ISTQB Advanced Level Software Test Analyst Mock Exam

Which of the following statements is TRUE with respect to when the test analyst should become involved during different lifecycle models?  (K2) Explain how and why the timing and level of involvement for the Test Analyst varies when working with different lifecycle models.

Which of the following is a type of testing that someone in the role of a Test Analyst, working with the Test Manager, should typically consider and plan for? (K2) Summarize the activities performed by the Test Analyst in support of planning and controlling the testing.

A project has been initiated to collect and analyze usage of a web-based search tool in order to optimize search results for particular groups of users. The project will build on initial analysis of user data collected over a period of time and will aim to refine the collection and analysis ‘engines’ so that relevant data can be collected and analyzed in real time, enabling users to focus their search more effectively.

The project will use agile techniques in an iterative/incremental life cycle. Requirements are based on user stories and these will be explored during short ‘sprints’. The sprints will be grouped to focus on data collection for the first part of the project and analysis for the second part. Risks include the inability to analyze the volume of data collected, inability to collect data for the desired analysis, inadequate speed and response times, and poor user interface. The testing for the first part has been scoped and requirements have been documented and reviewed with no major concerns arising.

Which one of the following answers describes the most appropriate and complete sequence of activities for the TA to focus on during test analysis and design?

(K4) Analyze a given scenario, including a project description and lifecycle model, to determine the appropriate tasks for the Test Analyst during the analysis and design phases.

Which one of the following statements does NOT give a good reason why test cases should be reviewed and understood by stakeholders? (K2) Explain why test cases should be understood by the stakeholders.

Scenario: Health Insurance

The IT department of insurance company SecureLife has started a project IQ (Improved Quality) to implement a new health insurance application to make it possible to create online transactions for health insurance claims raised by employees and members of companies or associations having health insurance agreements. In the new application it will be possible to make registration of all the information about the employees, their age, health conditions, etc. The project also has to fulfill the demands of the people doing insurance calculation, actuaries and the demands from public legislation.

The project team for IQ have testers who are business users with lots of domain knowledge but without much formal test training.
At the same time another project, HIPPOS (Health Insurance Product Public Order Sales), has been started by the marketing department of SecureLife with the purpose of launching a new Internet application that will allow potential buyers of health insurance to use a small calculator to calculate insurance premiums and possible bonus deductions based on age and different health parameters.

This application will also allow individual customers to order Health Insurance Products online.
The marketing tool and web page of project HIPPO will be developed and tested by SecureLife’s Agile development team, which has worked together for the last three years with the marketing department, developing marketing web applications. The Agile team consists of well trained testers and developers. They have implemented test automation for configuration and regression testing and they have as part of their retrospectives built check lists of common defects and common security problems.

As senior test analyst in SecureLife you have been asked to give input to the test strategy for the two projects, IQ and HIPPOS, regarding the level of detail and documentation required for test cases in the two projects.

Which TWO of the following are the BEST options for this strategy? 

(K4) Analyze a project scenario to determine the most appropriate use for low level (concrete) and high level (logical) test cases

Consider the following exit criterion: “All test cases must be reviewed and approved by representatives from the development and test team.”

The project team has determined that this exit criterion is critical for keeping the project on schedule.

This exit criterion is from which test activity? How will meeting this criterion help keep the project on schedule?

(K2) Describe the typical exit criteria for test analysis and test design and explain how meeting those criteria affect the test implementation effort.

You are analyzing the test log below to determine what actions, if any, are required:

On further investigation test step 2 was resolved as a typographical error in the log; the actual result was ‘Error 202’ as expected.
Which option represents the appropriate action to take next?

Which one of the following statements best expresses why accurate test case execution status information is important? (K2) Explain why accurate test case execution status information is important

Which of the following is a typical work product that the Test Analyst would deliver as part of the test closure activities? (K2) Provide examples of work products that should be delivered by the Test Analyst during test closure activities

Which of the following statements best expresses the types of information that must be tracked during testing to enable adequate monitoring and controlling of the testing project. (K2) Explain the types of information that must be tracked during testing to enable adequate monitoring and controlling of the project.

According to the syllabus, which of the following would be the MOST effective method of communication between test team members who are distributed across several time zones? (K2) Provide examples of good communication practices when working in a 24-hour testing environment

A project to develop a foreign exchange Automated Telling Machine for an airport has been planned and a risk assessment has shown that there are 3 key risks:

1. There is a risk that usability will be a problem for visually impaired users because the operation requires viewing several screens in sequence with relatively small text. This has been assessed as medium likelihood with high impact.

