Quality Control(QC) Interview Questions

Software Quality Control has the following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

• Software applications are validated according to the needs and exceptions of the client.
• It is used to identify software defects and prevent the sale of faulty products and services.
• The team's productivity is improved.
• Software development is made easier and the quality of the final product is enhanced.
• Enhanced trust in project management and continued development.
• In addition, it reduces re-development and re-work costs, as it is imposed from scratch or at the beginning level of the development phase.
• It improves customer satisfaction and software efficiency.

Disadvantages:

• Process testing is more time-consuming. Consequently, software deployment can be delayed.
• Software validation requires more resources.
• Inspecting products and services costs money, such as the wages paid to inspectors, tests performed in laboratories. An organization faces a major budgeting issue if the software application is rejected.
• No one takes responsibility for the quality of their own work.

The following are some of the roles a quality control engineer or specialist must perform:

• Develop, implement, and improve quality control processes and procedures. 
• Ensure that quality control processes are aligned with commercial objectives in collaboration with senior managers.
• Prepare comprehensive, well-structured, and detailed test plans and cases.
• Analyze operations from a QC perspective.
• Perform quality control inspections.
• Perform statistical analysis from a QC perspective to identify issues, trends, and defects.
• Foster a culture where employees are empowered to report quality control issues or defects without fear of retribution or blame.
• Consult with managers and team members about inspection results.
• Make sure there is a procedure for removing failed products.
• Keep up with new testing strategies and tools, etc.

Maintaining the quality of the products during production is the responsibility of the quality control specialist. Software products or services are evaluated by quality control specialists using internal specifications and procedures. This profession requires a keen eye for detail, excellent communication skills, planning abilities, and problem-solving skills. Also, they must possess logical thinking skills, effective management skills, and interpersonal skills.

In Software Quality Control, there are different types of Quality Control Parameters as follows:

• Products: Essentially, the Products represent the actual requirements of the client and should be delivered defect-free.
• Processes: Processes are rules that must be followed while testing a Software System or Product in order to ensure the best results (product deliverables) are obtained. A set of processes will allow a testing procedure to be performed efficiently so that the full product is tested as per the customer's specifications without any functional or non-functional inabilities being missed.
• Resources: It is very important to make efficient use of all resources, including team members, tools, and technologies. Depending on the budget of the project, the testing process can either be automated or manually executed. For manual processes, there ought to be adequate resources within the team to prevent defects or manual errors. On the other hand, automated testing also demands the presence of a technical professional.

Software quality control involves two phases, namely the reviewing and testing phase.

• Reviewing Phase: The review phase is a type of static testing or verification process aimed at preventing software defects. This is a process-oriented approach for enhancing the development process performed without executing programs. There are several review activities within the software development life cycle process, such as requirements, design, coding, test plan, test cases, and deployment. It is basically a process-level verification to prevent software defects.
• Testing Phase: Testing is a dynamic or validation process that identifies defects in a software application. This is a product-oriented approach to improving software product quality performed with program execution. There are several testing activities within the software development life cycle process, such as unit, integration, system, user acceptance, non-functional, release and maintenance testing. Furthermore, as part of this activity, we perform additional functional and non-functional testing, such as smoke testing, retesting, regression testing, sanity testing, as well as performance testing, load testing, volume testing, stress testing, endurance testing to improve the priority (importance of fixing the defect) and severity (impact of the defect) of the developed software product quality.

Unit testing, functional testing, and integration testing are types of testing performed as part of Quality Control processes. Furthermore, there are several other types of testing that can contribute to quality control, such as System Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing, Non-Functional Testing, Beta Testing, Regression Testing, Performance Testing, Volume Testing, Installation Testing, Recovery Testing, Load Testing, Stress Testing, and Usability Testing.

When writing test cases, there are seven main artifacts that can be considered such as requirement understanding documents, functional requirement specification, user stories, use cases, acceptance criteria, wireframes, and UAT test cases. You should strive to include all relevant artifacts whenever they are applicable to the product we are testing.

