Quality Engineer Interview Questions in United States
As a quality engineer, you will be expected by your employer to have the critical thinking skills, data analysis skills, and business quality knowledge to develop tools, systems, and processes that ensure product quality from start to finish. In an interview you can expect to be asked about your IT experience, knowledge of enterprise architectures, software engineering background, and understanding of quality improvement techniques. Because quality engineering is based heavily in software development, you can expect to be asked multiple technical programming questions.
Top Quality Engineer Interview Questions & How to Answer
Here are three top quality engineer interview questions and how to answer them:
Question #1: Can you describe your work process?
How to answer: Interviewers want to be sure you can carry out your job efficiently. When describing your work process, explain your leadership skills and ability to investigate production flaws, and talk about your experience with project quality plans.
Question #2: Can you talk about your teamwork skills?
How to answer: An employer wants to make sure you're a good fit for their current staff. Talk about how you're a team player and how you effectively communicate to complete tasks on the job.
Question #3: What would you do if faced with a difficult client?
How to answer: The position you're applying for may require you to work directly with customers. If this is the case, answer this question by talking about your customer service experience and how you stay professional when a client is having a problem.
Do you believe automation is more important than manual QA?
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I won't believe, both r important. we are doing documentation and writing test cases manually, then we are converting manual test cases into test scripts and executing them. It is the process of testing life cycle. Less
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In these sorts of interviews you really need to drill down and understand what the interviewer is looking for. A good way to simulate a real interview experience is to do a mock with one of the Workday QA Automation Engineer experts on Prepfully, rated super strongly on TrustPilot... prepfully.com/practice-interviews Less
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Your question is somewhat vague. When it comes to service tests then automation is more important; When it comes to graphic design manual is more important. when it comes to regression tests automation is more important than manual testing. Less
Hypothetical question: you have a team of ten software developers that have worked on a product for 5 years. They now have to develop a new version of this application but only have 3 months to develop and test it. What would the QA estimate be?
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This was my favorite question as it completely illustrated how bad these guys were at interviewing. I began to ask the manager that asked the question for more information and he snapped back at me " You have all the information you need!" Really? He might as well have asked me how much it costs to build a house. Because the answer would be the same - "I need more info and detail in order to give you my estimate". Any QA worth their salt will asks tons of questions in order to understand what it is they are working on. In the end I told the panel that if I had worked on the product or similar products I would base my estimate on prior experience. If I had no prior experience I would research historical metrics from similar projects and also discuss those historical project actual development/test hours with other QA and developers to come up with an estimate. Less
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I said "Rather than answering with the standard 'I will need more information' 'lets make it less hypothetical. "'Before I can give you an answer I will need to gather more information from your people'. This gives the interviewer an out when they don't have any additional information, and you the chance to get the information you need" Converting from 'Hypothetical' to 'Real' helped make my answer stand out from other candidates. It also made it harder for the interviewer to return with the Hypothetical "you have all the information you need" Less
Have you ever stopped a line for a quality issue and how did you go about it? Can you provide examples.
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Before I would stop a line I would make sure that I had evidence which I could use to justfy the stop. If this evidence was insufficient to stop the line or if the decision by the policy holders was not to stop the line but I felt that the problem was important enough to the customer I would escalate the problem to the Director of Quality. Unfortunately I could provide no examples that actually showed me being effective because they were all company confidential. The minor issues I could describe were not very impressive Less
What exact experience with test automation have you had?
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Automation starts when UAT becomes stable. Say for instance if on each release more than 50% test are failing you don't automate the application. During this time you can run smoke or black box tests to check if major functionalities are working properly. Once it becomes more stable for instance if 20% tests are failing you can start the automation process. Depending upon the application one can start with developing the frameworks. if it needed to be a data driven framework or a key word dirven framework. The best practice will be to incorporate Hybril Framwork which is combination of both keyword and data driven frameworks. On every release you run your regression tests to check new functionalities and anything broken from the previous releases. Once the application comes closer to complition you can develop a happy path or end to end test to check the functionalities of the application. Less
If you had a great idea to implement something new for a CA software product but management wouldn't take your word on it, how would you convince management to go along with your idea?