2. There is a risk that response will be relatively slow because the foreign exchange rates will be checked before each transaction; this has been assessed as medium likelihood with medium impact.

3. There is a risk that accuracy of calculations could lead to cumulative errors. This has been assessed as low likelihood with high impact. The test strategy currently requires performance testing during system test, usability testing during User Acceptance Test and accuracy tests at every test level. The project schedule is under time pressure.

Which of the following possible risk mitigation actions should be prioritized highest?

(K3) For a given project situation, participate in risk identification, perform risk assessment and propose appropriate risk mitigation

Which of the following statements about cause-effect graphing is NOT true? (K2) Explain the use of cause-effects graphs.

A company has set up an employee wellness program and combined it with the premium for health insurance:

The full standard premium for a health insurance policy is $400.

The program have the following rules:

1) Employees who make a pledge — on the honor system — that they don’t smoke, or that they take a stop-smoking class, and have a BMI below 30, get 10% off their contribution toward the full standard insurance premium.

2) Employees who fill in a “health risk assessment” with more health details will be rewarded with a $25 reduction in premium.

3) Employees who participate in a yearly health control at the company a) receive a $50 reduction in their premium for having a BMI of 27.5 or less, and a $25 reduction for having a BMI below 30. And b) if they are non-smokers, they receive an additional $50 reduction in their premium, and those that have joined a stop-smoking class receive a $25 reduction. mokers pay an additional premium of $75.

How many test cases are needed to achieve 100% test coverage of equivalence partitions of the input parameters, when testing this specification by applying the equivalence partitioning test design technique and what will be the maximum and minimum resulting premium?

(K3) Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the equivalence partitioning test design technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.

The participants in a yearly health check for employees are required to answer questions about smoking: Whether they are non-smokers, have started a stop-smoking class, or are smokers. This is a distractor that is probably too strong, suggest delete.

Their BMI (Body mass index) is measured in the following categories: 18.9 or less is underweight, 19 to 24.9 (inclusive) is normal, from 25 to 29.9 (inclusive) is overweight, and 30 or more is heavy overweight.

Their blood pressure is measured in categories from optimal to severely high. For simplicity in this example, only the high blood pressure (systolic) will be considered: Everything under 120 is optimal, up till 129 (inclusive) is normal, from 130 to 159 (inclusive) is medium high, and from 160 up till 179 (inclusive) is high and everything over that is severely high.

How many test cases are need to achieve 75% test coverage when testing this specification by applying the boundary value analysis test design technique using 2 values per boundary and testing BMI and blood pressure only with positive integer values. Each test case has both BMI and blood measures as data values.

Also what about extreme boundaries (this are not taken into account), if not say so explicitly.

(K3) Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the boundary value analysis test design technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.

The insurance company GoodHealth has launched a new health insurance product – for all customers both new and existing – with the following specification:

Standard premium fee is 500€.

A bonus program offers customers buying the health insurance product with a 25€ discount to the standard premium fee to accept participating in the medical tests even if they are not participating.

The customers get a 25€ discount to the standard premium for everyone of four medical tests (BMI, blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol) that they take as part of the yearly medical test plus an extra 75€ if they take all the tests.

How many test cases are needed when using a collapsed decision table? How many test cases are needed when using a non-collapsed decision table but with the limitation to test customers who do not accept to participate in any medical tests, only with one test case?

Choose TWO options

(K3) Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the decision table test design technique to achieve a defined level of coverage

When an employee requests payment of a claim from his/her health insurance, this request follows the sequences of states shown in the diagram from being requested until it is closed and removed. If information is missing or changed, the claim may be moved back to an earlier state to prevent payment. There are the following restrictions: If a claim in the state Accepted has been Closed it can only be restored to the same state Accepted. If a claim in state Activated has been Closed it can only be restored to state Activated.

Starting from Activated: what is the number of 0-switch transitions and what is the number of allowed 1-switch?

Choose TWO options

(K3) Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the state transition test design technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.

A company offering house insurance policies has several policy options. They depend on the following factors:

– Building type: house, semi-detached, apartment building, cottage

– Material: wood, concrete, brick, mixed

– Location: city, suburb, countryside, wilderness

You are testing the system and using the pairwise technique for creating test cases.

Using the pairwise technique, how many test cases are required to achieve 2-wise coverage?

Easytravel is a card which is used for paying journeys on buses and undergrounds. The user can store credit to the card at the Easytravel Loading Machines and the system automatically deducts the fee of the journey while the user shows the card to the card reader on a bus or at the underground station.