Generally, a test case consists of a set of conditions, variables, and/or actions being performed on a system under test to ensure it meets its requirements and functions properly. Good test cases include:

• Clear Objective: Specify the intent and scope of the test.
• Meaningful pass/fail verifications: Specifying what constitutes success and failure and how to determine both.'
• Clear and concise documentation: Prepare standardized formats for your test cases, including unique ID number, descriptions, preconditions, related datasets, and expected outcomes.
• Traceability to requirements: Test cases should be traceable to requirements for a system under test. We need to ensure we test all requirements and changes, and not waste time testing irrelevant components.
• Reusability: Develop test cases that are modular and easy to maintain. It is likely that test cases will change as the system under test evolves over time, but we definitely want to write test cases that are reusable as long as possible.
• Testing of one test case independently of others: Execution of a single test case should not be dependent on other test cases. To create a larger end-to-end test, your independent, modular test cases should be able to be combined into sequential or parallel execution test suites.

• Bug Leakage: When an application encounters a bug that should have been detected in earlier versions or builds, this is called bug leakage. The tester is unaware of the defect during testing, which is eventually discovered by the tester/end-user.
• Bug Release: A bug release is when an application or software package is handed over to the testing team with the knowledge that a defect exists. The severity and priority of bugs is low during this period, as bugs can be removed before the final handover.

The testing of all the branches of a code, which is done at once, is called branch testing. This technique enables every possible branch from every decision point to be executed at least once, ensuring that all reachable code is executed. As part of branch testing, each outcome from a code module is tested as a binary outcome, so you must test both True and False outcomes. Branch Testing provides some features that are generally useful for a software project as given below:

• You are able to validate all the branches in the code.
• This is a non-functional type of testing.
• Using this method, all branches are checked to ensure that they do not cause abnormal behaviour.
• This is a quantitative measure of a program's code coverage, etc.

The Boundary value analysis, also known as boundary testing, is a software testing technique, in which tests are conducted based on boundary values or between two opposite ends. In this sense, the extreme ends such as start to end, lower to upper, or maximum to a minimum are called boundary values, and testing such values is called boundary testing.

The following are some ways to reduce the number of errors and losses in your software product.

• Monitor the progress of the software products regularly.
• Make your code concise and readable, clear, and simple to unit test. Simple code leads to fewer bugs and takes less time to fix.
• Having your code broken up into independent modules will make it easier for you to test each piece separately. The modularity of your code will make testing easier and less complicated.
• Code comments should be as clear and concise as possible, and you shouldn't rely on them to make code more readable.
• You shouldn't ignore compiler warnings. Compiler warnings indicate code issues that may cause bugs.
• Test, test, and test again! Testing at different stages of the development process can help you catch bugs earlier and fix them more easily than if found later on.
• Having a rushed release and cutting corners could result in more problems for the company and the program. Don't skimp on your work instead put best practices into place now and you will avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes later, etc.

Every organization will have its own measure of quality that matters most, from safety to speed, compliance to cost. Safety is the most important of all quality measures because, without it, all of the others are meaningless. For consumers to trust us and buy from us, our products must be safe. If the products are not safe, consumers will stop buying from us, which can lead to expensive litigation. 

Product quality is directly impacted by the quality of production processes. Consequently, a quality control manager's duties include inspecting both a company's products and its processes.

• Product quality: The purpose of product quality inspections is to detect defects and assess how closely a product conforms to requirements specifications. 
• Process quality: The purpose of a process quality inspection is to identify inefficiencies in the production process that waste organization time, slow down the process, or lead to lower-quality products.

The concept of quality isn't just about profits and losses or beating out your competitors. This is about delivering on a promise, meeting the basic expectations of customers and ensuring product safety. However, companies that meet quality standards often reap greater profits and reduce losses. Quality standards are a set of good management practices, methods, systems, requirements, or specifications formulated by industry advisory groups to help developers achieve and demonstrate consistent product quality.

Having quality standards in place is important for an organization since it helps the team members stay organized and on task. By eliminating redundancy, unnecessary processes would no longer be carried out, resulting in costs being reduced. Additionally, establishing standards will help all members of the team to be guided in the right direction.

As a quality control, here are some daily tasks:

• Monitoring and inspecting the operations running for specific products is one of your daily tasks.
• Likewise, you'll also need to document any changes or testing done on the products.
• Besides these, you always need to ensure that the products you deliver adhere to regulations at the state or federal levels.

Conclusion

Quality control is the process by which companies ensure that their products remain in compliance with their standards. Quality control includes many roles and responsibilities, such as Quality Control Manager, Inspector, Coordinator, Analyst, and Administrator. Each of these roles requires exceptional communication, interpersonal, and attention to detail skills, as well as the ability to maintain high standards and meet strict deadlines.

