each run of the script and which are generated by nested queries. Correlation provides the value to avoid errors arising out of duplicate values and also optimizing the code (to avoid nested queries). Automatic correlation is where we set some rules for correlation. It can be application server specific. Here values are replaced by data which are created by these rules. In manual correlation, the value we want to correlate is scanned and create correlation is used to correlate.
14. How do you find out where correlation is required? Give few examples from your projects?
Two ways: First we can scan for correlations, and see the list of values which can be correlated. From this we can pick a value to be correlated. Secondly, we can record two scripts and compare them. We can look up the difference file to see for the values which needed to be correlated. In my project, there was a unique id developed for each customer, it was nothing but Insurance Number, it was generated automatically and it was sequential and this value was unique. I had to correlate this value, in order to avoid errors while running my script. I did using scan for correlation.
15. Where do you set automatic correlation options?
Automatic correlation from web point of view can be set in recording options and correlation tab. Here we can enable correlation for the entire script and choose either issue online messages or offline actions, where we can define rules for that correlation. Automatic correlation for database can be done using show output window and scan for correlation and picking the correlate query tab and choose which query value we want to correlate. If we know the specific value to be correlated, we just do create correlation for the value and specify how the value to be created.
16. What is a function to capture dynamic values in the web Vuser script?
Web_reg_save_param function saves dynamic data information to a parameter.
17. When do you disable log in Virtual User Generator, When do you choose standard and extended logs?
Once we debug our script and verify that it is functional, we can enable logging for errors only. When we add a script to a scenario, logging is automatically disabled. Standard Log Option: When you select Standard log, it creates a standard log of functions and messages sent during script execution to use for debugging. Disable this option for large load testing scenarios. When you copy a script to a scenario, logging is automatically disabled Extended Log Option: Select extended log to create an extended log, including warnings and other messages. Disable this option for large load testing scenarios. When you copy a script to a scenario, logging is automatically disabled. We can specify which additional information should be added to the extended log using the Extended log options.
18. How do you debug a LoadRunner script?
VuGen contains two options to help debug Vuser scripts-the Run Step by Step command and breakpoints. The Debug settings in the Options dialog box allow us to determine the extent of the trace to be performed during scenario execution. The debug information is written to the Output window. We can manually set the message class within your script using the lr_set_debug_message function. This is useful if we want to receive debug information about a small section of the script only.
19. How do you write user defined functions in LR? Give me few functions you wrote in your previous project?
Before we create the User Defined functions we need to create the external library (DLL) with the function. We add this library to VuGen bin directory. Once the library is added then we assign user defined function as a parameter. The function should have the following format: __declspec (dllexport) char* (char*, char*)Examples of user defined functions are as follows:GetVersion, GetCurrentTime, GetPltform are some of the user defined functions used in my earlier project.
20. What are the changes you can make in run-time settings?
The Run Time Settings that we make are: a) Pacing - It has iteration count. b) Log - Under this we have Disable Logging Standard Log and c) Extended Think Time - In think time we have two options like Ignore think time and Replay think time. d) General - Under general tab we can set the vusers as process or as multithreading and whether each step as a transaction.
21. Where do you set Iteration for Vuser testing?
We set Iterations in the Run Time Settings of the VuGen. The navigation for this is Run time settings, Pacing tab, set number of iterations.
22. How do you perform functional testing under load?
Functionality under load can be tested by running several Vusers concurrently. By increasing the amount of Vusers, we can determine how much load the server can sustain.
23. What is Ramp up? How do you set this?
This option is used to gradually increase the amount of Vusers/load on the server. An initial value is set and a value to wait between intervals can be specified. To set Ramp Up, go to ‘Scenario Scheduling Options’
24. What is the advantage of running the Vuser as thread?
VuGen provides the facility to use multithreading. This enables more Vusers to be run per
generator. If the Vuser is run as a process, the same driver program is loaded into memory for each Vuser, thus taking up a large amount of memory. This limits the number of Vusers that can be run on a single generator. If the Vuser is run as a thread, only one instance of the driver program is loaded into memory for the given number of Vusers (say 100). Each thread shares the memory of the parent driver program, thus enabling more Vusers to be run per generator.
25. If you want to stop the execution of your script on error, how do you do that?
The lr_abort function aborts the execution of a Vuser script. It instructs the Vuser to stop executing the Actions section, execute the vuser_end section and end the execution. This function is useful when you need to manually abort a script execution as a result of a specific error condition. When you end a script using this function, the Vuser is assigned the status “Stopped”. For this to take effect, we have to first uncheck the .Continue on error. option in Run-Time Settings.
26. What is the relation between Response Time and Throughput?
The Throughput graph shows the amount of data in bytes that the Vusers received from the server in a second. When we compare this with the transaction response time, we will notice that as throughput decreased, the response time also decreased. Similarly, the peak throughput and highest response time would occur approximately at the same time.
27. Explain the Configuration of your systems?
The configuration of our systems refers to that of the client machines on which we run the Vusers. The configuration of any client machine includes its hardware settings, memory, operating system, software applications, development tools, etc. This system component configuration should match with the overall system configuration that would include the network infrastructure, the web server, the database server, and any other components that go with this larger system so as to achieve the load testing objectives.