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I would try to create a form of a prototype of said idea and present it along with taking ownership and compassion for the new feature. Less
what automation tool you have been using for your last project
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HP uft, LR, Selenium, badboy
There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?
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Swaz answer is almost correct however it does not work in all scenarios. lets assume: box 1 is labelled Oranges (O) box 2 is labelled Apples (A) box 3 is labelled Apples and Oranges (A+O) and that ALL THREE BOXES ARE LABELLED INCORRECTLY" Pick a fruit from box 1, 1) if you pick an Orange: - box 1's real label can only be O or A+O - box 1's current label is O - since ALL LABELS ARE INCORRECT then box 1's real label can not be O - box 1's new label should then be A+O by elimination - since ALL LABELS ARE INCORRECT - box 2's label is changed to O - box 3's label is changed to A - SOLVED 2) if you pick an Apple: - box 1's real label can only be A or A+O - box 1's current label is O - since ALL LABELS ARE INCORRECT then box 1's real label can not be O - this still leaves us with the choice between label A and label A+O - which would both be correct - FAILURE Solution: The trick is to actually pick a fruit from the A+O labeled box Pick a fruit from box 3: 1) if you pick an Orange: - box 3's real label can only be O or A - box 3's current label is A+O - since ALL LABELS ARE INCORRECT then box 3's real label can not be A+O - box 3's new label should then be O by elimination - since ALL LABELS ARE INCORRECT - box 1's label is changed to A - box 2's label is changed to A+O - SOLVED 2) if you pick an Apple: - box 3's real label can only be O or A - box 3's current label is A+O - since ALL LABELS ARE INCORRECT then box 3's real label can not be A+O - box 3's new label should then be A by elimination (not O) - since ALL LABELS ARE INCORRECT - box 1's label is changed to A+O - box 2's label is changed to O - SOLVED Less
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It's easier to draw it out. There are only 2 possible combinations when all labels are tagged incorrectly. All you need to do is pick one fruit from the one marked "Apples + Oranges". If it's Apple, then change "Apple + Orange" to "Apple" The "Apple" one change to "Orange" The "Orange one change to "Apple + Orange" If it's Orange, then change "Apple + Orange" to "Orange" The "Apple" one change to "Apple + Orange" The "Orange" one change to ""Apple" Less
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All the three boxes are names incorrectly. SO the bax lebeled Apples+Oranges contains only Oranges or Only Apples. Pick one fruit from it. If it is Orange then lebel the box as Orange. So the box lebeled Oranges contains Apples and the remaining contains both. Less
A dwarf-killing giant lines up 10 dwarfs from shortest to tallest. Each dwarf can see all the shortest dwarfs in front of him, but cannot see the dwarfs behind himself. The giant randomly puts a white or black hat on each dwarf. No dwarf can see their own hat. The giant tells all the dwarfs that he will ask each dwarf, starting with the tallest, for the color of his hat. If the dwarf answers incorrectly, the giant will kill the dwarf. Each dwarf can hear the previous answers, but cannot hear when a dwarf is killed. What strategy should be used to kill the fewest dwarfs, and what is the minimum number of dwarfs that can be saved with this strategy?
