Algorithms Quality Control & Assurance 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which testing technique executes code without knowledge of internal structure, focusing solely on inputs and outputs?
- White-box testing
- Black-box testing (Correct answer)
- Gray-box testing
- Mutation testing
Correct answer: Black-box testing
Black-box testing treats the system as opaque, validating behavior purely from external inputs and expected outputs.
Question 2: In algorithm quality assurance, what does 'code coverage' measure?
- Number of bugs found per line
- Percentage of source code executed during testing (Correct answer)
- Lines of code written per hour
- Ratio of comments to code
Correct answer: Percentage of source code executed during testing
Code coverage measures what fraction of the codebase is actually executed by the test suite, guiding where more tests are needed.
Question 3: What is a 'regression test' in software quality assurance?
- A test that measures algorithmic complexity
- A test re-run after changes to confirm existing features still work (Correct answer)
- A statistical method to find performance trends
- A test that runs before any code is written
Correct answer: A test re-run after changes to confirm existing features still work
Regression tests re-execute previously passing tests after a code change to ensure new modifications haven't broken existing functionality.
Question 4: Which property of a good test suite ensures each test case checks one specific behavior?
- Completeness
- Atomicity (Correct answer)
- Redundancy
- Scalability
Correct answer: Atomicity
Atomic tests check a single behavior so that a failure pinpoints exactly which behavior broke, making debugging faster.
Question 5: What is the purpose of a 'smoke test' in algorithmic quality control?
- To test every edge case thoroughly
- To quickly verify the most critical functions work before deeper testing (Correct answer)
- To measure memory usage under load
- To document algorithm complexity
Correct answer: To quickly verify the most critical functions work before deeper testing
Smoke tests perform a shallow check of core functionality to decide whether the build is stable enough for more thorough testing.
Question 6: In property-based testing, what does the framework generate automatically?
- Code documentation
- Random inputs to validate invariants (Correct answer)
- Performance benchmarks
- Deployment scripts
Correct answer: Random inputs to validate invariants
Property-based testing frameworks like QuickCheck automatically generate many random inputs to verify that a stated property always holds.
Question 7: Which metric directly measures the number of independent paths through a program's control flow?
- Lines of code
- Cyclomatic complexity (Correct answer)
- Halstead volume
- Fan-out
Correct answer: Cyclomatic complexity
Cyclomatic complexity counts the number of linearly independent paths through code, indicating how many test cases are needed for full branch coverage.
Algorithms Quality Control & Assurance 2
Which testing technique executes code without knowledge of internal structure, focusing solely on inputs and outputs?