Video summary

Manual Testing Interview Questions and Answers| Manual Testing Mock Interview for Experienced

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / concepts covered

Background & experience (QA / manual testing)

  • Approximately 3.5 years in software testing, mainly manual testing
  • Approximately 1 year exposure to automation testing
  • Experience across multiple domains:
    • Intellectual property
    • Healthcare
    • E-commerce
    • Telecom (e.g., Vodafone)
  • Worked in Agile, participating in:
    • Sprint planning
    • Daily standups
    • Retrospectives
    • Refinement
  • Used Jira for:
    • Defect tracking
    • Test management
  • Performed automation for regression testing using:
    • Selenium WebDriver + Java
    • Frameworks: TestNG, Cucumber
    • Build/management: Maven
    • Design pattern: POM (Page Object Model)

Approach when documentation is missing

  • Think from the user perspective
  • Collect information first:
    • Gather details from BA/stakeholders/senior team
    • Raise questions in meetings
  • Explore the application to understand what exists and how it behaves
  • Build an initial understanding/checklist, then reconfirm with BA/stakeholders
  • Ensure alignment with acceptance criteria
  • Proceed to test execution using those confirmed criteria

Additional recommended ideas (for missing documentation)

  • Exploratory testing
  • Comparative analysis with similar features on other sites (e.g., Amazon vs Flipkart)
  • Ask product owners/developers for clarification
  • Understand the business purpose and end-user significance
  • Identify and validate expected user flows
  • Create test scenarios based on assumptions, then validate
  • Use a reverse-engineering approach:
    • derive scenarios from requirements, then verify behavior
  • Perform regression over builds to ensure behavior stays consistent
  • Keep documentation for future testers
  • Handle deviations by:
    • raising defects when behavior differs from expectations

Handling intermittent / hard-to-reproduce defects

  • Keep artifacts/process steps showing what was observed
  • Retest over time, e.g.:
    • reproduce once/twice per day or within a defined period
  • Reassess severity/impact:
    • if it’s rare, start with lower severity
  • Request estimation from developers/senior team to decide next steps
  • Perform risk/root-cause analysis
  • Consider that intermittent issues may relate to:
    • race conditions / concurrency
    • performance constraints
    • Example: multiple users attempting to buy the same limited stock in e-commerce
  • Collaborate with the team:
    • coordinate with performance testing if relevant
    • reproduce using realistic test data/conditions
  • Seek developer logs:
    • enable logs in the environment for timestamped evidence
  • Still track defects:
    • raise in Jira even if intermittent
    • document that it doesn’t happen every time to ensure team awareness

How Jira is used (test + execution + collaboration)

  • Track tickets/tasks in Jira across sprint planning/backlog
  • Update progress during daily standups:
    • e.g., in progress / done / challenges
  • Import test cases into Jira (e.g., via CSV)
  • During execution:
    • mark test cases as pass/fail
  • Link bug IDs to failing test cases
  • Manage bug lifecycle in Jira for team collaboration

QA sign-off process for user stories

  • A user story includes:
    • description
    • acceptance criteria
  • Create:
    • high-level scenarios
    • detailed test cases
    • RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix) mapping requirements → test cases
  • Add Jira comments for:
    • challenges
    • discussions/assumptions/clarifications
  • Estimate whether automation is needed in addition to manual
  • After execution:
    • ensure test cases pass
    • if failures occur:
      • raise bugs in Jira
      • discuss priority
  • For severe issues:
    • aim for fixes within the sprint
  • Provide sign-off only after review:
    • QA lead cross-checks with QA manager before final sign-off

Review / rework request frequency

  • Across ~4 projects, lead/manager requested additions/extra scenarios after QA sign-off about:
    • 2–3 times (roughly three times total)
  • Reason:
    • not all scenarios could be fully covered
    • lead asked to add pending critical ones

Example high-level test scenarios for a web page (e-commerce/Flipkart-like)