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Think broadband communication. Exploit the capabilities of the communications medium. A minimum of nine dwarves can be saved based on the information provided in the original post I viewed. The strategy is for each dwarf to employ the expected language to communicate the color of their own hat to the giant, while simultaneously employing a vocal pitch protocol to indicate the color of the hat of the dwarf in front of him, high pitch for white and low pitch for black. The original post, indicates the dwarves may collude prior to the distribution of hats, so there is opportunity to negotiate such a simple broadband communication protocol. The tallest dwarf only has a 50/50 chance since the number of black and white hats in play is not known (rhetorical question, what are the odds the tallest dwarf's hat is black if he turns to find that all nine hats in front of him are white? I don't know, but odds are high that the giant is a sadistic bloke). The original post I viewed is here. http://www.businessinsider.com/toughest-job-interview-questions-2013-7#a-dwarf-killing-giant-lines-up-10-dwarfs-from-shortest-to-tallest-each-dwarf-can-see-all-the-shortest-dwarfs-in-front-of-him-but-cannot-see-the-dwarfs-behind-himself-the-giant-randomly-puts-a-white-or-black-hat-on-each-dwarf-no-dwarf-can-see-their-own-hat-the-giant-tells-all-the-dwarfs-that-he-will-ask-each-dwarf-starting-with-the-tallest-for-the-color-of-his-hat-if-the-dwarf-answers-incorrectly-the-giant-will-kill-the-dwarf-each-dwarf-can-hear-the-previous-answers-but-cannot-hear-when-a-dwarf-is-killed-the-dwarves-are-given-an-opportunity-to-collude-before-the-hats-are-distributed-what-strategy-should-be-used-to-kill-the-fewest-dwarfs-and-what-is-the-minimum-number-of-dwarfs-that-can-be-saved-with-this-strategy-11 Less
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What is the minimum number of dwarfs that can be saved with this strategy? 9 First of all, let's numerate the dwarfs as N1, N2, N3, etc. with N10 being the tallest. Now, N10 will state the color of N9 as his own answer, "My hat is WHITE". Based on this answer, N9 will state his color with a positive statement if the color of N8 is the same as his, "My hat is WHITE". Based on N8's answer, N8 knows that his color is WHITE, now, he will state his color depending on N7. Let's say N7 is black, so N8 will state, "My hat is NOT BLACK". N7 knows that his color is BLACK, but N6 is white, so he will use a negative statement, "My hat is NOT WHITE" and so on. Full example: N10 = BLACK N9 = WHITE N8 = WHITE N7 = BLACK N6 = WHITE N5 = WHITE N4 = WHITE N3 = BLACK N2 = BLACK N1 = WHITE N10: My hat is WHITE (Dies) N9 = My hat is WHITE N8 = My hat is NOT BLACK N7 = My hat is NOT WHITE N6 = My hat is WHITE N5 = My hat is WHITE N4 = My hat is NOT BLACK N3 = My hat is BLACK N2 = My hat is NOT WHITE N1 = My hat is WHITE N10 will have a 50/50 chances of survival... I'm sorry N10, I couldn't save you :'( Less
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the question does not mention that there will be equal number of white and black hats ! Less
Find the union of two strings?
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public static void UnionOfStrings() { String s1 = "XYZ"; String s2 = "YZOP"; String s3 = s1.concat(s2); char ch[] = s3.toCharArray(); Set setChars = new TreeSet(); for(char c : ch) { setChars.add(c); } System.out.println(setChars.toString()); } Output : [O, P, X, Y, Z] Less
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public static void IntersectionOfStrings() { String s1 = "XYZYYP"; String s2 = "YZOPP"; Set setChars = new TreeSet(); char c[] = s1.toCharArray(); for(char x : c) { if(s2.indexOf(x)!=-1) { setChars.add(x); } } System.out.println(setChars.toString()); } OUTPUT : [P, Y, Z] Less
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public static void IntersectionOfStrings() { String s1 = "yybbb78"; String s2 = "y7"; if(s1.length() > s2.length()) intersect(s1,s2); else intersect(s2,s1); } public static void intersect(String first, String second) { Set setChars = new TreeSet(); char c[] = first.toCharArray(); for(char x : c) { if(second.indexOf(x)!=-1) { setChars.add(x); } } System.out.println(setChars.toString()); } Less
