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Manual testing interview questions

Manual testing interview questions for freshers cover testing basics such as verification and validation, the SDLC and STLC, test case design with boundary values and equivalence classes, the bug life cycle, severity and priority, and the main types of testing. Most interviews end with a scenario, like writing test cases for a login page.

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  • 37 questions with answers

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Short answers you can say aloud, grouped from basics to scenarios. Open any question to see its answer.

Questions with answers37in 6 groups

Basic manual testing interview questions for freshers

Interviewers start here to check that you know the vocabulary. Keep each answer to two or three lines.

10 questions

  1. What is manual testing?

    Basic

    Manual testing is checking software by hand, without automation scripts. A tester follows test cases, uses the application like a real user, compares what happens with what should happen and reports any difference as a defect.

  2. Why do we need software testing?

    Basic

    To find defects before users do, to check that the software meets its requirements and to give the team confidence to release. Testing lowers risk; it cannot prove that software has no bugs.

  3. What is the difference between verification and validation?

    Basic

    Verification asks "are we building the product right?": reviews of requirements, designs and code against specifications, often without running the software. Validation asks "are we building the right product?": running the software to check it meets the user's needs.

  4. What is the difference between an error, a defect and a failure?

    Basic

    An error is a human mistake, such as a wrong condition in code. The mistake leaves a defect (bug) in the product. A failure is what you see when the defective code runs and the system does not behave as expected.

  5. What is the difference between QA and QC?

    Basic

    Quality assurance (QA) is about the process: preventing defects through standards, reviews and better ways of working. Quality control (QC) is about the product: finding defects by testing what has been built. Testing is part of QC.

  6. What are the seven principles of software testing?

    Basic
    • Testing shows the presence of defects, not their absence.
    • Exhaustive testing is impossible.
    • Early testing saves time and money.
    • Defects cluster together in a few modules.
    • Tests wear out: repeating the same tests finds fewer new bugs over time (older syllabi call this the pesticide paradox).
    • Testing depends on context.
    • Absence-of-defects fallacy: finding and fixing many defects does not guarantee the software meets users’ needs.

  7. What is the difference between static and dynamic testing?

    Basic

    Static testing examines work products without running the code: reviews, walkthroughs and inspections of requirements, designs or code. Dynamic testing runs the software with inputs and checks the outputs.

  8. What is black box, white box and grey box testing?

    Basic

    Black box testing checks behaviour from the outside, using the requirements, without looking at the code. White box testing uses knowledge of the code, such as its branches and paths. Grey box testing combines the two: you test from outside but use some knowledge of the internals, such as the database.

  9. What is the difference between functional and non-functional testing?

    Basic

    Functional testing checks what the system does: features, business rules and outputs. Non-functional testing checks how well it does it: performance, load, security, usability and compatibility.

  10. What are the levels of testing?

    Basic

    Unit testing (single functions or components, usually by developers), integration testing (how components work together), system testing (the complete system against requirements) and acceptance testing (whether users or the client accept it). ISTQB splits integration into two levels: component integration testing (between components) and system integration testing (between the system and other systems or external services).

SDLC, STLC and Agile questions

6 questions

  1. What is the STLC?

    Basic

    The software testing life cycle is the sequence of testing activities: requirement analysis, test planning, test case design, test environment setup, test execution, and test closure. Each phase has entry and exit criteria. ISTQB names the same work test planning, monitoring and control, analysis, design, implementation, execution and completion.

  2. How is the STLC different from the SDLC?

    Basic

    The SDLC covers building the whole product: requirements, design, development, testing, deployment and maintenance. The STLC covers only the testing work, and runs alongside the SDLC.

  3. What is the V-model?

    Intermediate

    A development model in which each development phase has a matching test phase planned at the same time: requirements with acceptance testing, system design with system testing, architecture with integration testing and module design with unit testing. It encourages early test planning.

