n this 

Software Testing interview questions article, I have collected the most frequently asked questions
by interviewers. These questions are collected after consulting with top industry experts in the field of
Manual and Automation testing. If you want to brush up with the software testing basics, which I
recommend you to do before going ahead with this Software Testing Interview Questions, take a look
at this article on Software Testing Tutorial.

In case you came across some other questions during your interviews or have queries that might be
helpful for others as well, do share them in the comment section of this article. Meanwhile, you can
maximize the Automation testing career opportunities that are sure to come your way by taking Selenium
Online Training with Edureka.

If you are a tech-savvy who wants to up-skill yourself with all the latest technologies, take a look at this
list of Top Trending Technologies.

Top 50 Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers

This video will help you to prepare yourself for Software Testing Interviews. It covers questions for
beginners, intermediate and experienced professionals.

Software testing Interview Questions:

1. What are the phases involved in Software Testing Life Cycle?

2. What are the different methods of testing?
3. What are the different levels of testing?
4. Explain Bug Life Cycle or Defect life cycle.
5. What is a test case?
6. What is the difference between functional and non-functional testing?
7. What is Verification and Validation in Software Testing?
8. What is usability testing?
9. What are the categories of defects?
10. On what basis the acceptance plan is prepared?

This Software Testing Interview question is divided into the following parts:

 Beginners level
 Intermediate Level
 Advanced Level

Let’s begin this software testing interview questions with beginners level questions first.

Beginners Level Software Testing Interview Questions

1. What are the phases involved in Software Testing Life Cycle?

The different phases involved in the software testing life cycle are:

Here, the QA team understands the requirements and identify the testable
Requirement Analysis
requirements.
Test Planning In this phase, the test strategy is defined.
Test Case Development Here, detailed test cases are defined and developed.
It is a setup of software and hardware for the testing teams to execute test
Environment Setup
cases.
It is the process of executing the code and comparing the expected and actual
Test Execution
results.
It involves calling out the testing team member meeting & evaluating cycle
Test Cycle Closure completion criteria based on test coverage, quality, cost, time, critical
business objectives, and software.
2. What are the different methods of testing?

There are three methods of software testing and they are as follows:

 Black-box testing: It is a testing strategy based solely on requirements and specifications. In this
strategy, it requires no knowledge of internal paths, structures, or implementation of the software
being tested.
 White box testing: It is a testing strategy based on internal paths, code structures, and
implementation of the software being tested. White box testing generally requires detailed
programming skills.
 Gray box testing: It is a strategy for software debugging in which the tester has limited
knowledge of the internal details of the program.

3. What are the different levels of testing?

There are mainly four testing levels and they are:

 Unit Testing
 Integration Testing
 System Testing
 Acceptance Testing

Basically, it starts with the Unit Testing phase and ends with Acceptance Testing.

4. Explain Bug Life Cycle or Defect life cycle.

A defect life cycle is a process in which a defect goes through various phases during its entire lifetime. It
starts when a defect is found and ends when a defect is closed, after ensuring it’s not reproduced.

Bug or defect life cycle includes the steps as illustrated in the below figure. If you wish to learn in depth
about Bug Life Cycle then you can refer my article on Software Testing Tutorial.
 It can vary from organization to
organization and also from project to project based on several factors like organization policy, software
development model used (like Agile, Iterative), project timelines, team structure etc.

5. What is a test case?

A test case is nothing but a set of conditions or variables under which a tester will determine whether a
system under test satisfies requirements or works correctly. 

6. What is the difference between functional and non-functional testing?

Functional Testing Non Functional Testing

Performed before non-functional testing Performed after functional testing

Based on customer requirements Based on customers expectations

Describes what the product does Describes how the product works
7. What is Verification and Validation in Software Testing?

Verification: It is a static analysis technique. Here, testing is done without executing the code. Examples
include – Reviews, Inspection, and walkthrough.

Validation: It is a dynamic analysis technique where testing is done by executing the code. Examples
include functional and non-functional testing techniques.

In the V model, the development and QA activities are done simultaneously. There is no discrete phase
called Testing, rather testing starts right from the requirement phase.  The verification and validation
activities go hand in hand.

8. What is usability testing?

It is a testing methodology where the end customer is asked to use the software to see if the product is
easy to use, to see the customer’s perception and task time. An accurate way to finalize the customer
point of view for usability is by using prototype or mock-up software during the initial stages.

9. What are the categories of defects?

There are three main categories of defects as shown in the below figure:

 Wrong: It implies that requirements have been implemented incorrectly. It is a variance from the
given specification.
 Missing: This is a variance from the specifications, an indication that a specification was not
implemented, or a requirement of the customer was not noted properly.
 Extra: It is a requirement incorporated into the product that was not given by the end customer. It
is always a variance from the specification but may be an attribute desired by the user of the
product.

Top 50 Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers

10. On what basis the acceptance plan is prepared?

Basically, the acceptance document is prepared using the following inputs.