  • After opening the URL:
    • verify landing on the homepage
  • Purchase flow (logged-in user):
    • Navigate categories (e.g., Women → Dresses)
    • Select an item → Add to Cart
    • Verify the correct item appears in cart
    • Proceed → Place Order
    • Verify the order is successfully placed
  • Remove item
    • From cart, remove/delete the selected item
  • Order tracking + communications
    • After placing order, verify:
      • delivery date/time window
      • delivery address correctness
    • Verify notifications:
      • email confirmation with order details/order ID
      • delivery status email
      • WhatsApp delivery updates (as an example)
  • Out-of-stock / cancellation
    • If item becomes unavailable, verify system sends:
      • cancellation communication
      • appropriate messaging for the user

Testing with both authenticated and anonymous users

  • Login is important, but also verify purchase flow for:
    • proper logged-in users
    • anonymous users (attempt purchase without login) to ensure correct handling

Methodologies / step-by-step instructions (detailed bullets)

A) If documentation is missing (QA approach)

  • Think from the user perspective
  • If documents are missing:
    • identify and collect missing information from:
      • BA/stakeholders
      • senior team members
    • raise questions/challenges in standups/meetings
  • Explore the application where the feature/UI exists:
    • verify what the system currently shows/does
  • Create an initial understanding/checklist mentally (or informally)
  • Reconfirm and fill gaps:
    • validate with BA/stakeholders
    • obtain/align with acceptance criteria
  • Only then:
    • prepare scenarios/test cases
    • execute and verify outcomes

B) Intermittent bug handling (hard-to-reproduce)

  • Ensure you have artifacts:
    • functional steps / reproduction process used when first detected
  • Retest periodically:
    • attempt reproduction once or twice per day (or for a defined time window)
  • Explain to developers:
    • it cannot be reproduced every time; capture is inconsistent
  • Initial severity expectation:
    • treat as lower severity initially if intermittent and not consistently reproducible
  • Request estimation and plan next actions:
    • perform risk/root-cause analysis
    • determine whether it reappears in:
      • later builds
      • UAT
      • customer handover time
  • If you suspect concurrency/performance causes:
    • recreate likely load/race conditions
    • collaborate with performance testing if applicable
    • generate realistic test data/conditions
  • Collaborate with developers:
    • request logs capturing timestamps and errors
    • ask them to check configurations affecting behavior
  • Still raise defects:
    • open a Jira defect ticket
    • clearly note it’s intermittent (not occurring every run)
    • ensure visibility so the team is aware

C) QA sign-off for user stories (as described)

  • From the user story content (description + acceptance criteria):
    • create high-level scenarios
    • identify challenges and record them in Jira
  • Create RTM:
    • map each requirement to the relevant test cases in Jira
  • Consider automation effort:
    • decide whether automation is needed beyond manual testing
  • Run execution:
    • mark test cases pass/fail
    • if failing:
      • raise defect(s) in Jira
      • attach bug IDs to relevant test cases
      • discuss defect priority
  • Provide sign-off only after QA lead and manager review/cross-check

D) High-level ecommerce test scenarios (example)

  • Open the URL → confirm landing on homepage
  • Select category (e.g., Women → Dresses)
  • Choose item → Add to Cart
  • Validate cart contains the exact selected item
  • Proceed to checkout → Place Order
  • Validate order placement success
  • From cart, remove/delete item → confirm removal
  • Track order:
    • check status, expected delivery, and correct address
  • Verify notifications:
    • email with order ID/details
    • delivery status email
    • WhatsApp updates (as mentioned)
  • Validate cancellation path:
    • if item becomes unavailable → verify cancellation message/communication

Speakers / sources featured (as mentioned in subtitles)

  • Interviewer (asks questions; no name provided)
  • Candidate: Sonal Sate
  • BAs / Business Analysts
  • Developers
  • QA Lead (review/sign-off and cross-check role)
  • QA Manager (review role)
  • Scrum Master (referenced for Jira/scrum-status tracking)
  • Product Owners
  • Performance Testers
  • Flipkart (example system)
  • Amazon (comparison example)
  • WhatsApp (notification example)
  • Jira (tool for defects/test tracking)
  • Selenium / Java / TestNG / Cucumber / Maven / POM (tools/frameworks for automation)

Original video