  4. How does testing work in Agile?

    Intermediate

    Testing happens inside every sprint, not at the end. Testers join backlog grooming, write acceptance criteria with the team, test stories as soon as they are built and run regression before each release.

  5. What are entry and exit criteria?

    Intermediate

    Entry criteria are the conditions that must be true before testing starts, such as a stable build and ready test data. Exit criteria say when to stop, such as all planned tests run, no open critical defects and the agreed pass rate met.

  6. What does a test plan contain?

    Intermediate

    Scope (what will and will not be tested), approach, test environment, schedule, roles, entry and exit criteria, risks, and the deliverables such as test cases and reports.

Test case design questions

7 questions

  1. What is a test case, and what does it contain?

    Basic

    A test case is a set of steps with inputs and the expected result, used to check one condition. It usually has an ID, title, preconditions, test data, steps, expected result, actual result and status.

  2. What is the difference between a test scenario and a test case?

    Basic

    A scenario is a one-line idea of what to test, such as "check login with valid details". Test cases are the detailed steps, data and expected results that cover that scenario. One scenario usually has several test cases.

  3. What is boundary value analysis?

    Intermediate

    A technique that tests at the edges of a valid range, because bugs gather there. If a field accepts ages 18 to 60, test 17, 18, 60 and 61 (some teams also test 19 and 59).

  4. What is equivalence partitioning?

    Intermediate

    Splitting the inputs into groups the system should treat the same way, then testing one value from each group. For ages 18 to 60 there are three partitions: below 18, 18 to 60 and above 60, so three values such as 10, 35 and 70 cover them.

  5. What is a decision table?

    Intermediate

    A table that lists every combination of conditions and the action the system should take for each. It is useful for business rules, such as a discount that depends on membership and order value.

  6. What is a traceability matrix (RTM)?

    Intermediate

    A document that maps each requirement to the test cases that cover it. It shows whether every requirement is tested and which tests to re-run when a requirement changes.

  7. What are positive and negative test cases?

    Basic

    Positive test cases use valid inputs and check the system works as expected. Negative test cases use invalid inputs, such as letters in a phone number field, and check that the system rejects them with a clear message instead of crashing.

Defect and bug life cycle questions

5 questions

  1. What is the bug life cycle?

    Basic

    The states a defect moves through: New, Assigned, Open, Fixed, Retest, then Closed if the fix works or Reopened if it does not. A bug can also be Rejected, Deferred or marked Duplicate. Names vary slightly between tools such as Jira.

  2. What is the difference between severity and priority?

    Basic

    Severity is how badly the defect affects the system. Priority is how soon it should be fixed. A crash on a rarely used admin screen is high severity but may be low priority; a spelling mistake in the company name on the home page is low severity but high priority.

  3. What should a good bug report contain?

    Basic

    A clear title, the build and environment, steps to reproduce, test data, expected result, actual result, severity, priority and evidence such as a screenshot or screen recording.

  4. What do you do if a developer says your bug is "not a bug"?

    Intermediate

    Re-check the requirement and reproduce the issue. If the behaviour does not match the requirement, show the requirement and the evidence calmly. If the requirement is unclear, take it to the business analyst or product owner to decide.

  5. What is defect leakage?

    Intermediate

    A defect that escapes one testing phase and is found later, for example by the client in acceptance testing or by users in production. Teams track it to improve their test coverage.

Types of testing questions

5 questions

  1. What is the difference between retesting and regression testing?

    Basic

    Retesting checks that a specific bug is now fixed, using the same steps that found it. Regression testing checks that the fix or a new change has not broken anything that worked before.

  2. What is the difference between smoke and sanity testing?

    Basic

    Smoke testing is a quick, broad check that a new build is stable enough to test at all. Sanity testing is a quick, narrow check of one area after a small change or fix, to decide whether deeper testing is worth doing.

  3. What are alpha and beta testing?

    Basic

    Alpha testing is acceptance testing done inside the company, by internal users or testers, before release. Beta testing gives the product to a limited group of real users outside the company to get feedback in real conditions.

