Test Strategy - Interview Questions for experienced

1. How do you approach creating a test strategy for a new project?

Answer: Will start by understanding the business goals, technical architecture, and delivery timelines. Also identifies the scope, risks, testing levels (unit, integration, system, UAT), environments, tools, and team roles. The strategy includes test objectives, types of testing, entry/exit criteria, automation scope, defect management, and communication plans.

2. What are the key components of a good test strategy document?

Answer: Key components include:

• Project overview

• Scope and objectives

• Testing types and levels

• Test environments

• Test data strategy

• Automation approach

• Risk management

• Roles and responsibilities

• Communication and reporting plan

• Entry and exit criteria

3. How do you determine what to automate in your testing strategy?

Answer: Need to focus on high-risk, frequently executed, and stable test cases for automation. This includes smoke tests, regression suites, and API-level checks. Also, need to avoid automating areas under constant change or those requiring heavy UI interaction with complex validations.

4. How do you ensure your test strategy aligns with agile development?

Answer: collaborating early with developers and product owners, including testing tasks in each sprint, and focusing on continuous integration and early feedback. The strategy is lightweight, adaptable, and automation-focused, with a strong emphasis on unit and integration testing.

5. How do you handle testing in a CI/CD pipeline as part of your strategy?

Answer: I integrate automated tests at various stages of the CI/CD pipeline: unit tests during builds, integration and smoke tests post-deployment in a test environment, and regression before production deployment. Fast feedback, fail-fast principles, and test stability are critical.

6. How do you manage risk in your test strategy?

Answer: I identify risk areas based on business impact, code complexity, and past defect history. I prioritize testing in those areas and involve exploratory testing, risk-based test design, and additional validations. I also ensure proper logging and monitoring post-deployment.

7. How do you deal with third-party integrations in your test strategy?

Answer: I assess the stability and reliability of third-party systems, create mocks/stubs for unstable or unavailable ones, and verify integration points through contract/API testing. I also plan for negative scenarios and monitor the behavior during end-to-end testing.

8. What’s the difference between a Test Plan and a Test Strategy?

Answer: A Test Strategy is a high-level, organization-wide document outlining general approaches to testing. A Test Plan is project-specific and details how testing will be carried out for that project, based on the broader strategy.

9. How do you include performance testing in your test strategy?

Answer: I identify performance-critical scenarios, such as high-traffic pages or APIs, and plan load, stress, and endurance testing. I define tools, KPIs (e.g., response time, throughput), and integrate tests in pre-production environments to validate performance under load.

10. How do you handle test data in your test strategy?

Answer: I define a test data management plan early, identifying data needs for each environment and test type. I use anonymized production data when possible, generate synthetic data for edge cases, and ensure data reusability, consistency, and cleanup mechanisms.