 Requirement document: It specifies what exactly is needed in the project from the customers
perspective.
 Input from the customer: This can be discussions, informal talks, emails, etc.
 Project plan: The project plan prepared by the project manager also serves as good input to
finalize your acceptance test.

11. What is coverage and what are the different types of coverage techniques?
The parameter used in software testing to describe the extent to which the source code is tested is known
as coverage. There are three basic types of coverage techniques and they are:

1. Statement coverage: It ensures that each line of source code has been executed and tested.
2. Decision coverage: It assures that every decision (true/false) in the source code has been
executed and tested.
3. Path coverage: Here we ensure that every possible route through a given part of the code is
executed and tested.

12. What are the benefits of Automation testing?

Benefits of Automation testing are:

1. Supports execution of repeated test cases

2. Aids in testing a large test matrix
3. Enables parallel execution
4. Encourages unattended execution
5. Improves accuracy thereby reducing human-generated errors
6. Saves time and money

13. Why Selenium is a preferred tool for Automation testing?

Selenium is an open source tool which is used for automating the tests carried out on web browsers. Since
Selenium is open-source, there is no licensing cost involved, which is a major advantage over other
testing tools. Other reasons behind Selenium’s ever-growing popularity are:

 Test scripts can be written in any of these programming

languages: Java, Python, C#, PHP, Ruby, Perl &.Net
 Tests can be carried out in any of these OS: Windows, Mac or Linux
 Tests can be carried out using any browser: Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google
Chrome, Safari or Opera
 It can be integrated with tools such as TestNG & JUnit for managing test cases and generating
reports
 It can be integrated with Maven, Jenkins & Docker to achieve Continuous Testing

14. What are the various components of Selenium?

Different components of Selenium are:

 Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

 Selenium Remote Control (RC)
 Selenium WebDriver
 Selenium Grid

15. What are the different types of locators in Selenium?

The locator is nothing but an address that identifies a web element uniquely within the webpage. Thus, to
identify web elements accurately and precisely we have different types of locators in Selenium as follows:

 ID
 ClassName
 Name
 TagName
 linkText
 PartialLinkText
 Xpath
 CSS Selector
 DOM

16. What is XPath?

XPath also called as XML Path is a language to query XML documents. It is an important strategy to
locate elements in selenium. It consists of a path expression along with some conditions. Here, you can
easily write XPath script/query to locate any element in the webpage. It is designed to allow the
navigation of XML documents, with the purpose of selecting individual elements, attributes, or some
other part of an XML document for specific processing. It also produces reliable locators.

17. What is the difference between Absolute and Relative Path?

 Absolute XPath

It is the direct way to find the element, but the disadvantage of the absolute XPath is that, if there are any
changes made in the path of the element then that XPath gets failed. For
example: /html/body/div[1]/section/div[1]/div

 Relative XPath

For Relative XPath, the path starts from the middle of the HTML DOM structure. It begins with the
double forward slash (//), which means it can search the element anywhere at the webpage. For
example: //input[@id=‘ap_email’]

18. What are the different exceptions in Selenium WebDriver?

Exceptions in Selenium are similar to exceptions in other programming languages. The most common
exceptions in Selenium are:

 TimeoutException
 NoSuchElementException
 ElementNotVisibleException
 StaleElementException
19. When should I use Selenium Grid?

Selenium Grid can be used to execute same or different test scripts on multiple platforms and browsers
concurrently so as to achieve distributed test execution, testing under different environments and saving
execution time remarkably.

20. How do I launch the browser using WebDriver?

The following syntax can be used to launch the Browser:

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();

Intermediate Level Software Testing Interview Questions

21. Should testing be done only after the build and execution phases are complete?

Testing is always done after the build and execution phases Earlier we catch a defect, the more cost
effective it is. For example, fixing a defect in maintenance is ten times more costly than fixing it during
execution.

22. What’s the relationship between environment reality and test phases?

As test phases start moving ahead environment reality becomes more important. For example, while unit
testing, you need the environment to be partly real, but at the acceptance phase you should have a 100%
real environment, or we can say it should be the actual real environment.

The above graph shows during

acceptance testing it should be 100% real.
23. A defect which could have been removed during the initial stage is removed in a later stage.
How does this affect the cost?

If at the initial stage a defect is identified, then it should be removed during that stage/phase itself rather
than at some later stage. It’s a fact that if a defect is delayed for later phases it becomes more costly. The
following figure shows how a defect is costly as the phases move forward.

If a defect
is identified and removed during the design phase, it is the most cost effective but when removed during
maintenance it becomes twenty times costlier.

24. What do you mean by regression and confirmation testing?

Regression Testing: It is defined as a type of software testing to confirm that a recent code change has
not adversely affected existing features.

Confirmation Testing: When a test fails because of the defect, the defect is reported. Then a new version
of the software is submitted whose defect is fixed. This is called as confirmation testing or re-testing.

25. What do you mean by boundary value analysis?

Boundary Value Analysis (BVA) is a black box test design technique which is applied to see if there are
any bugs at the boundary of the input domain.

26. What is Random testing?

Usually, in Random testing, data is generated randomly often using a tool. For example, the following
figure shows how randomly-generated data is sent to the system.

