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Top 15 Manual Testing Interview Questions and Answers

Exploratory Testing
Top Manual Testing Interview Questions and Answers | TestQuality
To help you feel more prepared for your next interview, this post is a collection of some of the most frequently asked questions asked in manual and software testing interviews. You should still check it out if you're currently working in some part of the software development industry, with the purpose of improving your knowledge and abilities.

Manual testing is essential in software development and should be used whenever possible instead of automated testing. As a result, manual testing expertise is still widely valued after. If you want to shine in software testing, read this post full of Manual Testing Interview Questions.

Here is a list of these most often requested Manual Testing Interview Questions.
Q1. In your opinion, what is the meaning of software testing?
Q2. Highlight the Importance of Software Testing.
Q3. When compared to quality assurance, what exactly is quality control?
Q4. Is software testing divided into any main categories?
Q5. Could you mention any methodologies for Experience-based testing?
Q6. What's a test plan and what goes into it?
Q7. In what ways might manual testing be broken down?
Q8. White box and Black box testing: what is it and how can it be used?
Q9. When it comes to manual testing, how many stages are there?
Q10. When should manual testing be used instead of automated testing?
Q11. What's the difference between Test Case and Test Scenario?
Q12. Could automated testing do the job of manual testing?
Q13. Give a good Explanation of Functional Testing
Q14. Explain any differences between retesting and regression testing?
Q15. What's the distinction between defect, bug and an error?

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Q1. In your opinion, what is the meaning of software testing?

Testing software is a way to make sure it complies with all of the specifications set out by a company. It evaluates a system based on criteria including ease of use, precision, thoroughness, efficiency, etc. The fundamental concepts of testing are defined by the international standard ANSI/IEEE 1059.

Q2. Highlight the Importance of Software Testing.

To ensure that a software product is reliable and ready for distribution to the public, testing is an essential step in the development life cycle. There are many reasons why testing is essential, but here are a few of the more convincing:
  • It speeds up development by catching problems early on and eliminating the need to start over with the code.
  • It verifies that the product's quality and stability are up to par with industry norms and that the software application itself is free of any known bugs.
  • It highlights the problems and flaws that occurred throughout the development stages.
  • It eliminates the possibility of any negative outcomes as a consequence of using the program.
  • It helps provide more consistent and trustworthy outcomes from software applications with less ongoing maintenance costs.
  • Testing is essential to keep the client confident in the company and content with the product.

Q3. When compared to quality assurance, what exactly is quality control?

The term "quality control" refers to the procedure of testing software to find bugs and make sure it satisfies all of the criteria set out by the project's stakeholders. Quality assurance in software testing is a process-oriented strategy that checks the right application of the procedures, tools, and methodologies that provide high-quality outputs.

Q4. Is software testing divided into any main categories?

Software testing may be broken down into two primary categories:

  • Manual testing:Test cases are executed by human testers, without the use of test automation technologies, in the manual testing method, which is the most traditional approach to software testing. It implies that QA testers do manual testing on the program.
  • Automated Testing: Test cases may be automated by employing software, scripts, and other tools to conduct the same tasks again and over again. In order to increase productivity, test automation seeks to eliminate the need for human intervention.


Q5. Could you mention any methodologies for Experience-based testing?

Exploration, learning, and research are the goals of experience-based testing. The tester is continually learning about the product and using his knowledge, personality, and experience to design test cases and execute tests. In-depth knowledge of the product being tested is the foundation for several experience-based testing methods, including: Exploratory testing and guessing errors

Q6. What's a test plan and what goes into it?

To ensure that you're producing a high-quality end result, it is essential to document all potential testing procedures in a test plan. Information is collected via product specs, requirements, and use cases. 
These items are included in the test plan document:
Goals of testing, The Range of Test, Structure of Testing, Environment, Test Justification, Guidelines for entry and exit, Deliverables, Risk Factors

Q7. In what ways might manual testing be broken down?

The many forms of manual testing include:
  • Black Box Testing
  • White Box Testing
  • Unit Testing
  • System Testing
  • Integration Testing
  • Acceptance Testing

Q8. White box and Black box testing: what is it and how can it be used?

Black-Box Testing is used when testing software without access to the source code or knowledge of the system's internals. In particular, below are few methods:
  • Evaluation of Boundaries
  • Partitioning by Equivalence
  • Cause-effect graphing

White Box Testing, as contrast to Black-Box testing, focuses on the system's internal design and/or implementation in addition to the quality of the source code. The methods it employs are:
  • Decision Coverage
  • Coverage Statement

Q9. When it comes to manual testing, how many stages are there?

