TOP 15 Questions and answers to automation testing interview

There are the fundamental questions of test automation as well as specialized questions for mid- to professional applicants with a career of between 1 and 5 years.

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Test automation is critical in the product lifecycle. When we try to train for an automation research interview, we usually just concentrate on tool-specific issues.

However, we should also consider the fact that learning and knowing the tool is just a mean and it’s not the ultimate goal, there is some real-life-experiance question that i have mostly heard on tech interviews, Enjoy!

1. What is Automation?

Automation refers to any operation that reduces the need for human labor.

2)What is Automation testing?

Automation testing is the process of executing testing tasks such as entering data, conducting test steps, comparing results, and so on using specific software tools or scripts.

3) What can you automate?

You can Automate almost every qa task or test

• Regression tests
• Smoke tests
• Test data creation or improving
• CI/CD processes
• API’s/Code Units/Methods.
• Automating some functional or visual side of web/desktop/mobile app

4) When is Automation testing useful?

Automated testing is suitable for routine tasks that are performed regularly throughout the application. If you discover that the same functions are continuously being added or the same processes are being performed regularly, the simplicity of automated tests can be a perfect time-saving option.

For example you can use Automation testing in: Regression testing, Non-functional Testing, Sides in untraceable software, Complex logic or math tasks, Repeated execution of same test cases

5) Can you achieve 100% automation? (very popular one :) )

The same way as there is no feasible way to reach 100 percent test coverage (due to the infinite potential permutations), the same is true for test automation. We can boost test coverage by running automated testing with more details, more settings, and a wider range of operating systems and browsers, but reaching 100% is still an unattainable target. Where it comes to automated testing, further checks do not always imply higher accuracy or trust. It all comes down to how well a test is constructed. Rather than looking for total coverage, concentrate on the most significant area of functionality that is vital to the enterprise.

6) How to choose the right tool for Automation testing in this projects?

Thats the order to identify the tool for Automation testing in your project:

1. Understand the project’s specifications completely, and then describe the research conditions you intend to automate.
2. Look for a list of resources that match the criteria of your project.
3. Determine your automation platform budget. Choose resources that are within the budget.
4. Determine if you already have professional personnel for the tools. If you don’t have the requisite qualified staff, find out how much it would cost to train current resources or recruit new ones.
5. Now, compare each method based on core parameters such as:

• How easy is it to develop and maintain the scripts for the tool?
• How many languages does the tool support?
• See some Tech Forums for Cons/Prons (Stackoverflow as always gonna help you)
• Can a non-technical person also execute the test cases with little training?
• Does the tool support different types of platforms like web, mobile, desktop, etc based on your project requirements?
• Does the tool have a test reporting functionality? If not, is it easily configurable for the tool?
• How is the tool for cross-browser support for web-based applications?
• How many different testing types can this tool support?

6. Once you have compared the tools, select the tool which is within your budget and support your project requirements, and gives you more advantages based on the key criteria mentioned above.

7. I don’t actually have any automation in place in my project, but I’d like to introduce it; what should I do? (Predominantly on Freelancing).

• To begin, decide what kind of testing/test cases you want to automate.
• Determine the instrument
• Pick a programming language.
• Determine and work on reporting.
• Create the structure
• Make utility and atmosphere folders.
• Setting aside time to improve and maintain the scripts.

The steps taken to implement Automation Testing for a project are as follows (everyone should realize this, not just job seekers but also employers):

• Understand the benefits and drawbacks of automation training and find research cases that are amenable to automation.
• Choose the right automation method for automating the listed scenarios.
• Find a tool specialist to assist you in configuring the tool and the appropriate environment for conducting the test cases using the tool.
• Train the team to write scripts in the programming language provided by the tool.
• Create a test system from scratch or find an established one that fits your needs.
• Create an implementation schedule for the operating system, browsers, handheld devices, and so on.
• Create programming scripts to translate manual test cases into automatic test cases.
• Using the tool’s monitoring functionality, monitor the status of the test cases.
• Keep the scripts updated with any updates or new functionality.

8) Once you identify the tool what would be your next steps?

After we’ve identified the method, we’ll need to plan the system and all of the requirements, such as: testing environment setup, test framework design and configuration, setting up all programming language requirements, and deciding on the coding pattern to use.

After this question mostly you can get:

9) What is a framework?

A framework is a collection of the general structure of the automation package. It is also a guideline/documentation that, if followed, will result in an easy-to-maintain framework and boost the code structure and automation process in general.

10) What are the attributes of a good framework?

Logger, Reusable, Modular, Integration, Reporting, Consistent and Independent are some of the attributes of a good framework. If, on one side, it should be adaptable to change, then, on the other side, it should automatically fit itself to the code.

11) What are the different types of the Automation tool that you are aware of?

Open source tool like : Selenium, Appium, Cucumber, JMeter, SoapUI etc….

Paid tools like : Katalon Studio,QTP, Load Runner, Ranorex, RFT, and Rational Robot etc….

12) What are the various kinds of frameworks?

There are 5 general types of frameworks:

• Modular Testing framework
• Hybrid Framework
• Linear Scripting
• Keyword-driven framework
• Data-Driven framework

13) Can you tell some good coding practices while automation?

I already wrote Top 10 Best Practices for Test Automation (Java) Selenium you can use as an usefull answer for this question :)

14) Explain some Automation testing tools.

The most popular testing tools:

Selenium: Selenium is a test framework for web application automation testing. it is an open-source set of libraries which can be used to develop additional test frameworks or test scripts for testing web-based applications, It supports multiple browsers and is OS independent. Selenium also supports various programming languages like Java, C#, PHP, Ruby, and Perl, etc.

Appium: Appium is an open-source mobile application testing tool. It is used to automate testing on cross-platform, native, hybrid and web-based mobile applications. Appium automates any mobile application from any language with full access to APIs and DBs from the test code.

Cucumber: Cucumber is an open-source behavior-driven development tool. It is used for web-based application automation testing and supports languages like ruby, java, scala, groovy, etc. Cucumber reads executable specification written in plain text and tests the application under test for those specifications.

TestComplete: TestComplete is a licensed automated UI testing tool to test the application across different platforms like desktops, web, mobile, etc. It provides flexibility to record a test case on one browser and run it on multiple browsers and thus supports cross browsers testing, TestComplete has inbuilt object recognition algorithm which uniquely identifies an object and stores it in the repository.

15) List some of the benefits and drawbacks of automation testing.

Benefits:

1. Faster Feedback
2. Reduced Business Expenses
3. Fewer human resources
4. Accelerated Results
5. Higher Overall Test Coverage
6. Reusability of Automated Tests
7. Earlier Detection of Defects
8. Parallel execution of test cases
9. Faster Time-to-Market
10. Thoroughness in Testing

Drawbacks:

1. Development and maintenance time is more.
2. Skilled resources are required.
3. Debugging the test script is major issue.
4. Maintenance of test data files is difficult, if the test script tests more screens.

In Conclusion:

These are the main questions that are independent of the automation tools or programming language. Automation testing interviews also includes tools, frameworks and programming language-specific questions depending upon the tool that you have experiance with, so if you are experianced in Java Automation be ready for Java Tech questions too!

Good luck with Interview! 🤘