Sample Exam Questions - Miscellaneous (ASTQB)

Which of the following is an effective method for finding defects early in the software lifecycle? a. Static analysis b. System testing c. User acceptance testing d. Implementation validation testing

A is correct. Either manual reviews or automated analysis occur early in the lifecycle. B, C, & D all occur later, after development of code. See also section 3.3.

Which characteristic must a tester possess in order to be successful when working with a project team? a. Constructive communication skills b. Authoritarian leadership style c. Extroverted personality d. Extensive organizational network

A is correct. Identifying failures during testing can be perceived as criticism so the approach must be presented in a constructive manner. B is not correct because cooperation and a more democratic approach is usually needed. The tester is rarely in a position to make the final decision without input. C and D are not correct because these traits are irrelevant.

At what point in the project should the test execution be scheduled? a. During test planning b. During test analysis and design c. During test implementation d. During test execution

A is correct. Test execution should be scheduled during the test planning stage of the project. It may be refined during test analysis and design and even during test implementation. Once execution has started, priorities may be adjusted and the schedule may be lengthened or shortened but the general scheduling should occur during the planning stage.

When should the expected results of a test case be defined? a. When the test case is written, prior to execution b. When the test case is executed c. When the risk is assessed d. When the test condition is identified

A is correct. The expected results should be identified as the steps of the test case (test procedure) are defined. B is not correct because it will be too easy to accept the result as the expected result, even though it might not be correct. C and D are not correct because this is too early to know exactly what a particular test case will do.

If you are using a testing technique to identify test cases that were missed when you applied formal testing techniques, what type of test design are you doing? a. Experience-based b. Informal c. Defect-based d. Ad hoc

A is correct. This is an application of experience-based test design. B and D are not correct because these are not test design techniques. C is not correct because defect-based test design uses known and expected defects to focus the testing in specific areas.

What do use cases describe? a. Process flows b. Data flows c. Control flows d. Code flows

A is correct. Use cases describe process flows based on the expected use of the software by the users. See section 4.3.5.

If you want to track all changes to versions of your testware, what should you implement? a. Tracker control b. Configuration management c. Test control d. Test reporting

B is correct. Configuration management ensures version control, change mapping, and traceability. A is not correct although version control is often a part of a good configuration management system. C is not correct because it focuses on corrective action taken in a testing project. D is not correct because it summarizes what happened during testing.

What can a risk-based approach to testing help identify? a. Levels of system access to provide to testers b. Appropriate testing techniques to use on the system c. Role of the test lead for the project d. Responsibility for failures that occur in production

B is correct. Employing the right test technique can reduce risk and some test techniques are more thorough than others. A and C are not correct because both are different aspects of testing, independent of risk. D is not correct because the cause and ultimate responsibility of failures does not deviate based on level of risk. See section 5.5.2.

If you need to attain a certain level of code coverage for a particular software product your team is testing, what type of testing should you use? a. Specification-based b. Structure-based c. Experience-based d. Defect-based

B is correct. Structure-based testing should be used and that will allow you to target amounts of statement or decision coverage to be attained by the testing. None of the others will target the code and allow you to work to a particular level of coverage.

Which of the following is a key factor in the success of a work product review? a. Limit the number of defects found b. Define the objectives c. Couple it to performance reviews d. Open invitation

B is correct. The purpose and structure of the meeting should be communicated. A is not correct because it goes opposite to the objective of the review which is to find, ideally, all the defects in the document. C is incorrect as this can promote a demotivating behavior if people don't want to point out defects in their coworker's documents. D is incorrect because the review should be limited to the right people, not everyone.

If the project is using highly skilled and experienced developers, what is affected by this factor? a. The test strategy b. The test estimate c. The test reporting d. The test automation

B is correct. The test estimate should factor in that the developers are highly skilled and experienced because it would be expected to have higher quality software coming from these developers. See section 5.2.4.

Which of the following is a risk that could threaten the project's objectives? a. The software fails to detect the selection of an invalid workflow path by a user with restricted rights b. A data conversion is failing because of an unexpected data format c. The test environment is not ready d. There are several usability issues in the software

C is a project risk and could threaten the overall project's ability to achieve its objectives. A, B and D are all product risks. A is a product risk (potential to cause harm) but a product risk such as this could cause a project to fail if the problem is not detected

If a review is being led by the author of the document, what type of review is it? a. Inspection b. Technical review c. Walkthrough d. Informal

C is correct. A walkthrough is when the author is leading the review and walking the participants through the document that is being reviewed. A and B would both be led by a moderator. D normally doesn't have a leader and is more an informal discussion.

Which of the following will help prevent defects from reoccurring? a. Rotating developers to keep them motivated b. Determining the environmental conditions that caused the failure c. Improving processes based on root cause analysis d. Prioritizing reoccurring defects higher than new defects

C is correct. Lessons learned from other projects, when used to improve processes, improves system quality of future projects. A is not correct because rotations may be useful for other issues but minimally effective in preventing defects. B is not correct because the environmental conditions would either have to be fixed or the code would have to be fixed to handle the environment issues in order to reduce reoccurrence of the same problems. D is not correct because a higher priority may get them fixed faster, but it won't help prevent their occurrence in the first place. See also section 1.1.4

If you need to add system integration testing as a test level for a particular project, what testing level should it directly follow? a. Component b. Component integration c. System d. Acceptance

C is correct. System integration testing is done when systems of software need to work together. System testing should be completed on each of the systems prior to integrating them together and conducting system integration testing.