In this article, we have covered the top 30 QC interview questions and answers for freshers and experienced candidates so that you can excel in your next QC interview. These questions are quick and insightful, and they provide a wealth of information that is vital to the interview process.

Reviewing these frequently asked questions and answers increases the likelihood of getting hired. Additionally, you will be asked various behavioural-type questions during your Quality Control interview. Review all the questions and answers carefully.

Hopefully, we have clarified your doubts and directed you in the right direction. Good luck to all applicants.

Additional Interview Preparation Resources

• QA Interview Questions
• Difference Between Quality Assurance and Quality Control
• Software Testing Interview Questions
• Smoke Testing vs Sanity Testing

Whenever you find a bug or error, be positive about the situation. Finding inconsistencies is an essential part of working quality control.

Whenever you find bugs or errors, be sure to document them and communicate them to your superiors so they can relay the information to the production team, who can adjust and modify their own procedures in order to ensure a bug-free product.

The role of a quality control specialist revolves around quality, but in reality, they play a significant role in resource and labour efficiency as well.

One of the core responsibilities of QC specialists is to analyze defect rates and compare them with benchmarks. If they are lacking, quality control specialists can identify and suggest ways to make them up to par, saving the organization time, money, and resources.

The quality control process does not end when the clock hits 5 p.m. In today's 24/7 world of production, it is imperative to have processes that guarantee consistency, no matter what shift it is produced on.

The key to working with workers across shifts is communication. The best way to keep things consistent from shift to shift is to put standardized processes into place so that each shift can seamlessly carry on where the last one left off. Moreover, every inspector should work on a shift at least once to get a sense of the scope of operations.

Using the right standards is key to quality control. As part of any quality control project, the first step is to define quality and the standards that should be followed to achieve it. This is critical because, without it, we cannot establish benchmarks for any future inspections. A quality control specialist must comprehend the importance of adhering to rigorous quality control standards and protocols. 

The quality control process is stressful, and it is often done under strict deadlines. To be effective, quality control managers must balance the demands of their role with the deadlines of the company and their clients.

• First, they would flag the issue as soon as possible so that they could begin taking corrective action. 
• Once the defect has been identified, they gather as much information as possible regarding the defect, its potential solutions, and how each will affect timelines. 
• By doing so, they can present the most viable options to their stakeholders in the most thorough manner possible, so that the best decision can be made to mitigate the damage.

A good QC specialist would rather miss a deadline for a high-quality, safe product than deliver a defective one on the schedule.

Process qualification ensures your manufacturing processes are able to produce a certain volume consistently over time. In the absence of these, production processes will break down, leading to missed deadlines and unfulfilled orders. As part of the process qualification, we evaluate the facility, materials, hardware/equipment, software applications, personnel, risk, and quality monitoring tools.

Following are a few of the most important quality management principles to focus on:

• Customer Focus: Quality management aims to meet and exceed the needs or expectations of customers.
• Leadership: Leaders create a sense of unity and commitment among staff and ensure that the quality objectives of an organization are met.
• Engagement of People: A thriving organization requires people who are empowered, competent, and engaged to deliver value. A high-performing, empowered and engaged workforce enhances the organization's ability to create value.]
• Process Approach: By understanding and managing activities as interconnected processes that function as a cohesive system, we can achieve more predictable and consistent results more effectively.
• Improvement: Improved performance is a priority for successful organizations. A continuous focus on improvement is therefore crucial.
• Evidence-based Decision Making: Data-driven decisions have a better chance of producing the desired results than those based on guesswork and intuition. Results are more likely to be achieved when decisions are made based on data analysis and evaluation.
• Relationship Management: Organizations must manage their relationships with stakeholders, such as suppliers, for sustained success.

Load testing and system testing are among the most common types of quality control testing.

• Load testing: Performing load tests will allow you to understand how a system will perform under real-life load conditions. Load testing measures how well a system performs for example when it experiences high demand, such as multiple users at the same time.
• Stress testing: A stress test is meant to determine the maximum capacity of a system under heavy load conditions such as Slashdot effect, DDoS attack, or other scenarios. The test verifies the system's reliability and stability.

Quality control specialists leverage a variety of tools for analytics, compliance monitoring, customer satisfaction management, and more. New technology is introduced every year, but some tools have become industry standards. In the long run, quality control specialists must be flexible and willing to learn new technology.