This data is generated either using a tool or some

automated mechanism. With this randomly generated input, the system is then tested and results are
observed accordingly.
27. On what basis you can arrive at an estimation for your project?

To estimate your project, you have to consider the following points:

 Divide the whole project into the smallest tasks

 Allocate each task to team members
 Estimate the effort required to complete each task
 Validate the estimation

28. Which test cases are written first: white boxes or black boxes?

Usually, black box test cases are written first and white box test cases later. To write black box test cases
we need the requirement document and, design or project plan. These documents are easily available at
the initial start of the project. White box test cases cannot be started in the initial phase of the project
because they need more architecture clarity which is not available at the start of the project. So normally
white box test cases are written after black box test cases are written.

29. Mention the basic components of defect report format.

The basic components of defect report format include:

 Project Name
 Module Name
 Defect detected on
 Defect detected by
 Defect ID and Name
 Snapshot of the defect
 Priority and Severity status
 Defect resolved by
 Defect resolved on

Top 50 Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers

30. Is Automation testing in agile methodology useful?

Automation testing is very useful in agile methodology and helps in achieving maximum test coverage in
a lesser time of the sprint.

31. Which test cases can be automated?

 Smoke test cases

 Regression test cases
 Complex calculation test cases
 Data-driven test cases
 Non-functional test cases
32. On what basis you can map the success of Automation testing?

By following criteria, the success of Automation testing can be mapped:

 Defect Detection Ratio

 Automation execution time and time savings to release the product
 Reduction in Labour & other costs

33. Explain Load Testing on websites?

To access a website, a user sends a “request” to that website’s server, and the server sends back a
response in the form of the website you want to access. To load test a website, quality assurance
engineers and automation engineers just need to multiply the number of responses sent to simulate
different traffic loads. The web server’s response to the influx of virtual users can then be measured. This
is used to determine performance issues and server capacity.

34. What is the difference between Selenium and Sikuli?

Selenium Sikuli
It cannot automate flash objects like video player, It provides extensive support to automate flash
audio player etc. objects
It has got complicated API It has a simple API
It can automate the web as well as a windows
It can automate only web applications
application.
35. How to click on a hyperlink using linkText()?

1 driver.findElement(By.linkText(“Google”)).click();
This command finds the element using link text and then click on that element. Thus, the user would be
re-directed to the corresponding page.

36. What is TestNG?

It is an advanced framework which is designed in a way to leverage the benefits by both the developers
and testers. It also has an inbuilt exception handling mechanism which lets the program to run without
terminating unexpectedly.
37. How to set test case priority in TestNG?

Below code helps you to understand how to set test case priority in TestNG. 

1 package TestNG;
2 import org.testng.annotations.*;
3 public class SettingPriority {
4 @Test(priority=0)
5 public void method1() {
6 }
7 @Test(priority=1)
8 public void method2() {
9 }
10 @Test(priority=2)
11 public void method3() {
12 }
13 }
Test Execution Sequence:

1 Method1
2 Method2
3 Method3
38. What is the difference between Selenium and QTP?

Selenium Quick Test Professional

Selenium supports almost all the popular browsers QTP supports Internet Explorer, Firefox and
like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome. QTP only supports Windows Operating
Opera etc System
Selenium is distributed as an open source tool and QTP is distributed as a licensed tool and is
is freely available commercialized
Selenium supports testing of only web-based QTP supports testing of both the web-based
applications application and windows based application
39. What is Object Repository? How can we create Object Repository in Selenium?

Object Repository refers to the collection of web elements belonging to Application Under Test (AUT)
along with their locator values. With respect to Selenium, objects can be stored in an excel sheet which
can be populated inside the script whenever required.

40. How to input text in the text box using Selenium WebDriver?

By using sendKeys()method we can input the text in the text box using Selenium WebDriver.
Advance Level Software Testing Interview Questions

41. What kind of input do we need from the end user to begin proper testing?

An end user is the most important person because he is the one who has to use the product and has a keen
interest that anyone else in the project.

Above
figure illustrates the input that is essential from the user end.

42. What is meant by workbench concept?

A workbench at its core is a way of documenting how a specific activity has to be performed. It is often
referred to as phases, steps, and tasks as shown in the following figure.

There are five tasks for every workbench and they are
as follows:

1. Input
2. Execute
3. Check
4. Production output
5. Rework
43. What is meant by Defect Cascading?

Defect cascading is a defect which is caused by another defect. One defect triggers the other defect. When
a defect is present in any stage but is not identified, hide to other phases without getting noticed. This will
result in an increase in the number of defects.

Let us understand this by an example.

You are designing the Login Module of a WebPage:

In phase 1 – You are designing Register User Module for Login and mobile number is mandatory but you
can leave it blank due to a bug that gets unnoticed.

In Phase 2 – You will design the login form having username and password. The password is OTP which
will be sent to User’s registered mobile number.

Now as Register module has a bug that mobile number can be left blank so this may lead to Login failure
or maybe some system error or crash if a null mobile number is not handled. This is known as defect
cascading.