The system allows the user to load 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 Euros or another, user-defined amount to the card. There are four payment methods available: cash, credit card, debit card or pay-by-phone. After the transaction, the system allows the user to view or print the balance on a receipt.

Using the Classification Tree method, what is the minimum number of test cases for 100 % 1-wise coverage?

(K3) Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the classification tree test design technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.

Easytravel is a card which is used for paying for journeys on buses and undergrounds. The user can store credit to the card at the Easytravel Loading Machines and the system automatically deducts the fee for the journey while the user shows the card to the card reader on a bus or at the underground station.

You are working on an Easytravel system maintenance project and the following use case has been given to you for review.

Use Case: ADD TO EASY TRAVEL BALANCE FROM CREDIT CARD
Use case ID: UC-201201
Purpose: The user is increasing the balance on their Easytravel card.
Actors: user, system
Pre-conditions: The user has a valid Easytravel card and a credit card.

Main scenario:

Exceptions:

End result: The user’s Easytravel card balance has been increased with the selected amount and the equal amount has been charged to the credit card.

How many test cases are required to achieve the minimum coverage for this use case?

Airliners are classified according to a number of factors affecting air traffic control procedures and airport handling procedures. A recent change to the classification scheme has been introduced to reflect the increasing size of airliners. An air traffic control system has been modified to recognize a change in two factors: weight and passenger capacity as a number of passengers.

The new class includes all airliners with an unladen weight between 4700kg and 9500kg, and with a passenger capacity between 350 and 550.

Which option below correctly provides an adequate test for this new class of airliners using domain
analysis?

(K3) Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the domain analysis test design technique to achieve a defined level of coverage

Answer Set:

A system is being specified for use by automotive dealers. The system will provide the ability to configure a vehicle’s optional characteristics (e.g. engine size, external trim, color), visualize the configured vehicle and generate the retail price of the vehicle. An existing system can provide a visual
model of any single configuration but it does not enable the user to modify the configuration in the same session. This system is being used as a  development prototype from which it is expected that the required functionality can be generated more quickly than working from scratch, and time scales have been adjusted for a rapid delivery.

Which TWO of the following test case design techniques would together give the best chance of achieving acceptable test coverage in the available time frame?

(K4) Analyze a system, or its requirement specification, in order to determine likely types of defects to be found and select the appropriate specification-based technique(s)

Which of the following describes typical characteristics of defect-based testing techniques? (K2) Describe the application of defect-based testing techniques and differentiate their use from specification-based techniques.

You have just joined a new software organization. They have a product that is in production but it has a large number of usability issues that have been recorded against it. This particular product is a data entry product that records information about new insurance customers. The primary users of the product are data entry operators who input up to 1,000 new entries each day. You have been asked to select a good user interface checklist that can be used to test this product.

Which TWO of the following are items that should be included in this checklist?

(K4) Analyze a given defect taxonomy for applicability in a given situation using criteria for a good taxonomy.

Which of the following statements BEST explains experience-based testing? (K2) Explain the principles of experience-based techniques, and the benefits and drawbacks compared to specification-based and defect-based techniques.

You are a Test Analyst on a new project. The requirements documents are on a very high level, containing little detail about the problem the software should address. As a result, your manager has decided that exploratory testing will be a primary test technique used for this project. You have been
given the task of specifying, executing and recording the test sessions.

Select THREE of the options below to define what you will need or will use for specifying, executing and recording the sessions.

(K3) For a given scenario, specify exploratory tests and explain how the results can be reported.

The marketing department of insurance company, SecureLife, has started a project called HIPPOS (Health Insurance Product Public Order Sales). The purpose of the project is to create a new Internet application where potential customers can calculate insurance premiums and bonuses based on age and different health factors.

The new application will also make it possible for individual customers to order health insurance products online.

The tool and web page created by project HIPPOS will be developed and tested by SecureLife’s Agile development team. The Agile development team has worked together for the last three years with the marketing department, developing web applications. The Agile team consists of well-trained testers and developers. They have implemented test automation for configuration and regression testing and they have built taxonomies of common defects and common security problems.

In Project HIPPOS the Product Owner from Marketing has presented the following requirements to the Agile team before the first release planning meeting

1. The Web health insurance calculator shall calculate according to the rules of calculation described by the actuary and insurance calculation business section

2. The user interface of the Web Health Insurance Order application shall follow the same standards as the other marketing web applications and use a predefined setup of page frames and dialogs having been used during the last two years

3. The Web applications shall support the latest 3 versions of each of Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari

4. Security must be at the same level as for other marketing web applications

The Agile team has been asked to prepare a testing strategy. The Product Owner asks the team to present their proposal for the use of testing techniques at the release planning meeting. Which one of the following proposals best supports the given scenario?

