Case Studies & Practical Application Flashcards

A test team is asked to certify that a medical device software meets FDA 21 CFR Part 11 requirements. This is an example of:

Answer: Regulatory compliance testing

Regulatory compliance testing verifies that software meets the specific rules, standards, or regulations mandated by governing bodies such as the FDA.

A defect is reproducible on the tester's machine but not on the developer's machine. The most productive next step is:

Answer: Compare environment configurations between the two machines to identify differences

Environment differences—such as OS version, configuration, or dependencies—are the most common cause of 'works on my machine' issues, so comparing environments is the logical next step.

A QA lead must recommend a test approach for a project where requirements change frequently. Which approach provides the best adaptability?

Answer: Risk-based testing combined with exploratory testing sessions

Risk-based and exploratory testing adapt well to changing requirements because they prioritize by risk and rely on tester judgment rather than rigid scripts.

A team implements test-driven development (TDD). A developer writes a test for a new function, runs it, and it passes immediately without writing the implementation. What does this indicate?

Answer: The test is likely not testing the right thing and may be a false positive

In TDD, a new test should fail first (red phase); if it passes immediately before implementation, the test is probably not actually exercising the intended behavior.

A social media platform experiences degraded performance when a viral post drives 10x normal traffic suddenly. Which test type is specifically designed to simulate this scenario?

Answer: Spike testing

Spike testing evaluates system behavior under sudden, dramatic increases in load and then monitors recovery once the spike subsides.

During code review, a tester notices a SQL query builds a WHERE clause by concatenating user input directly. What defect category should be raised?

Answer: SQL injection vulnerability

Directly concatenating user input into SQL queries creates an SQL injection vulnerability, one of the most critical OWASP Top 10 security risks.

A team wants to measure the effectiveness of its test suite by intentionally introducing small code faults and checking if tests detect them. This technique is called:

Answer: Mutation testing

Mutation testing deliberately introduces small syntactic changes (mutants) to source code and measures what percentage of mutants the test suite detects (kills).