Introduction:

Due to global waves of digital transformation, mobile usage is expanding faster than ever before. The majority of software products have an equal mobile app version to meet the ever-increasing customer demands. Businesses are compelled to devote more attention to mobile testing due to the rapid growth of mobile applications.

With the mobile sector experiencing such rapid growth, there are numerous exciting job prospects. This list of questions will help set the stage and get you in the right frame of mind for those candidates getting ready to answer questions about mobile testing during QA job interviews.

Mobile Testing Interview Questions:

Q. Differentiate between mobile application testing and mobile device testing. Why is mobile application testing crucial for businesses today?

Ans. Mobile Device Testing: Mobile device testing is often done to make sure the mobile device itself is of high quality. Hardware and software testing are included in the process. Typically, these tests are carried out to check the functionality of the mobile device as a whole and to test capabilities like call, SMS, memory, camera, media player, built-in browsers, etc.

Mobile application testing: In order to remain viable in the market today, applications must go through the entire testing process. To ensure the highest level of quality for end users, performance, security, user interface, and other components of the programme are also examined (tested). Functional, performance, usability, security, load, and other sorts of testing fall under this category. Then, you can determine whether the intended application is of a high standard, whether it is compatible with the device, whether it has the necessary hardware, software, and network connections, etc.

Every stage of the software development process must include testing. Mobile applications are no exception, as the increase in mobile devices leads to significant fragmentation of operating systems, screen sizes, and other factors. Because of this, QA teams make great efforts to ensure that users have a seamless experience across all mobile devices without any bugs or difficulties. The product team can improve the mobile application’s ratings and user satisfaction, which will result in important recommendations for additional downloads.

Q. What variety of mobile applications are there? Describe them.

Ans. Three categories of mobile applications exist:

Native Application: A software program created in a particular programming language specifically for the iOS or Android mobile platform is referred to as a native application. It is available in the app store (App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android) and is simple to install on your devices. Examples include Facebook and WhatsApp.
Web application: With the use of a mobile network or WiFi, a web application can be executed inside a mobile web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari. Web apps like m.facebook.com, m.gmail.com, etc. are just a few examples.
Hybrid application: A hybrid application combines features from both native and web applications. It is a web app created using HTML, CSS, or JavaScript that runs in a web view, despite the fact that it may be installed on a device much like a native app.

Q. What kinds of mobile testing should the Android testing plan include?

Ans. Subject to the functionality offered by the mobile application being tested, a typical Android strategy may comprise these testing types: unit testing, integration testing, system testing and usability testing. Depending on the features of the application, additional tests may also be carried out if necessary.

Unit Testing: The initial stage of software testing, known as unit testing, is used to determine whether or not software units are meeting the specified requirements. Analyzing each unit or individual element of the software application constitutes the initial stage of testing. Functional testing’s foundational stage is also known as unit testing. Executing unit testing is mostly done to confirm the functionality of the unit components. A unit component is a single operation or rule of the application or the smallest tested component of the software. Testing the correctness of code that is inaccessible is the purpose of unit testing.
Integration Testing: Integration testing is the second stage of software testing. Unit testing is followed by integration testing. It is mostly used to test how data moves between modules or components. In integration testing, the test engineer performs group testing on the software’s individual modules, components, or units. Integrity testing is mostly used to find flaws in how integrated units or components interact with one another. Integration testing is the practice of examining the data flow between dependent modules after each component or module has been tested independently. Only when each application module has successfully undergone functional testing, we move on to integration testing.
System Testing: System testing, which is used to assess the product’s functional and non-functional requirements, is the third level of software testing. When the testing environment is identical to the production environment, it is called end-to-end testing. We shall test the application as an entire system at the third level of software testing. System testing is the process of examining an application’s or piece of software’s overall usability. In system testing, we will go over each and every one of an application’s required modules to see if the final features or final business function as intended. The product will also be tested as a whole system.
Usability Testing: This examines an app’s user-friendliness and is also referred to as user experience testing. It evaluates usability and intuitiveness with the goal of offering a seamless user experience free of glitches and anomalies. It is best to do usability testing with real users on real devices because an app’s success depends on how appealing its end-to-end user experience is. The target audience’s preferences can best be understood in this way. On the other hand, one can have knowledgeable testers execute user scenarios that replicate the actions of actual end users.

Q. What are simulators and emulators?

Ans. Simulators and emulators are virtual devices that don’t actually exist yet function just like real smartphones. Emulators allow the testing of mobile applications by simulating their OS, hardware, and software. Instead of the hardware/OS, a device’s fundamental behaviour is replicated in a simulator. The software simulates the features of a real phone in a virtual phone (apart from a few other functions like the camera).

Simulators: Simulators are virtual testing programs created for various operating systems with a specific goal in mind. Although they are not like Android smartphones, which are simple to replicate, they are essentially designed for iOS devices (iPhone and iPad). The iOS simulator controls the computer’s operating system to mimic the iOS and execute the necessary application within the environment.

Moreover, iOS simulators only function on macOS since they require Apple’s native Cocoa API (a library of frameworks to handle GUI, runtime, and other operations). Testers must therefore run either a MacBook or a virtualized version of macOS on their computers. Moreover, several capabilities (battery state, motion sensor, and cellular interrupts) cannot be evaluated with these emulators because they cannot imitate hardware.

Emulators: Emulators are computer testing programmes that simulate the hardware and software setup of a mobile device or another computer. It operates using an ISA (Instruction Set Architecture), which is composed in a language the processor can understand. During the process of binary translation, the emulator replicates the target (mobile device) processor by converting its ISA into the one utilised by the system. This facilitates the computer’s ability to build a trustworthy virtual testing environment.

