Agile Testing Interview Questions

Read Best Agile Testing Interview Questions

If you have got a call for an Agile testing interview, then congratulations are in order. You may be feeling nervous, but it sure to be felt at this point. Better to be prepared for the interview and it is always helpful to know how to go about it. Top companies like Apple, Valve, Phillips, Google and so many others hold interviews for the post of Agile testing developer with a good pay scale.

It is better to be thoroughly prepared for the interview as this can prove to be a great opportunity for you. We have comprised a set of 20 questions for you to go through while you are preparing for your interview. These expected questions with effective answers will help you get through the interview without any difficulty.

The questions will help you understand the pattern of the questions that may come in your interview. So, go and check them out for yourself.

Q1. What do you understand by Agile testing?

AGILE methodology is a practice followed by QA and is known to promote continuous iteration of development. This testing takes place in the dynamic environment as the requirements keep changing according to the needs of the customer. This testing takes place throughout the development of software lifecycle of a particular project. Unlike Waterfall model the testing and development activities are concurrent. The Agile testing is done to the developmental activity in a parallel order and the team testing it receives small codes frequently from the development team.

The agile testing is based on four core values:

1. Giving more importance to the team and individual interactions more than tools and processes
2. Giving more importance to working software more than comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration is above contract negotiation
4. Responding to change above following a plan

Q2.  What do you understand by the term sprint backlog and product backlog?

Ans. The sprint backlog is basically treated as the subset of the backlog of a product that contains requirements and features that are related to that specific sprint only. The Product Backlog is generally maintained by the owner of the project that contains each and every requirement and features of the product.

Q3. What is the main difference between traditional Waterfall model and Agile testing?

Ans. In the traditional Waterfall model, the testing is generally done at the end of development. However, in Agile methodology, the testing is done in parallel with the developmental activity, which means that as the development progresses so does the testing.

Q4. What is Release burndown chart?

Ans. A release burns down the chart is a graph, which is used to depict the release that is still pending and was planned earlier.

Q5.  What does Pair Programming mean? Explain its benefits?

Ans. Pair programming is basically a technique where two programmers work as part of the team. Here, one programmer is assigned to review the code which the other one is writing the code. The role can be easily switched between the programmers.

The Benefits of Pair Programming:

1. Easy transfer of Knowledge: One experienced partner can always teach the other one about codes and techniques.
2. The code quality is improved: if the second partner is reviewing the code simultaneously, then it simply reduces the chances of mistake.

Q6. Describe the Iterative and Incremental Development in Agile?

Ans. Incremental Development: Software development is done mainly in increments or more specifically, parts. In every single increment, a part of the complete requirement is to be delivered.

Iterative Development: Software is known to be delivered after developing it, to the customer. Based on the feedbacks, the software is again developed in cycles and released in sprints. For example, if in Release 1 after five sprints the software is developed and delivered to the customer. After that, if the customer wants changes to be made, then the development team has to make plans for the second release that will be completed in sprints and so on.

Q7. What are the qualities that a good Agile tester must possess?

Ans. The good qualities of a tester are as follow:

1. An agile tester should have a better and quick understanding of the requirements.
2. Agile principals and concepts should be known by the Agile Tester.
3. He should be able to understand the risk involved in the requirements as they always keep changing.
4. Agile tester, based on the requirements, should know how to prioritize the work involved.
5. An agile tester must be able to communicate with the business associates and developers as their work depends upon better communication.

Q8. When requirements change frequently how do you deal with such requirements?

Ans. This question basically tests the analytical capability of the candidate. The answer can be given as:

You need to work with PO and to update the test cases one needs to understand the exact requirement. The agile tester must also understand the risk involved in changing the requirement every time. Keeping all this aside the agile tester must also be able to write the test cases and generic test plan. One must not go for the automation until and unless the requirements are finalized.

Q9. State the difference between user topic, Epic, and Tasks?

Ans. User Stories are created by the business owner that defines the actual business requirement.

Tasks are created by the team to accomplish the business requirements development

A group of related user stories is known as an Epic.

Q10. What is a Taskboard in Agile?

Ans. To show the progress of the project, a dashboard is used, and that dashboard is known as Taskboard. It generally contains:

1. User story: The actual business requirement or the user story.
2. To Do: Tasks that can be worked upon.
3. In Progress: Tasks, that is in progress.
4. To Verify: Tasks that are still pending for the testing or verification
5. Done: Tasks that are completed.

Q11. What do you understand by the term Test Driven Development (TDD)?

