Top 10 QA Interview Questions for Beginners (With Sample Answers)

Technical interviews for QA roles in 2026 are designed to test three things: your logic, your testing intuition, and your technical depth. Hiring managers aren't just looking for someone who has memorised definitions; they want to see how you *think*. Here are the top 10 questions we prepare our students for at QAi Talks, covering both manual foundations and basic automation concepts, along with the "practitioner perspectives" that will help you stand out.

Manual Testing & Strategy

1. What is the difference between Severity and Priority, and how do they interact?
Sample Answer: Severity refers to the technical impact of a bug on the system (e.g., a system crash is High Severity). Priority refers to the business impact and how quickly the bug needs to be fixed (e.g., a typo on the homepage during a massive sale is High Priority, even if it's Low Severity technically).
Practitioner Tip: Explain a "High Severity, Low Priority" bug—like a crash in a legacy feature that no one uses—to show you understand business context. This demonstrates that you aren't just a tester, but a partner to the product team.

2. What is Regression Testing, and when is it most critical?
Sample Answer: It is the process of testing existing functionality to ensure that new code changes haven't introduced any bugs. It's most critical after a major feature release or a bug fix that touches core system logic.
Practitioner Tip: Mention the "Regression Suite" and the importance of automating these tests to save time for exploratory testing. This shows you understand the balance between human effort and automation scale.

3. How do you handle a bug that you cannot reproduce?
Sample Answer: First, I document the exact steps I took. I check the environment, the browser version, and the user data. I also check the server logs (using DevTools or Loggly) for any silent errors. If it still can't be reproduced, I discuss it with the developer and the Product Owner to assess the risk.
Practitioner Tip: Emphasise "collaboration" over "blame." Mention that you might record your screen or use a tool like BrowserStack to test on different configurations. This shows persistence and a technical approach to debugging.

4. Explain the "Test Pyramid" and why it matters in a modern DevOps environment.
Sample Answer: The Test Pyramid is a strategy that suggests having a large number of unit tests at the bottom, fewer API tests in the middle, and even fewer UI tests at the top. This is because unit and API tests are faster and more reliable than UI tests.
Practitioner Tip: Explain that relying too heavily on UI automation (the "Ice Cream Cone" anti-pattern) leads to slow build times and flaky results. This shows you have architectural awareness, not just "scripting" skills.

5. What is "Boundary Value Analysis" and "Equivalence Partitioning"?
Sample Answer: These are test design techniques. Equivalence Partitioning groups inputs into sets that should behave the same (e.g., all valid age inputs). Boundary Value Analysis tests the edges of those sets (e.g., 18, 19, 64, 65).
Practitioner Tip: Give a real-world example, like a credit card expiry date or a voucher code discount percentage. This demonstrates that you can apply abstract concepts to practical scenarios.

Automation & Technical Concepts

6. What is the Page Object Model (POM), and what problem does it solve?
Sample Answer: POM is a design pattern that separates the UI elements (locators) from the test logic. For every page in the app, we create a Java class. This solves the problem of "code duplication" and "brittle tests."
Practitioner Tip: Explain that if a developer changes a button's ID, you only update it in one class rather than in 50 different test scripts. This shows you care about "maintainability" and "clean code"—key traits of a professional engineer.

7. Explain the difference between Implicit, Explicit, and Fluent waits in Selenium.
Sample Answer: Implicit wait is a global timeout. Explicit wait is surgical, waiting for a specific condition on a specific element. Fluent wait is an extension of Explicit that allows for custom polling intervals and ignoring specific exceptions.
Practitioner Tip: State clearly that you avoid "Thread.sleep()" at all costs because it makes tests slow and unreliable. This is a common "trick" question to see if you understand the core mechanics of browser synchronization.

8. What is a "Wait Strategy," and how do you handle "Flakiness" in automation?
Sample Answer: A wait strategy is how we handle asynchronous elements. Flakiness is often caused by race conditions between the test script and the browser. We handle this with proper Explicit waits and ensuring our test data is independent.
Practitioner Tip: Mention that you investigate flaky tests by looking at screenshots or video recordings of the failure. This shows you have a systematic approach to fixing "brittle" automation suites.

9. What is TestNG, and why do we use its Annotations?
Sample Answer: TestNG is a testing framework for Java. We use its annotations (like @Test, @BeforeMethod, @AfterMethod) to manage the flow of our tests and group them (e.g., 'Smoke' vs 'Regression').
Practitioner Tip: Mention "Data-Driven Testing" using the @DataProvider annotation. This shows you know how to run one test with multiple datasets—a key requirement for enterprise-level automation.

10. How do you handle dynamic elements (elements with changing IDs) in Selenium?
Sample Answer: I use robust XPath strategies like contains(), starts-with(), or navigating via parent/sibling relationships. I avoid using auto-generated, long, brittle XPaths from browser tools.
Practitioner Tip: Explain that you might talk to the developer to add a dedicated "data-testid" attribute to the element. This shows you are a proactive communicator who understands how to make an application more "testable."

Soft Skills & Practitioner Perspectives

Recruiters often ask "Why do you want to be a QA Engineer?". Avoid clichéd answers like "I like to break things." Instead, say: "I am passionate about building resilient systems and ensuring a high-quality user experience. I enjoy the challenge of bridging the gap between product vision and technical reality. I see myself as a quality partner who helps the team ship better code, faster."

"In a technical interview, your thought process and your ability to explain *why* you made a choice are often more important than whether you remember the exact syntax of a command."

Conclusion: Building Confidence

At QAi Talks, we don't just give you a list of questions to memorise. We conduct structured mock interviews at the end of every module. We focus on building your "technical confidence" so you can walk into any interview and explain your architectural choices with authority. Remember, the goal isn't just to get the job—it's to be ready to excel in the role from day one. Good luck!