Recruiting Graduates 3#: The Questions

Introduction

Other blogs in this series Recruiting Graduates #1 and Recruiting Graduates #2

In this blog, I’m going to discuss some of the proposed questions as mentioned in #1, and discuss some questions that possibly or were asked in the actual interview process. The job is a Graduate Developer. The applicants will primarily be Indian but there are a couple of job positions available in the UK.

Many of the proposed questions were misleading/ambiguous/wrong.

Here are some highlights:

Multiple Choice Coding Questions

How many values a method can return in C#? 

A) Any number of values 
B) Only 1 value 
C) Depends on the argument passed 
D) Depends on class 
Answer B

A method can have 1 type defined in the return, but this can be an object which contains many values. You could also say the List type is “many values”, and you can also define out parameters. A) seems a better answer in my opinion.

Multiple Choice Testing Questions

The expected results of the software is __________.
a. Only important in system testing
b. Only used in component testing
c. Most useful when specified in advance
d. Derived from the code.

The answer is A apparently.
I think it should be C. Although it’s not “most useful” – more like essential.
Why wouldn’t you think it is important at any other time? Don’t you care about expected behaviour during Regression Testing? Don’t you care for Unit Testing?

A test technique that involves testing with various ranges of valid and invalid inputs of a particular module or component functionality extensively is ___________.
a. Gorilla Testing
b. Monkey Testing
c. Agile Testing
d. Baseline Testing

Answer is Gorilla Testing, but I’ve never heard of it. I was a Tester for around 4 years, and have worked with Testers as a Developer for several years. I sometimes use the phrase “Gibbon Testing“, but that’s an unofficial testing practice that involves furiously clicking with the mouse, or bashing frantically on a touch-screen. What use is a question like that if it isn’t known by the average tester?

When an expected result is not specified in test case template then ___________.
a. We cannot run the test.
b. It may be difficult to repeat the test.
c. It may be difficult to determine if the test has passed or failed.
d. We cannot automate the user inputs.
Answer: C

I assume “Test Case Template” just means “Test Case”. I think the answer should be A, B, and C, but if you can only pick one, I would go with A because that implies B and C.

Which testing cannot be performed on first build of the software?
a. Regression testing
b. Retesting.
c. Sanity testing
d. Only A and B.
e. All of these
Answer: E

E doesn’t quite make sense because D states ONLY A and B. Of course, the answer is E. I suppose you have to actually assume “All” just means all the testing methods stated, rather than “all of the above” like it usually means on tests.

Face to Face Interview Questions

Behavioural

I found a document which I assume to be the face-to-face interview that Colin was doing. On the few interviews I have been on so far, I was only invited to the coding part of the interview, and even Colin’s notes from each candidates interview weren’t shared with me.

Here are his suggested questions. I think you are supposed to answer in the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result), but it doesn’t quite apply to these. I really hope he didn’t present them to the candidates using this poor grammar, or vague statements.

1. Will you be interested in picking up the testing activity?
2. You get some clarification on your query in a work item from product, will you communicate the updated to other stakeholders or not, If yes why?
3. Will you handle the non-reproducible bugs in the dev environment? – Fixed bug working fine in dev environment but not in test environment

Will you be interested in picking up the testing activity?

Evaluation:
Should be ready to pick it
Should be ready to share the team’s work

The sentiment of the question is fine because sometimes when the Testing backlog is piling up, it makes sense for Developers to help out Test (as long as the Developer is not just testing their own fixes). In the past I have heard many developers complain that they are asked to do this. The thing is, even if that is your attitude, why would you answer that question honestly?

His evaluation criteria seems to imply, you are supposed to answer “yes” then mention something about “teamwork” then you get the points.

You get some clarification on your query in a work item from product, will you communicate the updated to other stakeholders or not, If yes why?

Evaluation:
Shall reduce the repeated work from the whole team
All will be in same page
Will help more for dev for coding and unit testing
Will help more for tester to complete the test design and review
Good, all stakeholders in the same page and sync
Will decrease PO effort in communicating the same thing to all team members

Translation: I think this is saying that you have to implement a new feature, but you question one of the requirements. After you ask the Product Owner to clarify, do you share this information you have learned?