44. What are the different strategies for rollout to end users? 

The strategies to be followed for rollout are as follows:

 Pilot
 Gradual Implementation
 Phased Implementation
 Parallel Implementation

45. Explain how can you find broken links in a page using Selenium WebDriver?

This is a tricky question which the interviewer might present to you. He can provide a situation wherein
there are 20 links in a web page, and we have to verify which of those 20 links are working and how
many are not working (broken).

As you have to verify the working of every link, the workaround is that you need to send HTTP requests
to all of the links on the web page and analyze the response. Whenever you use driver.get() method to
navigate to a URL, it will respond with a status of 200 – OK. This indicates that the link is working and it
has been obtained. Whereas any other status indicates that the link is broken.

Let’s now understand how to do that.

First, we have to use the anchor tags <a> to determine the different hyperlinks on the web page. For every
<a> tag, we can use the attribute ‘href’ value to obtain the hyperlinks and then analyze the response
received when used in driver.get() method.
46. Which technique should be considered in the script “if there is neither frame id nor frame
name”?

If frame name and frame id is not available, then we can use frame by index. For example, there are 3
frames in a web page and if none of them have a frame name and frame id, then we can still select those
frames by using frame (zero-based) index attribute. All the frame will have an index number like the first
frame would be at index “0”, the second at index “1” and the third at index “2”.

1 driver.switchTo().frame(int arg0);
47. How to take screenshots in Selenium WebDriver?

By using the TakeScreenshot function you can take a screenshot. With the help

of getScreenshotAs() method, you can simply save that screenshot. Example: File scrFile =
((TakeScreenshot)driver).getScreenshotAs(outputType.FILE);

48.  Explain how you will log in into any site if it is showing any authentication popup for username
and password?

If there is a pop up for logging in, we need to use the explicit command and verify if the alert is actually
present. The below code helps you understand the use of explicit wait command.

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);

1
Alert alert = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.alertIsPresent());
2
alert.authenticateUsing(new UserAndPassword(**username**,
3
**password**));
49. How to skip a method or a code block in TestNG?

To skip a particular test method or a code, then you can set the ‘enabled’ parameter in test annotation to
false.
@Test(enabled = false)

50. Briefly explain what does below code snippet indicate?

WebElement sample = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[contains(text(),

1
'data')]"));
It defines a variable sample of type WebElement, and uses an XPath search to initialize it with a reference
to an element that contains the text value “data”.
Appium has seen widespread acceptance in the mobile application testing industry. Testing as a
discipline has garnered great importance in today’s world so that enterprise-level applications can be
delivered. This has led to the demand for professionals well versed with Appium. None the less, this
blog is aimed to prep you up for questions you might face in a job interview related to Appium!

Easy Questions

Question 1. What Is Mobile Application Testing And How Is It Different From Mobile Testing?

Mobile Application Testing (MAT) is the testing of an application on mobile devices and it is different
from Mobile Testing (MT) in the term that, in MT we focus on the native application features of Mobile
devices like Call, SMS, Media Player, etc. Meanwhile, in MAT we focus only on the functionality &
features of the application under Test. 

Question 2. Explain The Difference Between Simulator And Emulator?

Emulation is the process of mimicking the outwardly observable behavior to match an existing target. The
internal state of the emulation mechanism does not have to accurately reflect the internal state of the
target which it is emulating.

Simulation, on the other hand, involves modeling the underlying state of the target. The end result of a
good simulation is that the simulation model will emulate the target which it is simulating.

Ideally, you should be able to look into the simulation and observe properties that you would also see if
you looked into the original target. In practice, there are some shortcuts to the simulation for performance
reasons — that is, some internal aspects of the simulation may actually be an emulation.

Question 3. List out the types of mobile app testing.

The types of mobile app testing include:

 Usability testing
 Compatibility testing
 Interface testing
 Services testing
 Low-level resource testing
 Performance testing
 Operational testing
 Installation tests
 Security testing

Question 4. Explain the general structure of mobile application testing frameworks?

Mobile application testing framework includes three segments:

Application Package: It is the target application that requires to be tested.

Instrumentation TestRunner: It is a test case runner that runs test cases on the target application. It
includes an SDK tool for building test and a tool that provides APIs for writing a program that controls an
Android device, for example, MonkeyRunner.
Test Package: It includes two classes, Test case classes, and Mock objects. Test case classes include test
methods to perform on the target application, while the mock object includes mock data that will be used
as sample input for test cases.

Question 5. Mention what are the common bugs found while mobile testing?

Question 6. Full form of various application extensions.

 iPA: iOS APP Store Package

 APK: Android Application Package file
 exe: Executable File
 jad: Java Application Descriptor
 prc: Palm Resource Compiler

Question 7. Mention the Different Types of Mobile Applications.

Mobile applications can be broadly categorized into three categories i.e, Native app, Web app and Hybrid
App.

