Manual Testing Interview Questions

Manual testing is an important part of software testing, particularly for freshers. Whether you are a fresher or an experienced professional, knowledge of manual testing is essential. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of manual testing interview questions to assist you in your interview journey.

For those just starting, we have manual testing interview questions for freshers, covering basic questions on test cases, defect reporting, and examples of manual testing they have done. Meanwhile, experienced individuals can benefit from specific query areas like UAT testing, real-life testing scenarios, and different testing techniques like error guessing and others for different experience levels, including 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 6 years, and 7 years.

More experienced candidates with 5+ years of manual testing experience can expect more advanced interview questions on test estimation, test plan development, managing teams, automation, and interfacing with stakeholders. In senior interview interviews, tricky questions that assess adaptability, problem-solving, and communication skills are common.

The interview questions also have scenario-based questions, testing your practical knowledge. Real-time scenario-based questions in manual testing, as well as those for software testing in general, are crucial for demonstrating your problem-solving skills. Additionally, tricky QA interview questions may be presented to evaluate your critical thinking ability and handling challenges.

Overall, in this manual testing interview questions collection, you’ll find examples of manual testing questions and answers to basic and advanced topics. We’ve covered a spectrum of concepts from error-guessing techniques to utilising the Fish Model in SDLC. Whether you are pursuing manual or automation testing roles, we’ve included interview questions that cater to both aspects. Specific questions related to these domains are also featured for those interested in UAT or UI testing.

Reviewing common manual software testing interview questions and answers will help all testers – whether fresher or experienced – stand out and demonstrate their practical skills during the interview process. Resources like PDF question banks for manual testing interview preparation can be quite useful.

Software Manual Testing Interview Questions And Answers For Freshers And Experienced

The following are some basic and advanced real-time interview questions on manual testing for beginner and experienced manual testers.

Software Development LifeCycle (SDLC)

Software Testing LifeCycle (STLC)

  • What is the life cycle of Testing?
  • What is STLC?
  • What is the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)? Explain in Details
  • Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) & Describe Test Plan
  • Explain the phases of STLC to me and explain each one briefly.
  • What is STLC? How many phases are there? Can you explain them?
  • What is the definition of the test life cycle?
  • What is the Test case Life Cycle?

Test Cases

  • What is a Test case?
  • What are the test scenarios?
  • How to write a test case with a minimum of 13 columns.
  • How to write a test case and bug report? Please explain with an example.
  • How to arrive at a Test case? How do you write the test case in the email ID?
  • What is the basic format of writing a test case?
  • How will you review the test case, and how many types are there?
  • Can you explain your template for the test case?
  • How to write a test case and bug report?
  • How to arrive at a Test case?
  • What is the basic format of writing a test case?
  • How will you review the test case, and how many types are there?
  • What are the things you consider when you are reviewing test cases?
  • What are the base documents to write the test cases?
  • How do you ensure your test cases are good?

Defects / Bugs

  • What is a Bug in Manual Testing?
  • What are the types of bugs?
  • What is a defect?
  • What is the difference between bug, defect, and fault?
  • What are the present fields while raising a defect?
  • What are the steps to reproduce while logging a defect?
  • What is the defect life cycle?
  • What is the severity and priority of the bug?
  • What is bug leakage?
  • What is a bug release?
  • What is the BUG Lifecycle?
  • What are the categories of defects?
  • Which tool are you using for raising the bug? Can you explain all the navigation Steps?

Testing Types

  • What is Unit Testing, why do we do unit testing, and when do we do Unit Testing? And is this black testing or white testing?
  • What are smoke testing and sanity testing, why do we do them, and when do we do them?
  • What is Regression Testing? When do we do Regression Testing? and why Regression Testing?
  • What is GUI testing?
  • What are Manual scripted Testing and Manual Support testing?
  • What are fuzzy testing, backward compatibility testing, and assertion testing?
  • What is look and feel testing?
  • What is mobile responsiveness testing?
  • What is monkey testing?