It really sounds like you are supposed to say “yes” to it, then mention something about communication. In reality, I think the Product Owner should change the wording of the requirements on the “User Story” or add extra notes to the discussion section. If the information is recorded there, then any Developer/Tester/Manager who views it will see a record of what was discussed and no communication issues should occur. So I’d say Colin’s suggested points are fine, but the overall answer is really: “no, the Product owner should be responsible for updating the User Story”. However, Graduates won’t have experience working in this way, so I think they would just make assumptions and blag an answer.

Will you handle the non-reproducible bugs in the dev environment? – Fixed bug working fine in dev environment but not in test environment

Evaluation:
Whether raised bug is within the scoped limits
Patching done without any errors
Reproduction steps
Verifying the environment client version
Test evidence in the bug
Conducting a triage call with the production team for more info
Verifying the environment details

Translation: This means you have provided a fix for a bug, but then when on the Test System (or could have gone to the Live Environment), it isn’t working as intended. So what is your strategy for deciphering what has happened?

This is a good question, but maybe hard for Graduates if they have no experience. I think the answer is more along the lines of

• Check the test environment definitely has your fix on it (patched to the same version number)
• See if there is any difference in Configuration (maybe some Deployment options, Organisation options, User options etc)
• See if you can see any difference in the selected data. So if you select a Customer then view their contact details, is there any difference in contact details on their system – compared to when you tested it on your computer?
• Debug the code against their environment to work it out.

So Colin’s notes covers some of the points, but then his other points are vague and only he knows what it actually means.

Database Question

On the technical part, the candidate was sent a question pasted in chat. The grammar was whack and the formatting of the data was abysmal. How are you meant to work with this?

Logic Questions

Question: Measure 4 Litres of water, only using a 5 Litre cup and a 3Litre cup (assume that you have an unlimited supply of water).

Answer: Fill 3L cup with water. Fill the 5L cup with the 3L cup. Fill 3L cup again. Fill 5L cup again with the 3L until it gets filled with water. This will result in you having 1L left in the 3L cup (and 5L in the 5L). Empty the 5L cup. Pour the 1L from the 3L cup to the 5L cup. Finally, fill 3L of water in 3L cup and transfer into the 5L cup.

I think when I first saw these type of questions I was baffled, but once you see an answer, you can easily answer variants of them. I recently played Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and the final set of puzzles were variants of these and I did them with ease.

Question: In this scenario, you are standing in a room with three light switches. Each corresponds to a different light bulb in another room that you cannot see. If all the light switches are off, how do you find out which one turns on which bulb?

Answer: I will turn on one switch and leave it for a few minutes. When I turn it off, I will quickly turn on another switch. I will go to the room which shows what light turned on from the second switch, then feel the other bulbs for which is warmer (which would be the light I left on for a while). The third switch belongs to the bulb that is off and cold.

This question is nonsense. It never says you can leave the room, and it says “you cannot see” which implies you can never see them from a distance, or get close to them to touch. If you can leave the room, you could turn one on, go and look, then go back and turn on another. I think the question needs to stipulate you can only leave the room once only.

Question: You are driving a bus. There were 10 passengers already on the bus. You pick up 8 people from Stop A, drop 12 at Stop B, pick up 5 from Stop C and drop 9 at Stop D. Then, what is the age of the driver of the bus?

Answer: Your own age.

Question: You have to enter one of the three rooms. One room is on fire, another is occupied by a man-eating lion who is hungry for three months, and the last one is occupied by a terrorist with a fully loaded AK47.

Answer: The 2nd room because the lion is dead because of hunger. (Hungry for 3 months)

I’m not a fan of a question like this because wording it as “is hungry for three months” implies it is still alive and hungry. It needs to say “hasn’t consumed any food for three months”. I think it is intentionally been written like that to reduce the likelyhood of coming up with the answer. One of the aims of the test was to examine people’s understanding of English, and throwing in questions that are ambiguous, misleading or containing poor grammar isn’t the way forward.