Native App: Native app is developed specifically for one platform, which is coded with a specific
programming language (like Objective C for iOS, Java for Android) and installed directly onto the device
and can take full advantage of all the device features. Native apps can use the device’s notification system
and can work offline. Native apps are installed through an application store (such as Google Play or
Apple’s App Store). Native mobile apps provide fast performance and a high degree of reliability.
Example of native apps: Temple Run, Candy Crush, etc.

Web App: Web applications are mobile web portals that are designed, customized and hosted specifically
for mobiles. They are accessed through the mobile device’s web browser using a URL. Web apps became
really popular when HTML5 came around and people realized that they can obtain native-like
functionality in the browser. Mobile web applications cannot use device functionality. Example of web
app: google.com, m.snapdeal.com, m.yahoo.com, etc.

Hybrid App: Hybrid Apps are web apps embedded in a native app, run on the device, and are written
with web technologies (HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript). Hybrid apps run inside a native container and
leverage the device’s browser engine (but not the browser) to render the HTML and process the
JavaScript locally. A web-to-native abstraction layer enables access to devices capabilities that are not
accessible in mobile web applications, such as the accelerometer, camera, and local storage. A hybrid app
is NOT tied to any platform or any particular mobile device. So, it can run on any device once built.
Example of a Hybrid app: Flipkart, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Question 8. What is the Appium philosophy?

These are the four philosophies Appium is based around-

 Test the same app you submit to the marketplace

 Write your tests in any language, using any framework
 Use a standard automation specification and API
 Build a large and thriving open-source community effort

Question 9. What Is Appium’s Strongest Point in your opinion?

Appium is based on Selenium which is an HTTP protocol by Google designed to automate browsers. The
idea is actually very nice as automating an app (especially a webview-based one) is not so different (in
terms of required APIs) from automating a browser.

Appium is also designed to encourage a 2-tier architecture: a machine runs the test written in one
language (C#, Ruby, JavaScript are only a few among the many supported ones) and another one (the test
server) actually executes it. Furthermore the WebDriver protocol targets scalability (because based on
HTTP), this makes Appium very scalable as well; remember that you will need to write your test once,
Appium will be in charge of executing it on more platforms.

Question 10. What Is Appium?

Appium is an open source, cross-platform automation testing tool. It is used for automating test cases for
native, hybrid and web applications. The tool has a major focus on both Android and iOS apps and was
only restricted to the mobile application testing domain. Recently, a few updates back, Appium also
announced that they will support the testing of desktop applications for windows. Appium is developed
and maintained by Sauce Labs. Currently, Appium version 1.10 is being distributed. Appium first started
off as a command line based testing service that can be installed using Node.js. In their latest release,
named ‘Appium desktop’ they have released a robust and refined tool with an intuitive graphical user
interface. 
Question 11. What are the main advantages Of Using Appium On Sauce Labs?

Question 12. List Out The Appium Abilities.

Appium abilities are:

 Test Web
 Provides cross-platform for Native and Hybrid mobile automation
 Support JSON wire protocol
 It does not require recompilation of App
 Support automation test on a physical device as well as simulator or emulator both
 It has no dependency on a mobile device

Question 13. Can you comment about the performance of Appium?

Appium is not a huge application and requires very little memory. Its architecture is actually pretty simple
and light as Appium acts like a proxy between your test machine and each platform automation toolkit.
Once up and running, Appium will listen to HTTP requests from your tests. When a new session is
created, a component in Appium’s Node.js code called _proxy_ will forward these Selenium commands
to active platform drivers.

In the case of Android, for example, Appium will forward incoming commands to the [chromedriver]
(90% of cases, Appium will not even change commands while routing them), this happens
because ChromeDriver supports WebDriver and Selenium. For this reason, Appium will not allocate
much memory itself, you will see a lot of memory being allocated by other processes like [adb],
ChromeDriver or the iOS automation toolkit (called by Appium while testing and automating).
Question 14. List Out The Limitations Of Using Appium?

Question 15. Do you Need A Server Machine To Run Tests On Appium?

No! Appium promotes a 2-tier architecture where a test machine connects to a test server running Appium
and automating the whole thing. However this configuration is not mandatory, you can have Appium
running on the same machine where your test runs. Instead of connecting to a remote host, your test will
connect to Appium using the loopback address.
Intermediate Questions

Question 16. What Type Of Tests Are Suitable For Appium?

When it comes to testing, especially webview-based apps, there are a lot of scenarios that can be tested
also depending on the feature coverage you want to ensure. Appium is pretty handy for testing scenarios
that users will go through when using your app.

But, if you need to test more than UX simple interactions, then Appium will become a limitation. Think
about features like keyboarding. It is not so easy when complex touch/keyboard mixed scenarios are
involved, the probability of a false failure is high; do not misunderstand me on this: I am not saying it is
impossible to do, just not so easy as you might think!

Another little nightmare with Appium is exchanging data. When your test needs to exchange data with
your app (especially in the incoming direction), you will need to play some tricks. So always consider that
sending and receiving information is not that straightforward. It is not Appium’s fault, the WebDriver
specification was designed for automating stuff, not exchanging data!

