Top 35 QA Manager/Test Lead Interview Questions and Answers

Are you preparing for a Test Lead or QA Manager interview? Preparing for a job interview

requires you to be ready to answer the basic as well as the tricky interview questions that a

hiring manager could ask. If you are wondering about the type of QA Manager/Test Lead

interview questions that could be asked in your next interview, then this post is going to help

you.

As a Test Lead, you are expected to show good leadership qualities along with proficiency in the

technical areas of work. As a Quality Manager, you need to ensure that the quality of products,

or services, or processes of an organization are properly maintained and to meet the

customer’s requirements. If you are planning to get ready for the big job interview, then here

are some of the commonly-asked QA Manager/Test Lead interview questions covering both

basic and advanced concepts:

Q1. What do you expect out of this role?

Ans. This question measures your compatibility with the role. As you have applied for the role,

you should have a good understanding of the major responsibilities associated with it and what

you expect from it in the future.

Q2. Did you handle a team of test engineers or QA professionals in your earlier role?

Ans. As you are interviewing for a test lead position it is evident that you have some amount of

experience in handling a team or have similar experiences. You need to give a detail on how

you coordinated with your team members and clients to deliver successful projects.

Q3. What do you think of test leads writing test cases?

Ans. The right answer is to say that you feel that the test lead should write test cases like any

other member of the team.

Q4. How do you set your team’s objectives?

Ans. If you prefer to set individual objectives for each member of the team, mention that you

set it according to the knowledge and experience levels. This is how we can handle the project

more efficiently as a team.

Q5. How familiar are you with the industry-standard testing practices?

Ans. Explain all the proper practices that you follow in your existing organization and how will

you handle it similarly for the organization that you are interviewing for.

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Q6. What are the ways you ensure that the team members receive proper training?

Ans. Get feedback from all the team members on their strengths and weaknesses to make a

note of what type of training is necessary for the team. Also, new members who join the team

should be trained on time so as to be inducted as quickly as possible.

Q7. What will be your criteria for hiring team members?

Ans. The criteria for hiring team members are

1) his/her technical strength is as per project

requirements,

2) his/her attitude towards the profile he will be hiring for, and 3) will he/she be

a good fit with the rest of the team members?

Q8. Which testing tools are you familiar with?

Ans. As a test lead, you should be familiar with some of the most popular testing tools. You

need to explain how you use and what are its advantages as per the project requirements, cost

of using the tool, and ease of use.

Q9. Are you familiar with automation and what do you think of it?

Ans. Automation is becoming an important part of software testing nowadays and you can get

away without having any knowledge of it. You should be well-prepared for this question and

make it a positive answer as automation is going to be the future.

Q10. Do you know what Requirement Traceability Matrix is? What are its uses?

Ans. The Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) is a document that links requirements to test

cases. Its uses are

1) to ensure that all the application requirements are tested in the

verification process and

2) to check test coverage.

Q11. What is a Test Plan?

Ans. A Test Plan is a document detailing the objectives, resources, and processes for a specific

test and contains a detailed understanding of the eventual workflow.

Q12. Name the different types of Test Plans?

Ans. There are three types of Test Plans:

1) Master Test Plan,

2) Testing Level Specific Test Plan

3) Testing Type Specific Test Plan.

Q13. What are the risks that should be avoided for a testing project?

Ans. One should avoid the following risks during a testing project: 1) human resource risk

(resource crunch), 2) project schedule risk (missed deadlines), 3) strategy risk (exceeding

allocated budgets) and 4) project definition risk.

Q14. What are the good practices that you follow?

Ans. Some of the good practices for a successful project are proper documentation process,

high standards of reviewing, recognition to outstanding performers, focusing on team building,

and making sure there is a continuous scope of learning.

Q15. Have you been involved in test estimation? What are the techniques that you use?

Ans. If yes, explain how you come with the test estimation scenarios and the techniques that

you follow to improve the processes over time.