Testing Techniques

  • What test design technique do you use in your organization, like error guessing, equivalence partition, or boundary value analysis?
  • What is Equivalence Partitioning and Boundary Value Analysis?
  • How do you test and write Equivalence partition (EP) and boundary value analysis (BVA) test cases?
  • What is Decision Table Testing?
  • What are the testing techniques?
  • What is the boundary value analysis(BVA)? Explain with an example.
  • What is equivalence portioning(EA)?
  • What is Cause – Effect?

Test Management

  • What is a testbed?
  • What is the F rule in Web Testing?
  • What tool is used for Manual Testing?
  • What are Verification and validation?
  • What is the top–bottom approach?
  • What is the bottom–top approach?
  • What is Error Guessing?
  • What are SDLC and STLC?
  • What is Code Redundancy?
  • What is a test closure report?
  • What should you do after finding a bug?
  • What is a Test Harness?
  • What is good design?
  • What makes a good QA or Test manager?
  • How does a client or server environment affect testing?
  • What is Risk Analysis?
  • How can we eliminate risk?
  • What are concurrent user hits in load testing?
  • What is Testware?

Test Design

  • What is Error Guessing?
  • What is equivalence portioning(EA)?
  • What are the testing techniques?
  • What is the requirement traceability matrix (RTM)?
  • What are Branch Coverage and Decision Coverage?
  • What are Error guessing and Error seeding?
  • What is the statement coverage?
  • What is branch coverage?
  • What is a testing environment?
  • What is root cause analysis?
  • What is GAP ANALYSIS?
  • What is bidirectional traceability?
  • What is grey box testing?
  • Definition Software Testing
  • Why the Need for Testing
  • If you send the software without testing, what happens?

Test Execution

  • What is unit testing, and why do we do it?
  • What are Smoke Testing and Sanity Testing?
  • What is Regression Testing?
  • What is GUI testing?
  • What are Manual scripted Testing and Manual Support testing?
  • What is Fuzz testing?
  • What is look and feel testing?
  • What is mobile responsiveness testing?
  • What is state transition testing?
  • What is monkey testing?
  • What is Independent Testing and its benefits?
  • What are the different test levels?
  • What types of testing could you perform on a web-based application?
  • What types of testing could you perform on a standalone application?
  • How do you find the regression scenarios if a defect is fixed?
  • What are the goals of manual testing?
  • How do you check if the build is testable?
  • How do you sign off on the testing process?
  • How can you do effective testing in less time?
  • How many test cases you can write in a day?
  • How many test cases you can execute in a day?
  • How will you decide if you have enough test cases?
  • What should be the mindset of a tester?
  • How do you decide on test cases for the regression suite?
  • How do you decide on the test case for the smoke test suite?
  • How do you decide on the test case for the sanity test suite?

Requirements and Planning

  • What are the test objectives?
  • What is a test plan?
  • What is the basic format of the test plan?
  • What is a test strategy, and who prepares it?
  • What is a test execution plan?
  • What is the User story in Manual Testing?
  • Suppose your manager gave you a task in less time than you estimated. On that note, what action you will take?
  • What testplan includes?
  • What is SLA?
  • What is the importance of a test plan?
  • What are the contents of the Test Plan?
  • If you have ‘n’ requirements and less time, how do you prioritize the requirements?
  • What are the documents required to prepare a test plan?