Question 17. List some issues Faced With Cross-Platform Testing?

Generally, the issue depends upon the different OS/device version. It might be that the same application is
working on one OS while it might not work on another version. For example, we faced an issue that our
application was working fine on iOS 6.x version devices but on tapping a few modules on iOS 5.x
devices application crashes and the same happened with 2.3.5 Vs.
Question 18. Explain The Design Concept Of Appium.

 Appium is an “HTTP Server” written using Node.js platform and drives iOS and Android session
using Webdriver JSON wire protocol. Hence, before initializing the Appium Server, Node.js
must be pre-installed on the system
 When Appium is downloaded and installed, then a server is set up on a machine that exposes a
REST API.
 It receives connection and command request from the client and executes that command on
mobile devices (Android / iOS)
 It responds back with HTTP responses. Again, to execute this request, it uses the mobile  test
automation frameworks to drive the user interface of the apps.
 Apple Instruments for iOS (Instruments are available only in Xcode 3.0 or later with OS X v10.5
and later).
 Google UIAutomator for Android API level 16 or higher
 Selendroid for Android API level 15 or less

Question 19. I Already Have Platform-specific Tests For My App, What Should I Do To Migrate
To Appium?

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to translate your tests into Selenium tests. If you developed a
test framework on different layers and observed good programming principles, you should be able to act
on some components in your tests in order to migrate your suites to Appium.

Your current tests are going to be easy to migrate if they are already using an automation framework or
something close to a command-based interaction. Truth be told, you will probably need to write your tests
from the beginning.

Question 20. When Performing End To End Mobile Testing What Major Criteria Are Taken Into
Consideration?

Major areas are

 Installation of the application.

 First time launching an application without having network access.
 Uninstallation of the app.
 The orientation of the app if it is supported.
 Testing application performance on different kinds of devices and network scenarios.
 Testing the application response and how it responds when an invalid user credential is provided.

Also, if your application is accessing any network then you must check the logs generated during that
period so that the sensitive information should always go in an encrypted form.

Question 21. How Do You Test Patches Intended For An App Already In Production?

We generally do regression testing of a relative module and mainly focus on the area which is related to
the bug fixes as per the developer. This is because we cannot perform complete regression testing in a
very short span of time. So, we just perform sanity tests on the rest of the application, but only for high
priority devices. High priority devices are systems that are running the latest versions of the operating
system. 
Question 22. What Kind of Testing Would You Perform For a General Application?

The very first test we have to perform is installation. After that, we check the basic functionality and
following which, we check the connectivity of the application with its peripherals. Then we uninstall the
build and verify how the application responds when we interrupt it during installation. We also check
interruption scenarios when our application requests a network call.

We also perform low network/poor connectivity testing during a network call. The process of upgrading
from an older version to a newer version is also tested. Navigation in the application without a network is
an important feature that is tested in general testing. Also, the compatibility of the app on different kinds
of phones is a major criterion in general testing.

Question 23. How Much Time Does It Take To Write A Test In Appium?

Of course, it depends on the test. If your test simply runs a scenario, it will take as many commands as the
number of interactions needed to be performed (thus very few lines). If you are trying to exchange data,
then your test will take more time for sure and the test will also become difficult to read.

Question 24. What Test Frameworks Are Supported By Appium?

Appium does not support test frameworks because there is no need to support them. You can use Appium
with all sorts of testing frameworks. NUnit and .NET Unit Test Framework are just a few examples. You
will write your tests using one of the drivers for Appium, thus your tests will interface with Appium just
in terms of an external dependency. 

Question 25. What Is Data Exchange?

When I say “data exchange” I am not referring to scenarios like getting or setting the value of a textbox or
an elements attribute. All these things are easy to achieve in Appium as Selenium provides commands
just for those. By “data exchange” I mean exchanging information hosted by complex objects stored in
different parts of your webview-based app like the window object.

Consider the scenario when you dispatch and capture events. Your app can possibly perform many
functions and the way the flow of data can be handled are many. Some objects might also have a state and
the state machine behind some scenarios in your app can be large and articulated. For all these reasons
you might experience problems when testing.
Question 26. What Are The Features And Benefits Of Quick Test Pro(qtp)?

The following are the features and benefits of Quick Test Pro:

Question 27. Consider A Scenario Where You Don’t Want To Setup A Whole Infrastructure, And
Neither Spend Money. Can Appium Help Out In Such A Scenario?

If you think about it, what really is required from is the test script. The fact that you must deploy an
Appium server somewhere is just an extra feature. If you want to skip this part, you can rely on some web
services that have already deployed a whole architecture of Appium servers for your tests. Most of them
are online labs and they support Selenium and Appium. In this way, you don’t spend exorbitant amounts
of money and you also don’t invest time and effort on new infrastructure. 

Question 28. Is Debugging Appium Difficult?