(K4) For a given project situation, determine which specification-based, defect-based or experience-based techniques should be applied to achieve specific goals.

You are testing an application that handles credit card transactions. Because of the nature of the application, the demands for the quality of the system are high: the system shall work accurately and in compliance with the regulations regarding the applications dealing with credit cards. In addition, as there are many systems to which this application is connected to, the interaction between them is
critical and shall be flawless.

Which of the following techniques would be MOST appropriate when testing this application? Select THREE.

(K2) Explain by example what testing techniques are appropriate to test accuracy, suitability, interoperability and compliance characteristics.

Assume you work for a company that has developed a software component to help users securely and easily manage all the passwords they have defined for different websites.

This component is integrated into hundreds of websites, used by millions of people world-wide.

A new software version of the component is being developed. The main feature of this version is the integration with a specific operating system that does not currently support this component.

You are the test analyst responsible for creating the interoperability tests.

Which of the following defects would be considered OUT OF SCOPE for interoperability testing to detect?

(K2) For the accuracy, suitability and interoperability characteristics, define the typical defects to be targeted.

Assume you work for a company that has developed a software component to help users securely and easily manage all the passwords they have defined for different websites.

This component is integrated into hundreds of websites, used by millions of people world-wide. A new software version of the component is being developed. The main feature of this version is the integration with a specific operating system that does not currently support this component.

You are the test analyst responsible for creating the interoperability tests.

Which of the following statements correctly defines the level in the testing lifecycle in which the relevant test should first be performed? Choose TWO options.

(K2) For the accuracy, suitability and interoperability characteristics, define when the characteristic should be tested in the lifecycle.

Your company has already released a video game product to the market, but it received many complaints from the users regarding performance, usability, security and portability. You have been chartered with overseeing the usability testing for the next release of the game. So far, the user
interface looks much better and the response time is greatly improved. The product is stable and all the new features have been completed and summative testing has been completed.

Which of the following would be a reasonable next step?

(K4) For a given project context, outline the approaches that would be suitable to verify and validate both the implementation of the usability requirements and the fulfillment of the user’s expectations.

You are an experienced test analyst who has been assigned to a new project that is very important to your company.

Management has decided that the development model to be used will be the V-model. You have been given the task of participating in the review process for the project from beginning to end.

Which of the following statements describes how you prepare for each review in the project, and why it is important? Choose TWO options.

(K2) Explain why review preparation is important for the Test Analyst.

You are reviewing the following requirements specification document

The following is the checklist you are using for this review:

1. Is each requirement testable?
2. Does each requirement have acceptance criteria listed?
3. Is a use case calling structure available (if applicable)?
4. Are the requirements uniquely identified?
5. Is the specification versioned?
6. Is there traceability visible from each requirement to the business/marketing requirements?
7. Is there traceability between the requirements and the use cases?

You are reviewing the specification above with the provided checklist. Assume you have access to the document that provides more information about the screen layout. Which of the items on the checklist are NOT met by the specification?

How does phase containment contribute to reducing the cost of development? (K2) Explain how phase containment can reduce costs.

Which TWO of the following may more frequently need to be explained in greater detail for nonfunctional defect reports than for a functional defect report? (K2) Explain the information that may be needed when documenting a non-functional defect.

A project to build a control system for a national fire service is being conducted on a government contract which has strict deadlines and penalties will be incurred for late delivery. Acceptance criteria include limits on the number of outstanding defects of different levels of severity at the end of user acceptance. The system embodies a sophisticated user interface based on an innovative design that has not yet been deployed in any other system and which is critical to the effectiveness of the system. The project is using a waterfall life cycle but with incremental deliveries based on priorities of individual requirements. The project will make use of a defect classification system during development and the
tool in use will allow up to 3 separate classifications to be used.

Which of the following defect classifications will BEST meet the project’s needs? (K4) Identify, gather and record classification information for a given defect.

Why is root cause analysis important? (K2) Explain the purpose of root cause analysis.

Which of the following is a benefit of using a classification tree tool for test design? (K2) Explain the benefits of using test data preparation tools, test design tools and test execution tools.

In an organization using keyword-driven automation, which of the following activities typically is the responsibility of the Test Analyst? (K2) Explain the Test Analyst’s role in keyword-driven automation.

You are a Test Analyst on a project. You are running an automated test case and it has just failed. What should be your first step? (K2) ) Explain the steps for troubleshooting an automated test execution failure.