Which of the following should include the scheduling of test analysis? a. Test approach b. Test strategy c. Test planning d. Test estimation

C is correct. Test planning includes a broad range of scheduling, including test analysis and design activities. See section 5.2.2.

Which of the following is the best example of a defect that causes harm? a. A usability defect that results in user dissatisfaction b. A defect that causes slow response time when running reports c. A defect that causes raw sewage to be dumped into the ocean d. A regression defect that causes the desktop window to display in green

C is correct. This is a defect that directly causes harm to the environment. A is not correct because the unhappy user is not actually harmed by the defect. B is not correct because the slow response time is not resulting in direct harm. D may be annoying but it's not causing harm. See also section 5.5.2.

Which of the following tasks is most typical for a tester a. Coordinate the testing strategy with project managers b. Determine what tests should be automated c. Acquire and prepare data to be used for testing d. Use test results to guide future planning

C is correct. This is a typical task for a tester in an organization. A, B, and D are not correct as they are tasks typically performed by test leaders.

In which testing level are the developers most heavily involved? a. Compatibility b. Acceptance c. Component d. Conversion

C is correct. This occurs as the code is being developed. A is not correct because this is a technique that validates software working with particular hardware and is usually performed by testers. B is not correct as this is performed by users that represent the business. D is not correct because this tests data conversion from one system to another and is usually performed by testers.

In an incident report, what is another attribute that can be used to indicate the priority of the incident? a. Severity b. Risk c. Urgency d. Impact

C is correct. Urgency is often used interchangeably with priority. A and D are not correct because those terms are also used interchangeably with each other. B is not correct because this may influence the priority, but it is not the same thing.

Which of the following is a trigger for maintenance testing? a. A new software product is being developed and defects have been found in unit testing b. A new software product is being developed and will work across multiple platforms c. A component of an existing production software product has been removed d. A component of an existing production software product has received high usage

C is correct. When a component of software that is in production is changed (modified, migrated, retired), maintenance testing is required. In this case something has been removed (maybe retired or just modified) so testing is required to make sure the remaining software is unaffected.

Which of the following is an important characteristic of tests used for regression testing? a. They focus on testing the intricate and difficult-to-test aspects of the software b. They require significant maintenance effort for each release c. They are used for one release and are then discarded to keep the test set fresh d. They are reusable for multiple releases with little maintenance

D is correct. A good set of regression tests should require little or no maintenance and should be reusable across multiple releases. A is not correct because while the tests may test intricate aspects of the software that are difficult to test (particularly with automated regression tests) this is not the primary focus. B is not correct because the tests should not require much maintenance between releases so the reusability is high. C is not correct because re-usability is key. See section 2.3.4.

If you are testing to ensure that the software will be easy to analyze and change, what type of non-functional testing are you conducting? a. Portability b. Functional c. Usability d. Maintainability

D is correct. Maintainability testing is conducted to determine if the software can be maintained by the developers for updates, changes and modifications. Analyzability is a sub-characteristic of maintainability. See also ISO 9126 for the software quality characteristics, including maintainability.

For what level of testing is the following criterion appropriate? No priority 1, 2, or 3 defects are open and all priority 4 defects must have a documented workaround and are accepted by the business. a. Exit from unit testing b. Entrance to integration testing c. Exit from integration testing d. Exit from system testing

D is correct. Since the defects must be accepted by the business, only system testing would be applicable. The business wouldn't care about defects open within the levels of testing, only at the point when testing is "complete" and the software will be moving to the acceptance levels. See section 5.2.4.

Which of the following black-box testing techniques focuses on covering all combinations of triggering conditions? a. State transition testing b. Equivalence partitioning c. Boundary value analysis d. Decision table testing

D is correct. The decision table contains the triggering conditions, often combinations of true and false for all input conditions, and the resulting actions for each combination of conditions. A is not correct because it focuses on the relationship between states and inputs, highlighting transitions that are invalid. B is not correct because inputs are divided into equivalence classes where the behavior of each member of a class is expected to be the same as any other member of that class. C is not correct because it covers both valid and invalid values at the boundaries of equivalence classes. See section 4.3.3.

Which testing level is primarily focused on building confidence rather than finding defects? a. Unit testing b. Integration testing c. System testing d. Acceptance testing

D is correct. The goal of acceptance testing is to build confidence that the software meets the needs of the stakeholders. Finding defects during this level of testing is not a goal and should not happen if the previous levels of testing have been completed successfully. See also section 2.2.4.

Which of the following tools would be most appropriate for managing defects throughout the software lifecycle? a. Configuration management tools b. Requirements management tools c. Failure management tools d. Incident management tools

D is correct. These tools store and manage defects and other anomalies. A is not correct because it is used for version management of testware. B is not correct because it stores requirements and associated detail. C is not correct as it is not a valid tool.

Which of the following test estimation approaches is based on typical values? a. Risk-based b. Value-based c. Expert-based d. Metrics-based

D is correct. This approach can be based on metrics from previous projects or typical values. A and B are not correct because neither are an estimation approach. C is not correct because it uses estimates made by experts of the system. See section 5.2.5.