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QA Engineer interview questions and answers

This sample of Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer interview questions is optimized to help you identify skilled candidates for your software Quality assurance position.

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QA Engineer Interview Questions

Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers monitor all stages of software development to identify system malfunctions and help improve product quality. They are responsible for conducting tests before product releases to ensure software runs smoothly and meets design quality standards.

Your ideal candidates should have a solid technical background, as they’re involved in the entire software development process. Use these questions to discover candidates whose past experience matches your company’s specific needs. It’s also essential to look for candidates with strong communication skills, since QA Engineers usually collaborate with various departments (e.g. web developers, designers and product managers.)

For better results, you should check if your candidates practical skills match their theoretical knowledge. You can include specific assignments in your interview process to assess how your candidates handle software problems and if they can come up with effective solutions in a timely manner.

Computer Science questions

  • What’s the difference between Quality assurance (QA), Quality control (QC) and Software Testing?
  • What is smoke testing?
  • What’s the difference between verification and validation?
  • Give me some examples of cases where it’s appropriate to conduct regression testing.
  • What are the best types of tests to perform on web-based applications?

Role-specific questions

  • Describe the bug life cycle. What is your role?
  • What software automation problems have you faced?
  • How do you determine which applications you should test?
  • Describe a test strategy that you’ve found to be effective.
  • What testing tools have you used?
  • What’s your experience with object-oriented programming languages?
  • What test cases would you write for a remote desktop feature?
  • Are you familiar with designing test frameworks for UI testing?
  • How do you decide you have tested enough?

Behavioral questions

  • Describe a situation where you successfully collaborated with developers to deploy a program or application.
  • Describe a time when you acted proactively to increase system performance.
  • How do you keep up-to-date with industry developments? Are there specific blogs or forums you read?

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