ISTQB Questions for Foundation Level: Part 1

The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) is a software testing qualification certification organization that operates internationally. Their Foundation Level exam is of theoretical nature and requires knowledge in the field of software testing. We have listed out some sample ISTQB questions to help you with the certification. You can find the answers at the end of the exercise.

ISTQB Questions

ISTQB


1. Which of the following is a major task of test planning?
A. Scheduling test analysis and design tasks.
B. Initiating corrective actions.
C. Monitoring progress and test coverage.
D. Measuring and analyzing results.

2. Where may functional testing be performed?
A. At system and acceptance testing levels only.
B. At all test levels.
C. At all levels above integration testing.
D. At the acceptance testing level only.

3. Which of the following defines the expected results of a test?
A. Test case specification.
B. Test design specification.
C. Test procedure specification.
D. Test results.

4. Which of the following is correct?
A. Impact analysis assesses the effect on the system of a defect found in regression testing.
B. Impact analysis assesses the effect of a new person joining the regression test team.
C. Impact analysis assesses whether or not a defect found in regression testing has been fixed correctly.
D. Impact analysis assesses the effect of a change to the system to determine how much regression testing to do.

5. A thermometer measures temperature in whole degrees only. If the temperature falls below 18 degrees, the heating is switched off. It is switched on again when the temperature reaches 21 degrees. What are the best values in degrees to cover all equivalence partitions?
A. 15, 19 and 25.
B. 17, 18 and19.
C. 18, 20 and22.
D. 16, 26 and 32.

6. Which of the following is true?
A. Confirmation testing is testing fixes to a set of defects and Regression testing is testing to establish whether any defects have been introduced as a result of changes.
B. Confirmation testing is testing to establish whether any defects have been introduced as a result of changes and Regression testing is testing fixes to a set of defects.
C. Confirmation testing and Regression testing are both testing to establish whether any defects have been introduced as a result of changes.
D. Confirmation testing and Regression testing are both testing fixes to a set of defects.

7. What is the purpose of exit criteria?
A. To define when a test level is complete.
B. To determine when a test has completed.
C. To identify when a software system should be retired.
D. To determine whether a test has passed.

8. Which activities form part of test planning?
i) Developing test cases.
ii) Defining the overall approach to testing.
iii) Assigning resources.
iv) Building the test environment
v) Writing test conditions.
A. i, ii & iv are true, iii & v are false.
B. ii & iii are true, i, iv & v are false.
C. iv & v are true, i, ii & iii are false.
D. i, ii & iii are true iv & v are false.

9. Which of the following is most characteristic of specification based (black-box) techniques?
A. Test cases can be easily automated.
B. Test cases are independent of each other.
C. Test cases are derived systematically from models of the system.
D. Test cases are derived systematically from the delivered code.

10. A defect arrival rate curve:
A. Shows the number of newly discovered defects per unit time
B. Shows the number of open defects per unit time.
C. Shows the cumulative total number of defects found up to this time.
D. Any of these, depending on the company.

11. Reviews, static analysis and dynamic testing have the same objective
A. Identifying defects.
B. Fixing defects.
C. A. and B
D. None of the above

12. Which of the following is a benefit of test independence?
A. It does not require familiarity with the code.
B. It is cheaper than using developers to test their own code.
C. It avoids author bias in defining effective tests.
D. Testers are better at finding defects than developers.

13. Which type of test design techniques does the following statement best describe a procedure to derive test cases based on the specification of a component?
A. Black Box Techniques.
B. White Box Techniques.
C. Glass Box Techniques.
D. Experience Based Techniques.

14. Which of the following types of defects is use case testing most likely to uncover?
i) Defects in the process flows during real-world use of the system.
ii) Defects in the interface parameters in integration testing.
iii) Integration defects caused by the interaction and interference of different components.
iv) Defects in the system as it transitions between one state and another.
A. ii, iii.
B. i, iii.
C. iii, iv.
D. i, ii

15. For which of the following would a static analysis tool be most useful?
A. Supporting reviews.
B. Validating models of the software.
C. Testing code executed in a special test harness.
D. Enforcement of coding standards.

16. Which of the following is a purpose of the review planning phase?
A. Log defects.
B. Explain the documents to the participants.
C. Gather metrics.
D. Allocate the individual roles.

17. Measurement dysfunction is a problem because:
A. Even though the numbers you look at appear better, to achieve these numbers, people are doing other aspects of their work much less well.
B. We don’t know how to measure a variable (our measurement is dysfunctional) and so we don’t know how to interpret the result.
C. You are measuring the wrong thing and thus reaching the wrong conclusions.
D. All of the above.

18. Typical defects that are easier to find in reviews than in dynamic testing are:
A. Deviations from standards,
B. Requirement defects,
C. Design defects,
D. Insufficient maintainability and incorrect interface specifications.
E. All of the above.

19. Poor software characteristics are
A. Only Project risks
B. Only Product risks
C. Project risks and Product risks
D. Project risks or Product risks

20. Which is the best definition of complete testing?
A. You have discovered every bug in the program.
B. You have tested every statement, branch, and combination of branches in the program.
C. You have completed every test in the test plan.
D. You have reached the scheduled ship date.

21. Which of the following combinations correctly describes a valid approach to component testing:
i) Functional testing of the component in isolation.
ii) Structure-based testing of the code without recording incidents.
iii) Automated tests that are run until the component passes.
iv) Functional testing of the interfaces between modules.
A. i and ii.
B. I,  ii and iii
C. iii.
D. ii and iv

22. Which of the following is MOST important in the selection of a test approach?  
A. Availability of tools to support the proposed techniques.
B. The budget allowed for training in proposed techniques.
C. Available skills and experience in the proposed techniques.
D. The willingness of the test team to learn new techniques.

23. Complete statement and branch coverage means:
A. That you have tested every statement in the program.
B. That you have tested every statement and every branch in the program.
C. That you have tested every IF statement in the program.
D. That you have tested every combination of values of IF statements in the program

24. We can achieve complete statement coverage but still miss bugs because:
A. The failure occurs only if you reach a statement taking the TRUE branch of an IF statement, and you got to the statement with a test that passed through the FALSE branch.
B. The failure depends on the program’s inability to handle specific data values, rather than on the program’s flow of control.
C. We are not required to test code that customers are unlikely to execute.
D. All of the above

25. Contract and regulation testing is a part of
A. System testing
B. Acceptance testing
C. Integration testing
D. Smoke testing

Answers:

1. (A)
2. (B)
3. (A)
4. (D)
5. (A)
6. (A)
7. (A)
8. (B)
9. (C)
10. (A)
11. (A)
12. (C)
13. (A)
14. (B)
15. (D)
16. (D)
17. (A)
18. (E)
19. (B)
20. (A)
21. (B)
22. (C)
23. (B)
24. (B)
25. (B)

We hope you liked the first part of our sample ISTQB questions series. We would be providing more such exercises in coming posts. Subscribe to our feeds if you don’t want to miss any of these articles.

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