Ans. It is a technique that involves Test-first development where we first test then goes on to write the complete code for production. After that, the test is run again based on the result so as to refactor the code that fulfills the requirement for the test.

Q12. What is Scrum ban?

Ans. The model of a software development that is the combination Kanban and scrum is known as Scrum-ban. Wherever there are unexpected user story or frequent changes, the Scrumban is used there as maintenance projects. This way the minimum completion time for user stories can be reduced.

Q13. Describe ‘planning poker’ or ‘scrum poker’ technique?

Ans. Planning poker is also referred to as Scrum poker, which technique based on card estimation basically based on the general agreement.

1) To begin with, either owner or the customer reads the agile user story, and its features are understood by the estimator.

2) Every estimator has planning cards each having a different number on it, like for example 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and so on. The number on the card stands for the story points or ideal days.

3) The features set by the owner of the product are discussed by the Estimator after selecting the cards based on their estimation.

4) In case a common value is selected, then-then that is the estimate. If it is not the case, then they discuss upon the minimum and maximum value estimation.

5) The above process is repeated until and unless they all reach a general agreement.

Q14. State the disadvantages of using agile model?

Ans. As there are advantages, there are disadvantages as well for using an agile model; they are as follows:

1. a) Focusing on documentation and design is not proper sometimes.
2. b) If there is even a simple mistake in understanding the guidelines that are provided by the customers, then programmers may have to do it all again or else the outcome of the project will not be satisfying to the customer.
3. c) Agile model is not that to predict. When encountered with a large project, it is not easy to predict the amount of effort needed in the project.
4. d) Basically, High-level decisions are catered by Veterans, which is most of the time combined with non-experienced ones. Fresher may have no to little scope to grasp proper knowledge.

 

Q15. What are the principles of agile testing?

 Ans. Some key principles that differentiate agile testing from others are:

∙         The focus is on satisfied customers.

∙         The code is clean and bug-free.

∙         Changes suggested by the customers are always welcomed.

∙         The work is done collectively by developers and whole team business persons

∙         The focus is on essence as opposed to lengthy documentation.

∙         Face-to-face conversations are emphasized upon.

∙         Sustainable development is promoted.

 

Q16. How does the development of agile testing vary from other methodologies of testing development?

Ans. In what way does agile testing (development) methodology differ from the other testing (development) methodologies?

The methodology followed by Agile testing requires the code to be broken down into small units and only one unit is worked upon or tested at a time. This is not the case with other testing methodologies. This agile process practiced by the team focuses on one particular unit of the code through continuous communication. This method is more flexible.

Q17. How would you find out whether you are making use of agile development or not?

Ans. While using test driven developments, collaborators of class responsibilities, pair programming, daily stand-up meeting, reviews, continuous integration, time-boxed task board, and more, you will easily know that you are simply using the best- agile development.

Q18. Name the main roles when it comes to the scrum?

Ans. The main roles in the scrum are:

 1) Scrum team: The scrum team comprises of individuals who work together to achieve the best results for any given task. The requested product is delivered by a committed scrum team with a deep bond.

2) Scrum master: As the name suggests, the scrum master is the individual responsible for the proper execution and working of the entire team. The scrum master is a leader as well as a coach. It is his duty to ensure that the team performs at their best, being productive towards both, the scrum as well as the end sprint goal.

3) Product owner: The responsibilities of the product owner include delivery of a complete and clear picture with respect to what is to be built. The product owner also conveys the same idea to the team.

Q19. What is the meaning of a Sprint Retrospective meeting?

Ans. The last phase of any sprint which is generally held after the sprint review meeting is called sprint retrospective meeting. The entire team including the scrum master participates in it in order to discuss the good and bad aspects of the sprint. The team confers over the needed improvements, and the discussion lasts for around three hours.

Q20. What is the ‘build-breaker’?

Ans. Developers might accidentally execute a bug during the development of the software. When such kinds of bugs generate warnings, result in failed normal executions during testing or even hamper the compilation process- this irregularity is referred to broken build. The priority of the tester in such cases is to bring the development back to the standard stage by quickly resolving the issue with bugs.

Agile testing is one field that has job opportunities in most of the top companies where you would need consistency and hard work. These questions are the basic ones that may help you get prepared for the interview. With above question, you can get an idea of questions that may come your way in the interview. The testers or developers can apply for the post by preparing for Agile process or Agile methodology interview. With a good preparation and little bit of smartness, you can easily crack this interview. All the best!