Different Types Of Testing

  • Define software testing.
  • What is Manual Testing?
  • What is Automation Testing?
  • What is Regression Testing?
  • What is Re-Testing?
  • What is Smoke Testing?
  • What is Functional Testing?
  • What is Unit Testing?
  • What is User Acceptance Testing (UAT)?
  • What is static testing?
  • What is Black box testing?
  • What is white box testing?
  • What is Sanity testing?
  • What is Equivalent Testing?
  • What is boundary testing?
  • What is Dynamic Testing?
  • What is Mutation testing?
  • What is Acceptance Testing?
  • What is Non-Functional testing?
  • What is Alpha Testing?
  • What is Beta Testing?
  • What is Visual Testing?
  • What is Decision Testing?
  • What is Statement Testing?
  • What is Branch Testing?
  • What is Control Flow Testing?
  • What is Data Flow Testing?
  • What is port testing?
  • What is retesting?
  • What is module testing?
  • When do you start testing?
  • When do you end testing?
  • What is exploratory testing?
  • What is Automated Testing?
  • What is Exhaustive Testing?
  • What is the Gray Box Testing?
  • What is Storage Testing?
  • What is meant by GUI testing? What is meant by the client/Server? What is meant by a web-based application?
  • What is Scrum Testing??
  • What is Performance Testing? Explain Jmeter.
  • What is Load Testing??
  • What is Stress Testing? Why Stress Testing? How to do Stress Testing?
  • What is Volume Testing? Why do we do Volume Testing, and how do we do Volume Testing?
  • What is Scalability Testing? Why do we do Scalability Testing, and How to do Scalability Testing?
  • What is security testing? Why do we do security testing? Have you done security testing? Please explain how to do Security Testing.
  • What is End-to-End Testing, why do we do End-to-End Testing, and when do End-to-End Testing? Can you give me a real example of End-to-End Testing?
  • Explain Adhoc Testing.
  • What is the Pilot Testing?
  • What is Endurance Testing?
  • What is functional testing, system testing, and data-driven testing?
  • What is Data-Driven Testing?
  • What are the types of software testing?
  • What is in mind while performing testing?
  • What is monkey testing?
  • What is compatibility testing?
  • What is Concurrency Testing?
  • What is confirmation testing?
  • What is cross-browser testing?
  • What is the meaning of UI Testing?
  • What is Integration Testing?
  • What is System Testing?
  • What is Epic?
  • What is Agile?
  • What is the scrum?
  • What is the sprint cycle?
  • What are agile methods?
  • What is Sprint in Agile?
  • What is Sprint Backlog?
  • What is a Product backlog?
  • What is the time limit of a sprint in Agile?
  • How to Test the water bottle?
  • How do you test the Google search engine?
  • Write test cases in the pen.
  • Write test cases on ATM.
  • Write test cases of Lift.
  • How do you test the payment gateway?
  • How to test an eCommerce application?

Manual Testing Scenario-Based Interview Questions

  • What will you do as a tester if you need more time to complete any task and the given time is much less?
  • You have 20 bugs and need to fix them and run the regression. You are only two people in a team. How will you do it, and which one will you prioritize?
  • What will be your approach if some function is working in the testing environment and the same is not working in production?
  • In a scenario, 1000 links are in the webpage; some are open in a new tab, and some are open in a new window. How to handle this scenario.
  • Share a particular project where you have been able to learn enough skills to help with testing.
  • How to test Microsoft Word 2003. What are all the major areas to be tested? Please explain.
  • Why are testers needed when developers can do the same task?
  • You have been given 100 test cases of how to start when you have no time limit.
  • If you have ‘n’ requirements and less time, how do you prioritize the requirements?
  • What types of testing could you perform on a web-based application?
  • What types of testing could you perform on a standalone application?
  • What will be the first approach if we get bugs in every build?
    Ans: You can answer the above questions in the following way:
    The First step will be to log the bugs.
    We will first test the critical and high-priority test cases
    One person should start retesting the bugs, and another should start regression. Once the 1st guy has finished the retesting of bugs, he can join you in regression.
    It seems to be a deployment issue or that the QA environment differs from Prod.