Q16. What are your key achievements in your current organization?

Ans. Have you completed a project well before the deadline or have you managed a difficult

project with great efficiency? Mention all your achievements no matter how insignificant you

think it is.

Q17. What is the difference between Agile and Scrum? Which one do you prefer?

Ans. Scrum is actually a type of Agile framework but does not provide detailed instructions on

what needs to be done; rather most of it is dependent on the team. The Agile methodology

supports incremental and iterative work cadences known as Sprints.

If you prefer that there is a leader who maintains the direction by assigning tasks then Agile is

perfect otherwise Scrum provides the advantage of adjusting the project’s direction based on

completed work.

Q18. What is Configuration Management?

Ans. Configuration Management covers the processes used to coordinate, control, and track

test artifacts.

Q19. What are the informal reviews? Do you document informal reviews?

Ans. An informal review is a process of checking defects without running the code. No, informal

reviews do not require documentation.

Q20. What is a three-point estimation?

Ans. In a three-point estimation, three different values are calculated based on previous

experience. These are 1) the best-case estimate, 2) the most likely estimate and 3) the worst-

case estimate.

Q21. What are the key challenges of software testing?

Ans. Some of the key challenges of software testing are:

– Testing the entire application: It is difficult to test the entire application as there are

many test combinations. It will lead to a delay in shipping the product if you test all the

combinations.

– Communication with developers: Developers or testers may not always agree with each

other for some points.

– Regression testing: Managing the changes in current functionality and previous working

functionality checks could be difficult.

– Time constraint: You may have multiple tasks related to quality that need to be

completed within a specified time.

– Priority: With time constraints, it sometimes becomes difficult for the testers to decide

which test to execute first.

Some other challenges include deciding on the right process and identifying the non-testable

requirements.

Q22. What steps are followed to create a test script?

Ans. Below are the steps to create a test script:

1. Understand the Application under test by reading the requirements related documents

other references, such as the previous version of the application.

2. Make a list of the areas to test for the AUT. In this step, you will identify ‘What’ to test.

3. Determine ‘How’ to test them. Write various steps on how to test a particular feature,

determine the data that will be entered, and the expected outcome.

Q23. Why testing is necessary?

Ans. Testing is an important step in the software cycle as it helps to identify defects, mistakes,

and bugs before the delivery to the client. Testing ensures the quality of the software and

produces a more cost-efficient end-product.

Q24. What do you mean by PDCA Cycle?

Ans. PDCA stands for Plan Do Check Act. The PDCA Cycle is a 4-stage problem-solving technique

for conducting a quality check. It focuses on the continuous improvement of processes and

products. In simple terms, it is a continuous loop of planning, doing, checking, and acting that is

useful for testing improvement measures.

Q25. What are the key elements in a Bug Report?

Ans. A good bug report must be concise and specific and should have:

– Title

– Unique and clearly specified bug number/name

– Steps to reproduce the bug

– A summary describing the defect and the observed failure

– A description that explaining the steps to follow to reproduce the defect and the

expected outcome.

– Date and time when the defect occurred or reported

– Bug Priority / Severity

– Platform & Version

– Attachment/evidence of the failure to help the reviewer to understand the defect better

Q26. What is the difference between Retesting And Regression Testing?

Ans. The differences between Retesting And Regression Testing are:

Retesting Regression Testing

It is planned testing. It is generic testing.

Retesting focuses on testing a specific feature

of the software.

Regression Testing focuses on testing a

general area of the software.

Retesting is done to confirm the test cases that

failed in the final execution. It is carried out to

check that the defects are fixed.

Regression Testing is done for testing

software which was working, but might

not be working now due to updates.

It is done based on the Defect fixes.

It ensures that new code changes should

not adversely impact the existing

functionalities.

Test cases cannot be automated for Retesting.

Automation can be done for regression

testing.

It is carried out only for failed test cases. It is carried out for passed test cases.

The Priority of re-testing is higher than

regression testing, thus it is done before

regression testing.