Q. What method is employed to evaluate a new mobile application? Which test types need to be included?

Ans. To ensure the successful operation of a new mobile application, a thorough test strategy should be designed based on specified criteria. The following are some of the key points:

Choosing the devices — Before selecting a collection of testing equipment, it is strongly advised to understand market demand and regularly utilised devices. (This choice could depend on the stakeholders’ or the app makers’ consideration).
Using emulators — Since they enable speedy app testing, emulators are helpful, especially in the early stages of development. It is a system that allows the software to be operated in different environments without requiring the software to be changed. Also, it operates on the actual system and mimics the functionalities.
Testing types: Several different testing types should be used while evaluating a new mobile application to make sure it performs as expected. The following methods of testing are therefore all connected to the strategy:
Functional testing
System integration testing
Installation and uninstallation of the application
HTML control testing
Performance testing
Testing multiple mobile OS
Cross-browser and cross-device testing
Gateway testing
Network and battery testing

Q. What is included in a mobile app automated test plan?

Ans. A strategy created for automated mobile application testing should include the following, similar to the plan for other applications being tested:

Testing goal and scope
Chosen automation tool
Necessary features to be tested:
Performance
Security
Network
Size
Battery memory
Test cases
Test strategy
Person responsible
Time frame
Necessary resources

Q. Which critical networks should be taken into account when testing applications?

Ans. Testing of performance applications should include all possible outcomes on all available networks, including 4G, 3G, 2G, and WiFi. Even though 2G is a slower network, it is preferable to test on a slower network to monitor the performance of the application.

Q. Describe the process of A/B testing for the iOS app.

Ans. A/B testing, sometimes referred to as split testing or bucket testing, is a technique for contrasting two versions of a website or app to see which performs better. Three steps can be followed to do A/B testing for iOS:

Step 1: Creating a test that produces two versions of your ios app (A&B) with the necessary test metrics is the first step.

Step 2: Concurrently test each of the aforementioned iOS versions on devices.

Step 3: Assessing test findings to determine which version will be the best one to release.

Q. While working on mobile test projects, when should a QA team opt for manual testing versus automation testing?

Ans. In recent years, automation testing has significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of testers. To find bugs, problems, abnormalities, and the like, testers manually go through various functionalities of a website or app during manual testing. In automated testing, frameworks and test scripts are set up by testers to automate user actions necessary for an app or website testing. The first step to optimising your team’s efficiency is realising when to switch from manual testing to automated testing. The following constitute a few of the crucial details:

Manual Testing

The app has new features.
The app requires several tests.
User acceptance is to be checked.

Automate Testing:

Regression testing must be extensively conducted during the release cycle.
Complex scenarios are needed for the testing application.
A faster turnaround time is required.
Large-scale testing is to be done.

Q. Mention the most typical issues encountered by testers when performing mobile testing on cloud computing.

Ans. For both novice and experienced testers, doing mobile testing in cloud computing presents a number of difficulties.

Subscription Model: Even if cloud solutions provide certain benefits for testers, the subscription model continues to be a source of worry.
High prices: Although cloud services have been promoted as cost-saving alternatives, they may end up being more expensive. The difficulty may stem from the high cost of the necessary talent or the transition to the team’s project for mobile testing.
Mobile automated testing challenges: For some projects utilising automated testing, cloud computing may present a challenge for all engaged testers. Running test cases on Cloud computing would prove more difficult and more consuming as mobile automation testing is image-based. Moreover, automation testing is not applicable outside of the framework.

Q. What are the most important things to keep in mind when utilising the Black Box testing method to test apps?

Ans. The software testing that assesses an application’s functioning without peeking at its elements is known as “black-box” testing. Practically every level of software testing, including unit, integration, system, and acceptance testing, may be conducted using this test methodology. Certain points to remember for Black Box testing:

The application’s multi-device compatibility
Appropriate connection and disconnecting of the device during IP or port address changes
Having the ability to call and message other devices
Compatibility with a variety of browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.)

Q. What is an Android testing framework?

Ans. The Android testing framework is one of the most widely used testing frameworks for Android applications. There are three parts to it:

Application Package: The application that needs to be tested is the target application.
Instrumentation Test Runner: By acting as a Test Case Runner, this component of the framework enables test cases to be executed on the intended application. There are two components to it: an SDK tool for creating tests and a tool with APIs for creating programs that operate an Android device or an emulator without using Android code (i.e., MonkeyRunner)
Test Package: Test case classes and Mock objects make up its two parts. Mock objects include mock data used as example input for test cases, whereas test case classes include test methods to execute the on-target application.

Q. What is a Robolectric testing framework?

Ans. It can be difficult to test using an actual device or an emulator while using the Android Testing framework. Building and executing tests requires a lot of team time and effort in development. And to solve this problem, the Robolectric testing framework is being investigated. Without the requirement for a device or an emulator, the Robolectric framework enables testers to perform Android tests directly on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

This framework supports testing JVM-based Android applications using the JUnit4 framework.
Android API is utilised.
This facilitates the creation of test cases and their execution on the JVM.
All classes are replaced under this by what is referred to as shadow objects.
Robo-electric internally makes the call to the shadow object whenever a method is implemented.
If a method is implemented by a shadow object, a value is returned based on the implementation. NULL is returned if not.
Execution speeds up as a result of shadow objects and JVM.

Conclusion:

Regarding the variety of products and topics covered, mobile testing interview questions are virtually limitless. Although the aforementioned responses might not be fully utilised in your interview, we hope that they will still help you land a job and advance personally during your mobile testing journey.

Top 13 Mobile Testing Interview Questions and Answers