Others

  • Tell me about your daily activities as a test engineer.
  • What is the build duration?
  • How can you report the defect using an Excel sheet?
  • If you have executed 100 test cases, every test case passed, but apart from these, you found some defect for which the test case is unprepared. How can you report the bug?
  • If a bug has high severity, it is usually treated as a high priority; why is the priority given by test engineers/project managers and the severity given by testers?
  • How would you say that a bug is 100% fixed?
  • What types of bugs do we normally see in any of the projects?
  • If we found the bug in SRS or FRS, how do we categorize that bug?
  • What is the Requirement Traceability Matrix?
  • Describe how to perform Risk analysis during software testing.
  • What is the Silk Test?
  • How do you deal with a non-reproducing bug?
  • When do you choose automated testing over manual testing?
  • What is the Software Requirements Specification?
  • Can you define a test driver and test stub?
  • What are the categories of defects?
  • Definition Software Testing
  • Why the Need for Testing
  • If you send the software without testing, what happens?
  • What is Build?
  • What is Release?
  • What is an Enhancement Request?
  • What are SRS and BRS documents? Can you explain them briefly?
  • What is stub and driver in manual testing?
  • What is a fish model? Can you explain?
  • What is determination?
  • What are the entry and exit criteria for testing?
  • What are the objectives of Utility objects?
  • What is the severity and priority of the bug?
  • Example of high severity and high priority.
  • Examples of low severity and low priority.
  • Examples of high severity and low priority.
  • Examples of low severity and high priority.
  • If a bug has high severity, then usually that is treated as a high priority, why is priority given by test engineers/project managers and severity given by testers?
  • How many test cases you can write in a day?
  • How many test cases you can execute in a day?
  • How will you decide if you have enough test cases?
  • What should be the mindset of a tester?
  • How do you decide on test cases for the regression suite?
  • How do you decide on the test case for the smoke test suite?
  • How do you decide on the test case for the sanity test suite?
  • What types of bugs do we normally see in any of the projects?
  • How does system Testing differ from UAT?
  • What are the Advantages of Manual Testing?
  • What are the disadvantages of Manual testing?
  • What do you mean by automation testing or test automation?
  • Are there any benefits of automation testing over manual testing?
  • What is Test Script?
  • How do you log the defects in your project?
  • What are the common problems with software automation?
  • What are the key challenges of software testing?
  • What is the role of QA in project development?
  • Can you explain the V model in manual testing?
  • Can you explain the structure of the bug life cycle?
  • What is “bug leakage?” and what is “bug release?”
  • Can you explain the waterfall model in manual testing?
  • Can you explain the levels in the V model manual to me?
  • What is the value of a testing group? How do you justify your work and budget?
  • What’s the role of the CMM Level in Testing?
  • What is the extension for the test script in Quick Test?
  • How can I do GUI testing? What is its important content? Please tell me all the properties of GUI testing.
  • Can you explain the spiral binding model in manual testing?
  • Who is prepared for use cases?
  • What part of the testing phase is the most important part of testing in the cycle?
  • What is the model of spiral binding in manual testing? Can you explain spiral binding?
  • What is the exact difference between Debugging and testing?
  • What is compatibility testing?
  • What is FSO? Can you explain?
  • What are the processes followed in your company for automation?
  • What are the objectives of Low-level recording? What is Elapsed Time? When do we use Update mode?
  • What are the objectives of debugging?
  • What is the role of both QA & QC?
  • How to test Microsoft Word 2003. What are all the major areas to be tested? Please explain.
  • How to do regression testing, and can you give one or two examples of that in the same application?
  • When do we go for WinRunner, and why do we go for it?
  • What is the difference between bug, error, and defect?
  • What are Branch Coverage and Decision Coverage?
  • What is the requirement traceability matrix (RTM)?
  • What is the first step to start the testing process?
  • What are the steps to reproduce while logging a defect?
  • What are defect-tracking tools?
  • Who decides the priority of bugs?
  • Who decides the severity of the bug?
  • Define alpha testing and beta testing. Tell me the differences between alpha testing and beta testing.
  • Explain the test driver and test stub with examples.
  • What is a use case?
  • What are Error guessing and Error seeding?
  • What are localization and global testing?