No. Appium is a Node.js application, therefore, in essence, it is Javascript. The code is available on
GitHub and can be downloaded in a few seconds as it is small and not so complex. Depending on what
you have to debug, you will probably need to go deeper in your debugging experience. However, there
are some key points were setting a breakpoint is always worth it, for example, the proxy component is
worth a mention. In appium/lib/server/proxy.js you can set a breakpoint in function doProxy(req, res),
that will be hit every time commands are sent to platform-specific components to be translated into
automation commands.

Question 29. Mention The Basic Requirement For Writing Appium Tests.

For writing Appium tests you require:

 Driver Client: Appium drives mobile applications as though it were a user. Using a client library
you write your Appium tests which wrap your test steps and sends them to the Appium server
over HTTP.
 Appium Session: You have to first initialize a session, as such Appium test takes place in that
session. Once the Automation is done for one session, it can be ended.
 Desired Capabilities: To initialize an Appium session you need to define certain parameters
known as “desired capabilities” like PlatformName, PlatformVersion, Device Name and so on. It
specifies the kind of automation one requires from the Appium server.
 Driver Commands: You can write your test steps using a large and expressive vocabulary of
commands.
Question 30. What Are The Risks Associated In Automation Testing?

The risks of Automation Testing are:

 Do you have skilled resources? Automation testing demands resources with some knowledge
about programming. Firstly, focus on resources and then identify whether the resources have
proper knowledge for automation testing. Are they capable to adapt easily to the new
technologies? These measures are to be well assessed for building an automation testing team.
 The initial cost for automation is high. The initial cost for automation is too high for the initial
setup. It includes the cost of automated tools to be purchased, training and maintenance of the test
scripts. The unsatisfied customer base is high for automation testing their products. It should be
ensured that the cost compensates the testing results.
 If UI is not fixed, do not think about automation: Prior to automating the user interface, it
should be strongly be determined that, whether the UI is changing extensively or the cost of the
automated script maintenance is high or not.
 Stop automating the tests which run once: Ensure that certain test cases might be running once
and not included in the regression testing. Avoid automating such test modules.

Question 31. How Can I Run Android Tests Without Appium?

For older versions of Android, Appium might not be supported. For instance, Appium is only supported
for Android versions 4.4 or later for Mobile Web Application tests, Android versions 2.3, 4.0 and later for
Mobile Native Application and Mobile Hybrid Application tests.

For those versions in which Appium is not supported, you can request an emulator driven by Webdriver
and Selendroid. All you need to do is, use the Platforms Configurator and select Selenium for the API
instead of Appium. In the Sauce Labs test, you will notice that the top of the emulator says
“AndroidDriver Webview App”. In addition, you will notice that you will get a “Selenium Log” tab
which has the output of the Selendroid driver.

With an emulator driven by Webdriver & Selendroid, you will be able to test Mobile Web Application
only. You should be able to select any Android emulator version from 4.0 to the latest version and any
Android emulator skin (e.g “deviceName”: “Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Emulator”).

Question 32. How Can I Run iOS Tests Without Appium?

For older versions of iOS, Appium might not be supported. For instance, Appium supports foriOS
versions 6.1 and later. For earlier versions of iOS, the tool or driver used to drive your mobile
applications automated test is called iWebdriver.

To obtain a simulator driven by iWebdriver use the Platforms Configurator and select Selenium for the
API instead of Appium. With an emulator driven by iWebdriver, you will be able to test Mobile Web
Application only. In addition, in the Sauce Labs test, you will notice a “Selenium Log” tab which has the
output of iWebdriver.
Question 33. Can You Explain The Filters That You  Create While Checking Logs?

Filters help you in finding relevant information about your application and you can create a filter based on
the application package name like com.abc.com. You can save this filter by any name. When you click on
this filter, you will see only those logs which are from your application.

You can create a filter based on log tag which is related to a  particular line of code, for example, if you
have placed system.out to print the output then you can create a filter by a tag System.out. Then it will
shortlist all the print output in the code. You can create a filter by Choreographer which helps in finding
the skipped frames if you want to see them. You can create filters corresponding to your PID and log
message.

Question 34. Mention The Selecting Criteria For Test Automation Tool For Mobile Testing.

For mobile testing, the test automation tool should have the following criteria

Question 35. List Out The Most Common Problem That A Tester Faces While Performing Mobile
Testing In Cloud Computing?

Challenges that a tester faces while performing mobile testing are:

 Subscription model
 High Costing
 Lock-in
 Internet connectivity issues
 Immense consumption of time in image-based automation testing.
 Automation is restricted by the framework

Question 36: What Would You Prefer To Test Your Application On – Real Devices Or Use
Simulators/Emulators?

It’s one of the most commonly asked Appium interview questions. You’ve to be a little logical and
practical while answering it. Don’t just simply answer “It would depend on what you need.”, because it
would be a layman answer which interviewer won’t expect from you. Rather you should explain it by an
example. You can answer by saying that it’s always best to test on real devices. As it would allow you to
catch errors that you may not detect otherwise, but, you have to configure the device smartly with the
Appium server so that it can detect the device. Sometimes the ADB(Android Debug Bridge) may
disconnect from the device even if it remains plugged in, and it can cause your tests to fail. To handle
such issues, you can write a module which resets the ADB after some time to re-connect to the devices.
Question 37: What Is Appium Inspector And Why Is It Used?