The four stages of manual testing are:

  • Unit testing is a technique for verifying the functionality of a system's smallest, most conceptually distinct components. The accuracy of the independent module's functionality is the key concern.
  • Integration Testing: The purpose of integration testing is to ensure that all parts of the program continue to function as expected after being joined. The goal here is to test the module-to-module communication interface.
  • System testing involves putting the complete program through its paces to see whether it lives up to its promises. Usability testing, regression testing, and functional testing are only a few of the many kinds of system testing.
  • Aceptance testing: the application is ready for release once it has undergone acceptance testing, often known as UAT (user acceptance testing).

Q10. When should manual testing be used instead of automated testing?

Manual testing is preferable than automated testing in many scenarios, such as:

  • Exploratory testing: a tester's knowledge, experience, analytical, logical abilities, creativity, and intuition are all put to use during exploratory testing. We already explained why exploratory testing is so helpful since it relies heavily on human participation.
  • In ad hoc testing, you create your own procedure as you go along. With ad hoc testing, the only thing that matters is the tester's knowledge and intuition, as no prior planning has been done. Manual testing is one option for doing this.
  • Projects with a limited lifespan: Although automated testing is supposed to save time and money, it itself requires a significant investment in both time and materials to create and maintain. Consider the case of constructing a tiny promotional website; in this case, manual testing may prove to be more effective.
  • Usability testing: the goal of usability testing is to determine whether or not a piece of software or a product is simple to use, effective, and/or convenient for its intended audience. Because human observation is so crucial, it makes more sense to manually test sounds.

Q11. What's the difference between Test Case and Test Scenario?

The purpose of a test case is to verify that the specified behavior of an application has been implemented. It's a written description of the conditions that must be met, the values used in the inputs, and the results that must be achieved.
From a use case, we may construct a test scenario. It is used to do end-to-end testing on an application. In testing, a single scenario might cover several use cases. Scenario testing is helpful when time is limited during the testing phase.

Q12. Could automated testing do the job of manual testing?

There is still a need for human testers despite the rise of automation testing. Even with the best automated testing, certain tasks will remain manual. Manual testing is essential in software development and should be used in place of automated testing wherever possible.
The benefits and drawbacks of both automated and manual testing are distinct. The flexibility and depth of exploration afforded by manual testing allow us to better comprehend the entire scope of the situation at hand. Automated testing, on the other hand, may complete a huge number of high-level tests in a short period of time, which can lead to significant time savings in the long term.

Q13. Give a good Explanation of Functional Testing

Functional testing is a sort of black-box testing. It emphasizes the importance of the software's functionality above its underlying structure. An input and output specification is an example of a functional requirement. It verifies that the program satisfies the functional requirements or specification but does not take into account non-functional qualities like performance, usability, or reliability.

Testing that the program can perform its intended functions and alleviate any problems encountered by its intended users is known as functional testing.

Examples of functional testing include the following:

Unit Testing, Integration Testing, Regression Testing, Smoke Testing,System Testing, Performance Testing, Stress Testing

Q14. Explain any differences between retesting and regression testing?

Here are some possible distinctions between retesting and regression testing:

To ensure the issues have been resolved, we retest. Regression testing, on the other hand, guarantees that the application's functionality will not be compromised by the problem fix.
The purpose of regression test cases is to ensure that all or most modules continue to work as expected after changes have been made.
Passed test cases are re-run in regression testing. In contrast, retesting entails running failed test cases again.
The importance of retesting outweighs that of regression testing. On the other hand, there are situations in which they are carried out simultaneously. In a recent post, we explained the differences between regression testing, retesting and unit testing.

Q15. What's the distinction between defect, bug and an error?

The main differences is found on its own definition:
Defecta software product has a defect when a developer discovers an issue with the product after it has been released to the public. The issue is a mistake that was discovered AFTER the program was released to the public. In layman's words, it denotes a wide variety of problems shown by or inherent to software products.

Bugs: During the course of testing, it is possible to discover problems with the program, which are known as bugs. Errors in programming are the root cause of every software failure. It's possible that they might cause the product to stop working properly. These are critical mistakes that may prevent a feature from working, cause a system crash, or slow down performance.

Error: The term "error" refers to any blunder, misinterpretation, or incorrect assumption made by the program's creators. Developers include a wide range of occupations, from software architects to coders to analysts to quality assurance specialists. A developer might misinterpret a design notation, or a programmer could accidentally misspell a variable name, both of which would result in a blunder. If a software problem occurs, it will most likely alter the way the application works.

We hope this little sample of interview questions for new testers was useful.With the help of a test management tool like TestQuality, you also can increase your testing skills since the aim of a Test management tool like TestQuality is to manage and monitor the testing process from test case creation and organization, to running tests and analyzing test results and trends.


A good test management solution will assist team members in creating and organizing test cases, managing testing requirements, scheduling tests, informing testers what to test next, executing tests efficiently, and finally tracking and monitoring testing results, progress and trends. Ultimately an effective test case management software solution assists an organization in creating and delivering high-quality and defect-free products.