  • What is the statement coverage?
  • What is branch coverage?
  • What is a testing environment?
  • How do you ensure if something is a bug?
  • Explain the Validation and verification model.
  • Are severity and priority related to each other? If yes, how?
  • What is the priority of the test case? How is it decided?
  • What is root cause analysis?
  • What do you understand by risk?
  • What is called user interface testing?
  • What is called user experience testing?
  • What is the AUT(Application under test)?
  • How is the test result made?
  • What are the test conditions?
  • What is GAP ANALYSIS?
  • How do you deal with a requirement that is not clear?
  • How do you estimate the time for testing?
  • Why is Testing Necessary?
  • What is the test deliverable?
  • How will you decide which SDLC model is perfect for your AUT?
  • What is a test suite?
  • What is defect density?
  • What is a blocker defect?
  • How is monkey testing different from ad-hoc testing?
  • Why are testers needed when developers can do the same task?
  • What is Independent Testing and its benefits?
  • Why is test case review important? Who does it?
  • What are the different test levels?
  • What is the Latent defect?
  • What are the types of applications?
  • How do you check if the build is testable?
  • What is grey box testing?
  • How do you sign off on the testing process?
  • How can you do effective testing in less time?
  • How many test cases you can write in a day?
  • How many test cases you can execute in a day?
  • How will you decide if you have enough test cases?
  • What should be the mindset of a tester?
  • How do you decide on test cases for the regression suite?
  • How do you decide on the test case for the smoke test suite?
  • How do you decide on the test case for the sanity test suite?
  • What is a change request?
  • The developer rejects your bug. How will you approach it?
  • What is a Deferred Defect?
  • How do you ensure 100 % requirement coverage while Execution?
  • What are the things you consider when you are reviewing test cases?
  • What are the base documents to write the test cases?
  • What is meant by defect triage calls?
  • You have been given a new project. How will you start?
  • How do you ensure your test cases are good?
  • What is a test closure report?
  • Why does software have bugs?
  • What are the attributes of a good Software QA engineer?
  • You are testing functionality which sometimes passes and sometimes fails. How will you report it?
  • The existing testing process is not up to standard in your current organization. How will you approach your manager to bring changes?
  • What types of testing could you perform on a web-based application?
  • What types of testing could you perform on a standalone application?
  • How do you find the regression scenarios if a defect is fixed?
  • What are two of your strengths that you will bring to our QA/testing team?
  • What do you like most about Quality Assurance/Testing?
  • What do you like least about Quality Assurance/Testing?
  • Will manual testing end in the future?
  • Do you support automated testing? Why?
  • When is a good time for system testing?
  • What are the goals of manual testing?
  • What is bidirectional traceability?
  • What is the test server?
  • Clients found a bug in a module in which you were tested. How will you handle this situation?
  • Why is test data important?
  • How does domain knowledge help in manual testing?
  • How do you log the defects in your project?
  • What are the common problems with software automation?
  • What are the key challenges of software testing?
  • What is the role of QA in project development?
  • Can you explain the V model in manual testing?
  • Can you explain the structure of the bug life cycle?
  • Can you explain the waterfall model in manual testing?
  • Can you explain the levels in the V model manual to me?
  • What is the value of a testing group? How do you justify your work and budget?
  • What’s the role of the CMM Level in Testing?
  • Who prepared use cases?
  • What part of the testing phase is the most important part of testing in the cycle?
  • What is the model of spiral binding in manual testing? Can you explain spiral binding?
  • What is the test strategy that will prepare that one? And what will be there in the test strategy?
  • What are the test metrics?
  • What is test development?
  • What is Bug Leakage?
  • Do you support automated testing? Why?
  • When do you choose automated testing over manual testing?
  • What is the Software Requirements Specification?
  • Can you define a test driver and test stub?
  • Describe how to perform Risk analysis during software testing.
  • What is the Silk Test?
  • How do you deal with a non-reproducing bug?
  • What is the role of QA in project development?
  • When is a good time for system testing?
  • Why is test data important?
  • How does domain knowledge help in manual testing?
  • Tell me about your daily activities as a test engineer.
  • Disadvantages of manual testing?
  • What is the build duration?