Almost all quality control managers and specialists have their preferred methods or tools for inspecting quality. Seven main tools for quality control are Pareto chart (80/20 Rule), Stratification (Divide and Conquer), Cause-and-effect diagram (“fishbone” or Ishikawa diagram), Scatter diagram (Shewhart Chart), Check Sheet (Tally Sheet), Histogram, and Control chart. Known as the Seven Basic Tools of Quality, these tools could be applied by anyone with a very basic understanding of statistics and were simple to apply to resolve quality-related complex issues. Good candidates should be able to explain the tools that they use most frequently.

Following are the different Software Control Views:

• User View: A product's quality is determined by how well it meets the needs of the user.
• Product View: A product's quality is determined by its characteristics.
• Value-based View: A product's quality is determined by the number of customers willing to pay for it.
• Development View: A product's quality is determined by its conformance to its requirement specifications.

In determining the software quality of a system or a product, there are different factors as given below:

• Usability: How easy it is to use or operate the software.
• Portability: The capability for a software product to be used in different environments or locations.
• Maintainability: The ease of updating and maintaining a software product.
• Reliability: How long a product can operate without any downtime or defects.
• Efficiency: A product's ability to meet the requirements effectively or how well it performs.

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) model/cycle is also known as PDSA ( Plan-Do-Study-Act), the "Deming Wheel," and "Shewhart Cycle". A PDCA cycle fosters the methodical, rigorous implementation of solutions to problems. It is a four-step process that assists teams in avoiding recurring mistakes and improving development processes. In the same way that a circle is infinite, PDCA should be repeated indefinitely to improve continuously.

• Plan: The first step is to identify and understand your opportunity or problem, and then plan how to proceed. Planning takes a significant amount of your team's time, depending on the project's size. A proper plan usually consists of smaller steps so that there is a lower possibility of failure.
• Do: Once you have agreed on a plan, it is time to take action. In this step, you put into practice all the things you considered in the previous stage. At this stage, unforeseen problems can occur. In an ideal scenario, you should first test your plan on a small scale and in a controlled environment.
• Check: If you wish to develop a clear plan, avoid making the same mistakes, and use continuous improvement effectively, you should pay close attention to the check phase. You need to examine your plan's execution result and determine whether it was successful. Moreover,  your team will be capable of identifying problematic parts of the current process and eliminating them in the future. Try experimenting with more changes, and repeat the Do and Check phases. If something goes wrong during the process, you need to figure out the problem's root cause. In any case, if your original plan doesn't work, you ought to start over with the planning phase.
• Act: The previous steps were to develop, apply, and check your plan. Now it's time to act. As long as everything appears to be working well and your team was successful in achieving the original goals, you can proceed and implement your original plan. In this instance, your PDCA model becomes your new benchmark. Whenever you repeat a standardized plan, ask your team to go through all steps again and improve the care.

Different standards are developed and implemented by organizations around the world to improve software quality. When releasing products, several ISO standards must be met. Some of the characteristics as per ISO standards are environmental management, risk management, quality management, auditing. Other ISO standards for quality control include reliability, usability, efficiency, and maintainability.

Quality control entails several specific characteristics, including:

• Adopting a different set of processes.
• To deliver a high-quality product.
• Providing quality products to customers at an affordable price.
• Improving quality by implementing processes from different organizations and standards.
• To ensure proper execution of the test plan.
• Make sure the execution is planned with the proper review process.
• The effectiveness and efficiency with which a product or system can be modified in order to improve, correct, or adapt to a changing environment.

A good quality control specialist needs to have some important skills like effective management skills, good communication skills, strong attention to detail, integrity, logical thinking, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills.

The salary range for QA/QC Software Engineers in India is between Rs 2.5 Lakhs and 15 Lakhs, with an average annual salary of Rs 6-7 Lakhs.  As you gain experience, your salary increases.

For a career in QC engineering, you must first earn a Mtech in QC/QA, and then you will find enormous opportunities in all fields. You should also develop your problem-solving and organizational skills, as you have to interact with various clients and workers. You can also enrol in a certified course. After that, it would be easy for you to get a job in any industry, or even get a promotion in your current job, or learn the professional skills that are actually needed on the job.

Yes, Quality Control is an excellent career choice. Quality control involves determining whether a software product or service conforms to requirements, or is "fit for use." In almost every IT industry, qualified quality-control professionals are needed to oversee the quality of software and suggest necessary changes. The demand for quality control specialists is always high, and they always get good pay. The role involves a lot of analytical work, has good employment opportunities, is well-paid, and has an evenly distributed workload.