  4. What is exploratory testing?

    Intermediate

    Testing without written test cases, where the tester learns the application, designs tests and runs them at the same time. It finds bugs that scripted tests miss and works best in time-boxed sessions with notes.

  5. What is the difference between ad hoc and monkey testing?

    Intermediate

    Ad hoc testing is informal testing by someone who knows the application, without a plan. Monkey testing gives random inputs without any knowledge of the application, to see whether it crashes.

Scenario-based manual testing questions

There is no single right answer here. Interviewers want to see that you think about valid, invalid and edge cases.

4 questions

  1. Write test cases for a login page.

    Basic
    • Valid username and password logs in.
    • Wrong password or unregistered username shows an error, without saying which one was wrong.
    • Empty fields show "required" messages.
    • The password is masked, and "show password" works if present.
    • The account locks after the allowed number of failed attempts.
    • "Forgot password" sends a reset link.
    • Leading and trailing spaces, upper and lower case and maximum lengths are handled.
    • The session ends on logout, and the back button does not reopen it.

  2. How would you test a pen?

    Basic

    Ask first what kind of pen and who it is for. Then cover function (it writes, the ink flows evenly, the cap or click works), usability (comfortable grip, easy to refill), durability (survives a fall, ink does not leak in heat) and the edges (writing upside down, on glossy paper, until the ink runs out).

  3. How would you test an ATM withdrawal?

    Intermediate

    Valid card and PIN with enough balance; wrong PIN and card blocking after repeated wrong attempts; amounts that are not multiples of the notes available; amount above the balance or the daily limit; no cash in the machine; the receipt; the balance after withdrawal; and a network failure in the middle of a transaction.

  4. You have very little time before a release. What do you test?

    Intermediate

    Prioritise by risk: the core user journeys first (sign-up, login, payment), then areas that changed in this release and areas with a history of bugs. Run a smoke test, test the changes, run the most important regression cases and tell the team clearly what was not tested.

How to prepare for a manual testing interview

  1. Learn the vocabulary first: verification and validation, SDLC and STLC, severity and priority, retesting and regression. Interviewers ask these to almost every fresher.

  2. Practise the test design techniques on paper: pick a form (a sign-up page, an age field, a discount rule) and write boundary values, partitions and a decision table for it.

  3. Write ten real test cases and two bug reports for an app you use every day, in a simple spreadsheet. Bring them up when you are asked about practical experience.

  4. Practise one scenario aloud each day ("test a lift", "test a payment page"), covering valid, invalid and edge cases in under two minutes.

  5. Learn the basics of a bug tracker such as Jira and of SQL SELECT queries, because many testing roles check data in the database.

What do companies ask freshers in a testing interview?

For fresher QA roles, the technical round usually mixes definitions (STLC, bug life cycle, severity and priority) with one or two scenarios such as writing test cases for a login page. Some interviewers add simple SQL queries or basic questions about automation.

The HR round that follows uses the usual questions; see HR interview questions for sample answers.

Should a fresher learn automation along with manual testing?

Yes, once the basics are solid. Most testing teams now expect some automation, and Selenium with Java or Python is the common starting point. Manual testing knowledge still matters, because you cannot automate a test you cannot design. Our Selenium interview questions cover the next step.

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Questions freshers ask

It is a common entry point into IT because it needs clear thinking more than coding. Grow beyond it: testers who add SQL, API testing and automation, such as Selenium, have more roles open to them as they gain experience.

The difference between severity and priority, the bug life cycle, retesting versus regression, smoke versus sanity testing, the STLC, boundary value analysis and writing test cases for a login page.

Not for most fresher manual testing roles. Basic SQL helps, because testers often check data in the database, and some coding becomes important if you move into automation testing.

The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) is the starting certification in ISTQB’s scheme, which has issued more than 1.1 million certifications in over 130 countries (ISTQB, May 2025). It is not required for a fresher job, but its syllabus is a good, structured way to learn the terms interviewers use.