Difference Between

  • What is the Difference Between Alpha Testing and Beta testing?
  • What is the difference between smoke testing and sanitary testing?
  • What is the difference between test scenarios and test strategy?
  • What is the difference between build and release?
  • What is the difference between usability testing and GUI?
  • What is the difference between writing the Integration and system testing test cases?
  • What is the difference between a Defect and an enhancement?
  • What is the difference between Pilot and Beta testing?
  • What is the difference between a Master Test Plan and a Test Plan?
  • What is the difference between coupling and cohesion?
  • What is the difference between QA, QC, and Software Testing?
  • What is the difference between front-end testing and back-end testing?
  • What is the difference between Black box and white box testing?
  • What is the difference between retesting and regression Testing & with an example?
  • What is the difference between the Test Case and Test Scenario?
  • What is the difference between a Defect and a Bug and an Error?
  • What is the difference between a test plan and a Test Strategy??
  • What is the difference between Static vs. dynamic Testing?
  • What is the difference between Quality Assurance and quality control?
  • What is the difference between Verification v/s Validation in Software Testing??
  • What is the difference between Positive and negative Testing??
  • What is the exact difference between Debugging and Testing?
  • What are the differences between system and end-to-end testing?
  • What is the difference between retesting and regression testing?
  • What is the difference between bug leakage and release?
  • What is the difference between Software Testing and Quality Assurance (QA)?
  • What is the difference between Functional Requirement and Non-Functional Requirement?
  • What is the difference between smoke and sanity?
  • What is the difference between a use case and a test case?
  • What is the difference between the white-box, black-box, and grey-box testing?
  • What is the difference between Project Based Testing and Product Based Testing?
  • What is the difference between Testing Methodology and Testing methods?

Final Words

I hope this massive list of manual testing interview questions will boost your career because if you follow all those questions, we are sure you can face any interview questions.

But when you are attending the interview, I have to be confident while answering the interview because a simple no is better than giving some random non-answer and adding unnecessary details.

So, I wish you the very best of luck for your upcoming interview and let us know what type of interview questions you have faced in an interview. If that is not covered here, we will try to add all those missed interview questions to this list to be more helpful to the testing community.

the above manual testing interview questions are frequently asked in most interviews. So we request you to share in the testing community so that you are indirectly helping other fellow testers. If you want to share your interview experience or interview process in which you have gone through the interview, you can write to us.

I love open-source technologies and am very passionate about software development. I like to share my knowledge with others, especially on technology that's why I have given all the examples as simple as possible to understand for beginners. All the code posted on my blog is developed, compiled, and tested in my development environment. If you find any mistakes or bugs, Please drop an email to softwaretestingo.com@gmail.com, or You can join me on Linkedin.

9 thoughts on “Manual Testing Interview Questions”

  1. Questions asked on my last interview.
    1. What is the preconditions to automate testcases?
    2.How you log the defects in your project?
    3.What is boundary value analysis?
    4.Suppose your manager gave you a task to complete less time than what you have estimated for it. On that note what action you will take?
    5.What testplan includes?

    Few other was there which I could not remember at this time.

    Thanks, Softwaretestinggo helped a lot for interview preparations

    Reply
    • We Glad that these questions help you in your interview preparation and thanks for your contribution towards the communitity

      Reply
  2. Q1. Difference between Risk & Issue in project management context?
    Q2. What risks can be there during the SDLC?
    Q3. Ceremonies in Scrum?
    Q4. Velocity in Scrum?
    Q5. How to join tables without using Joins in SQL?
    Q6. Finding second highest salary from the table?
    Q7. Types of APIs?
    Q8. Difference between PUT & POST request?
    Q9. Use of HEAD request in API Call?
    Q10. Use of Option request in API Call?
    Q11. What is query parameter in API url?
    Q12. If we sends POST request each time with same data what happens?
    Q13. Test design techniques?
    Q14. Use of Decision table?
    Q15. Critical bug you may have found in your project till date?
    Q16. Scenario based: If you are standing on the sea shore the call rate is Re1 and if you are travelling inside the sea say boat then the call rate is Rs.2. Create the test scenarios for the same?
    Q17.

    Reply
      • It’s my pleasure. This blog was extremely helpful in preparing for my interview. Thank you very much for taking the initiative.

        Reply
    • I would like to add two more questions:
      Q17. Difference between Verification & Validation?
      Q18. Suppose in Flipkart we have to test the filters based on Size(XS,S,M,L,XL,XXL), Colors, Price(0-5000). How would you use Equivalence Class Partitioning?
      (I’d like the community to respond to this question. It will benefit all of us.)

      Reply
  3. Valid input : 0-5000
    Invalid input: greater than or equal to 5001(>=5001)
    Valid class :0-5000= pick any one input test data from 0-5000
    Invalid class: pick anyone input test data greater than or equal to 5001
    We have one Valid and one Invalid conditions here.

    Reply

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