It can be done parallel with Re-testing.

Q27. What Is Exploratory Testing?

Ans. Often described as simultaneous learning, test design, and test execution, Exploratory

Testing is an approach that involves testing of software without any specific plans or schedules.

It is carried out when there an early iteration is needed. It requires minimum planning and

maximum test execution. During software testing, the tester discovers and learns novel things

that when combined with experience and creativity produce new good tests to run.

Q28. What are the severity and priority of a defect?

Ans. Defect Severity means how adversely the defect has impacted the functionality of an

application.

Defect Priority refers to the order in which the defects will be fixed. It is the urgency of the

defect from the business point of view. If the impact of the bug will be higher on the business,

then a higher priority will be assigned to it. Bugs could be under different priority and severity

combinations

– High Priority and High Severity

– High Priority and Low Severity

– Low Priority and Low Severity

– Low Priority and High Severity

Q29. How would you choose a Testing tool for your project?

Ans. The steps to select the right testing tool for a project are:

1. Identify and understand the requirement for the project

2. Evaluate the tools and vendors that meet the requirements

3. Consider budget and estimate cost and benefit

4. Make the final decision

Q30. Explain the difference between Smoke testing and Sanity Testing.

Ans. The differences between Smoke testing and Sanity Testing are:

Smoke Testing Sanity Testing

The objective of Smoke Testing is to confirm that

the critical functionalities of the program are

working properly.

It verifies and validates the conformity of

the new functionalities in the existing

code.

It ascertains the stability of the system. Sanity Testing ascertains the rationality

of the system.

This testing is performed on initial builds.

This testing is performed on stable

builds.

Smoke testing is carried out by the developers or

testers.

Testers carry out Sanity Testing.

It is documented or scripted. Usually, it is not documented or scripted.

Smoke testing is a part of basic testing.

Sanity Testing is a part of regression

testing.

It is usually carried out whenever there is a new

build.

It is a planned activity that is carried out

when there is not enough time for in-

depth testing.

Q31. What do you think is the best approach to start QA in a project?

Ans. The best approach to start QA is from the beginning of the project. This will help the team

to do proper planning of the processes that need to be followed. It will ensure that the end-

product meets the customer’s quality expectations. QA also helps in starting communication

between different teams.

Q32. What soft/people skills should a Test Lead/QA Manager have?

Ans. Besides technical expertise, Test Leads and QA managers must work on their ability to

create and work with a creative test team where each member is equally valuable for the

organization. This would require them to have the following soft skills:

– Effective communication skills

– Ability to solve problems effectively

– Adaptable and influential

– Strong negotiation and conflict resolution skills

– Ability to motivate team members

– Team Player

Q33. What are the different ways to manage or mitigate risks in a Test Project?

Ans. The following are the four ways to manage or mitigate the risk:

– Avoidance: avoid the risk factor that is involved

– Acceptance & Sharing: Accept the risk and develop a planned budget for the risks

involved and collaborate with others to share responsibility

– Reduction: Develop a mitigation plan to decrease the impact of risks

– Risk transfer: Transfer the risk to another resource or party

Q34. How can you determine the quality of the test execution?

Ans. You can determine the quality of test execution by:

– Defect rejection ratio: (No. of defects rejected/ total no. of defects raised) X 100

– Defect leakage ratio: (No. of defect missed/total defects of software) X 100

A smaller value of DRR and DLR indicates a better quality of test execution.

Q35. What are the best practices for test estimation?

Ans. The following are some of the best practices for test estimation:

– Add reasonable buffer time: It can help you to deal with a delay caused due to

unexpected reasons.

– Account resource planning in estimation: Make realistic estimation after considering the

important factors, like the absence of a human resource.

– Use the past experience reference: It will help you to prepare good estimates and avoid

all the possible obstacles that are most likely to happen.

– Stick to your estimate: Your estimation may go wrong also. Therefore, you should re-

check and make modifications when needed.