It is similar to the Selenium IDE plugin and enables the record and playback support in Appium. It
captures the moves of a native application by inspecting DOM and produces the test scripts in any desired
language. However, Appium Inspector does not support Windows and uses the <UIAutomator> viewer.

Question 38: What Are The Probable Errors You Might Come Across While Working With
Appium?

The following are the errors you might observe with Appium.

 Error#1: Missing desired capabilities e.g. Device Name, PlatformName.

 Error#2: Couldn’t locate ADB. You may have missed setting
the <ANDROID_HOME> environment variable.
 Error#3: Selenium exception <openqa.selenium.SessionNotCreatedException>. It indicates a
failure in creating a new session.
 Error#4: Failure in locating a DOM element or determining the XPath.

Question 39. What Are The Problems Faced While Running A Test In A Multithreaded
Environment?

You need special care while using Appium in a multithreaded environment. The problem does not rely on
the fact of using threads in your tests. You can use them but, you must ensure that no more than one test
runs at the same time against the same Appium server. Appium does not support multiple sessions, and
unless you have implemented an additional layer on top of it to handle this case, multiple tests might fail.
Advanced Questions

Question 40: List The Selenium Commands That Work With Appium.

There are a number of Selenium commands that work with Appium tool.

 Locate commands using ID or class names.

 Raise events on elements e.g. Click().
 Text commands like type().
 Get/Set element properties.
 Commands to run JavaScript.
 Switch context between different web views like switching <iFrames> in Selenium Webdriver.
 Commands to manage alert boxes

Question 41: List OneThing Which You Cannot Do With Emulators But You Can Do With A Real
Device. You can test the interrupts like

 Phone calls & Messages

 Battery drains out while using the application under test
 Low battery scenarios
 Memory card mount/unmount scenarios
 Actual performance of your application 
 Bluetooth related testing.
Question 42: Which Tools Are For Performance Testing And Automation?

For performance testing of web services, you can use JMeter. It is an open source tool which can be used
to test the API’s performances.

For automation, there are several paid tools available in the market like SeeTest, Ranorex, Silk Mobile etc
while free automation tools are Calabash, Appium, Robotium for Android, KIF for iOS.

Question 43: What Are The Tools Used In Debugging?

We generally use logs to see the cause of the issue, where the failure is occurring. So for iOS – iPhone
configuration utility & for Android Monitor.bat, etc can be used. If you provide logs from these tools to
the developer, they can easily understand the cause of the issue.

Question 44: Explain What Does Mobile Security Testing Includes.

Mobile security testing includes

Question 45: When To

Choose Automation Testing And When To Choose Manual Testing?

Manual Testing

 If the application has new functionality

 If the application requires testing once or twice

Automate Testing

 If the regression tests are repeated

 Testing app for complex scenarios

Question 46: Mention Few Disadvantages of Automation Testing.

Designing the tools and tests to run software takes a lot of manual, human effort, though there are
frameworks and tests ready-made for engineers to use. Even with automated testing, human error is still a
factor – tools can be buggy, inefficient, costly, and sometimes even technologically limited in what kinds
of tests they can run on their own.
Question 47.: What Are The Pre-requisites To Start Automation Testing?

The first step is to segregate the different test cases that are to be automated. Following this, you must
prepare test data as per the needs of the test cases. Reusable functions need to be written which are
frequently used in those test cases. Later test scripts are prepared by using reusable functions and
applying loops and conditions wherever necessary.

Question 48: What Are The Differences Between Open Source Tools, Vendor Tools, And In-house
Tools?

Open source tools are free to use frameworks and applications. Engineers build the tool and have the
source code available for free on the internet for other engineers to use.

Vendor tools are developed by companies that come with licenses to use, and often cost money. Since
they are developed by an outside source, technical support is often available for use. Example vendor
tools include WinRunner, SilkTest, Rational Robot, QA Director, QTP, LR, QC, RFT, and RPT.

An In-house tool is a tool that a company builds for its own use, rather than purchasing vendor tools or
using open source tools.

Question 49. Is Automation Testing A Complete Replacement For Manual Software Testing?

No. Proper automation requires as little intervention from humans as possible since the tools used are
built to run tests once they are set up. As convenient as this might be, it should not be a complete
replacement for manual testing – only for repetitive tasks like load testing, where thousands of virtual
users are required.  Engineers should not automate things like test scripts if those scripts can only be
expected to run occasionally, nor should they automate code reviews, or bug testing for new builds of
software that might require human interaction to detect issues. We can conclude by saying that large-
scale, repetitive tasks are a better fit for automation.

Question 50. What Are The Points That Are Covered In The Planning Phase Of Automation?

During the planning phase of automation, the points to be considered are as follows:

 Selection of the “right” Automation tool

 Selection of Automation Framework if required
 List of in scope and out of scope items for automation
 Test Environment Setup
 Preparing the Gantt Chart of Project timelines for test script development & execution.
 Identify Test Deliverables