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| On Tue, 19 Jul 2005, dumitru.corobceanu@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm trying to make a quiz to verify QA/Testing knowledge. The point,
> and my main problem that the test shouldn't have free answers, I mean
> the person will have only to check the answers. I have some, but it is
> not enough.
The moment you simplify the questions to multiple choice, you make the
quiz for a junior tester. The skills a senior tester will bring to your
company cannot be discovered by multiple choice questions.
At best, this sort of quiz will eliminate people who are not at all
qualified for the position. If I was going to create a quiz to eliminate
candidates who are obviously not qualified I would take facts and derive
questions from them. For example, black-box testing is a technique used
when the test case relies only on the input/output behaviour and glass-box
testing is a technique used when the test case relies on information about
how the software has been designed or coded. From this I could derive the
question:
* What is the difference between glass-box and black-box testing?
a) Glass-box testing is identical to black-box testing
b) Glass-box testing is similar to black-box testing but
can be more fragile
c) Glass-box testing relies on how the software has been
coded and black-box testing relies on the input/output
behaviour
d) Glass-box testing is conducting by developers and
black-box testing is conducting by testers
In other words, if you know your facts about testing then you should be
able to generate your own set of questions. NOTE: the danger you face in
doing this is that sometime the things you believe to be a fact are
actually a matter of opinion or just a convention.
Additionally, if the person is lucky they could guess the right answers.
You will still need to understand WHY they picked the answer they did.
Finally, if you are hiring someone for a purpose you should ask the
questions necessary to ensure that person will fulfil the purpose. You
should hopefully know what challenges you face and possible a solution to
those challenges. You just have to find someone with the technical skills
to overcome those challenges.
> Here (http://dimka.c7obs.net/documentation/qa_testing_quizz) you have
> some of them.
I looked at the quiz. I have a problem with the first question. What do
you mean by "complete" testing. How you define "complete" could have a
huge difference. If "complete" testing is defined as testing all possible
combinations then "complete" testing is not possible. If you define it as
testing all stated requirements and business rules then it may be possible
to conduct "complete" testing.
I'll usually give a quiz like this to see if the candidate is a waste of
my time. If they pass the quiz then I'll start asking questions to see if
they are the right candidate for me. For example, "Tell me something you
did in the past year that you are really proud of."
P.S. I interview the person offering the job. If they don't appear to have
anything to contribute to me I will refuse the job.
--
Send e-mail to: darrell dot grainger at utoronto dot ca
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