Developer Recruiting Guide: “QA-Engineer”
QA engineers are almost always organizationally embedded in software development and are responsible for ensuring that the software meets all quality requirements.
It is part of their job to test the software by using it (just like you do when you visit a website and click around) and writing programs to automate various tasks and tests for the system.
Some of these roles may require very little coding or scripting skills, others more - it really depends on the organization and the software being tested.
Regardless, thoroughness and great attention to detail is essential. QA engineers are responsible for both creating test plans and test cases (imagine a big list of everything you need to test to make sure everything always works), and implementing those plans.
This role usually involves a lot of coordination effort with developers, designers, and product managers to verify functionality. Therefore, QA specialists should be good team players with good writing and communication skills.
To recruit for this role, we have prepared three appropriate interview questions:
How do you design a test plan?
A good candidate will be able to put forward a well thought out plan. Then ask about the components of a good test plan. Feature definition and individual test cases are typical, but some test plans may include variants for different operating systems, different browsers, or diverse data samples.
Give an example of a major bug you found?
Dive deeper into the example. Was the bug on the test plan? What made the bug so large or out of the ordinary? Was it fixed in a timely manner?
What are regression tests?
When bugs are fixed in software, the changes can have unintended consequences, including new bugs. Regression testing ensures that new problems did not result from a change. Ask for an example of a regression and the conditions under which the candidate found it.