28. How do you identify the performance bottlenecks?
Performance Bottlenecks can be detected by using monitors. These monitors might be application server monitors, web server monitors, database server monitors and network monitors. They help in finding out the troubled area in our scenario which causes increased response time. The measurements made are usually performance response time, throughput, hits/sec, network delay graphs, etc.
29. If web server, database and Network are all fine where could be the problem?
The problem could be in the system itself or in the application server or in the code written for the application.
30. How did you find web server related issues?
Using Web resource monitors we can find the performance of web servers. Using these monitors we can analyze throughput on the web server, number of hits per second that
occurred during scenario, the number of http responses per second, the number of downloaded pages per second.
31. How did you find database related issues?
By running .Database. monitor and help of .Data Resource Graph. we can find database related issues. E.g. You can specify the resource you want to measure on before running the controller and than you can see database related issues
32. Explain all the web recording options?
33. What is the difference between Overlay graph and Correlate graph?
Overlay Graph: It overlay the content of two graphs that shares a common x-axis. Left Y-axis on the merged graph show.s the current graph.s value & Right Y-axis show the value of Y-axis of the graph that was merged. Correlate Graph: Plot the Y-axis of two graphs against each other. The active graph.s Y-axis becomes X-axis of merged graph. Y-axis of the graph that was merged becomes merged graph.s Y-axis.
34. How did you plan the Load? What are the Criteria?
Load test is planned to decide the number of users, what kind of machines we are going to use and from where they are run. It is based on 2 important documents, Task Distribution Diagram and Transaction profile. Task Distribution Diagram gives us the information on number of users for a particular transaction and the time of the load. The peak usage and off-usage are decided from this Diagram. Transaction profile gives us the information about the transactions name and their priority levels with regard to the scenario we are deciding.
35. What does vuser_init action contain?
Vuser_init action contains procedures to login to a server.
36. What does vuser_end action contain?
Vuser_end section contains log off procedures.
37. What is think time? How do you change the threshold?
Think time is the time that a real user waits between actions. Example: When a user receives data from a server, the user may wait several seconds to review the data before responding. This delay is known as the think time. Changing the Threshold: Threshold level is the level below which the recorded think time will be ignored. The default value is five (5) seconds. We can change the think time threshold in the Recording options of the Vugen.
38. What is the difference between standard log and extended log?
The standard log sends a subset of functions and messages sent during script execution to a log. The subset depends on the Vuser type Extended log sends a detailed script execution messages to the output log. This is mainly used during debugging when we want information about: Parameter substitution. Data returned by the server. Advanced trace.
39. Explain the following functions: - lr_debug_message - The lr_debug_message function sends a debug message to the output log when the specified message class is set.
lr_output_message - The lr_output_message function sends notifications to the Controller Output window and the Vuser log file. lr_error_message - The lr_error_message function sends an error message to the LoadRunner Output window. lrd_stmt - The lrd_stmt function associates a character string (usually a SQL statement) with a cursor. This function sets a SQL statement to be processed. lrd_fetch - The lrd_fetch function fetches the next row from the result set.
40. Throughput - If the throughput scales upward as time progresses and the number of Vusers increase, this indicates that the bandwidth is sufficient. If the graph were to remain relatively flat as the number of Vusers increased, it would be reasonable to conclude that the bandwidth is constraining the volume of data delivered.
41. Types of Goals in Goal-Oriented Scenario - Load Runner provides you with five different types of goals in a goal oriented scenario:
* The number of concurrent Vusers
* The number of hits per second
* The number of transactions per second
* The number of pages per minute
* The transaction response time that you want your scenario
42. Analysis Scenario (Bottlenecks): In Running Vuser graph correlated with the response time graph you can see that as the number of Vusers increases, the average response time of the check itinerary transaction very gradually increases. In other words, the average response time steadily increases as the load increases. At 56 Vusers, there is a sudden, sharp increase in the average response time. We say that the test broke the server. That is the mean time before failure (MTBF). The response time clearly began to degrade when there were more than 56 Vusers running simultaneously.
43. What is correlation? Explain the difference between automatic correlation and manual correlation?
Correlation is used to obtain data which are unique for each run of the script and which are generated by nested queries. Correlation provides the value to avoid errors arising out of duplicate values and also optimizing the code (to avoid nested queries). Automatic correlation is where we set some rules for correlation. It can be application server specific. Here values are replaced by data which are created by these rules. In manual correlation, the value we want to correlate is scanned and create correlation is used to correlate.
44. Where do you set automatic correlation options?
Automatic correlation from web point of view, can be set in recording options and correlation tab. Here we can enable correlation for the entire script and choose either issue online messages or offline actions, where we can define rules for that correlation. Automatic correlation for database, can be done using show output window and scan for correlation and picking the correlate query tab and choose which query value we want to correlate. If we know the specific value to be correlated, we just do create correlation for the value and specify how the value to be created.
45. What is a function to capture dynamic values in the web vuser script?
Web_reg_save_param function saves dynamic data information to a parameter.
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