Software tester (manual testing) interview questions

Software tester interview questions and answers

Testing interviews check your process knowledge and, more importantly, how you think about breaking things. These are the questions asked most for manual testing roles, with what each one checks.

What to revise before the interview

  • SDLC and STLC
  • Writing test cases and test scenarios
  • Bug life cycle and bug reports
  • Severity vs priority
  • Functional, regression, smoke and sanity testing
  • Boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning
  • Agile and the tester's role in a sprint
  • Basic SQL and API testing (Postman)

  1. 1.What is the difference between severity and priority?

    What they're checking
    The classic testing question.
    How to answer
    Severity is how badly a bug affects the system; priority is how soon it should be fixed. Example: a spelling mistake in the company logo is low severity but high priority.

  2. 2.Explain the bug life cycle.

    What they're checking
    Process knowledge.
    How to answer
    New, assigned, open, fixed, retest, then verified and closed - or reopened if it still fails. Bugs can also be rejected, deferred or marked duplicate.

  3. 3.Smoke testing vs sanity testing?

    What they're checking
    Common confusion.
    How to answer
    Smoke testing checks that the main functions of a new build work at all, before deeper testing. Sanity testing quickly checks a specific fix or change works.

  4. 4.Write test cases for a login page.

    What they're checking
    Practical thinking - asked in almost every interview.
    How to answer
    Cover valid login, wrong password, unregistered email, empty fields, password masking, case sensitivity, locking after failed attempts, "forgot password", SQL injection in fields and behaviour on slow networks.

  5. 5.What is boundary value analysis?

    What they're checking
    Test design technique.
    How to answer
    Test at the edges of valid ranges, where bugs cluster. For an age field accepting 18 to 60, test 17, 18, 19, 59, 60 and 61.

  6. 6.What is regression testing, and when do you do it?

    What they're checking
    Release quality.
    How to answer
    Re-testing existing features after a change to make sure nothing broke. Run it before releases and after fixes - and automate the stable parts.

  7. 7.What makes a good bug report?

    What they're checking
    Communication with developers.
    How to answer
    A clear title, steps to reproduce, expected vs actual result, environment (browser, device, build), severity, and screenshots or logs.

  8. 8.The developer says it's not a bug. What do you do?

    What they're checking
    Handling disagreement professionally.
    How to answer
    Show the requirement or acceptance criteria and reproduce it together. If the requirement is unclear, involve the product owner. Focus on the user, not on winning.

  9. 9.How do you test an API?

    What they're checking
    Increasingly expected from manual testers.
    How to answer
    With Postman: check status codes, response body and schema, error handling for bad input, authentication, and response time.

  10. 10.How does testing work in Agile?

    What they're checking
    Modern team practice.
    How to answer
    Testers join from planning, help write acceptance criteria, test stories within the sprint, and keep regression suites updated - testing isn't a phase at the end.

Frequently asked questions

Can a non-IT graduate become a software tester?

Yes. Manual testing is a common entry point - learn testing concepts, write test cases for real apps, and add basic SQL and API testing.

Should manual testers learn automation?

Yes, for growth. Selenium or Playwright with Java or Python opens many more roles and better pay.

Is ISTQB certification useful?

The ISTQB Foundation Level helps freshers show they know testing basics, but practical skills matter more in interviews.

Company interview guides for this role

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