The interview process started with a virtual technical interview conducted by two interviewers.

The discussion began with a brief self-introduction, followed by questions related to AI adoption in my project.

The rest of the interview focused on QA involvement in SDLC, Java coding, automation framework concepts, and CI/CD practices using GitLab.

The interviewer appeared to be strongly inclined toward their own way of approaching problems. Some questions were not clearly framed, and it seemed that the expected answers needed to align with their specific method, which made the conversation somewhat confusing at times.

Questions asked

As a QA engineer, at which stage of the SDLC should QA involvement begin?

How comfortable are you with Java?

Write a Java program to find the second largest number in an array of 5 elements.

Write a Java program to count the occurrence of characters in a name and print the character along with its frequency using a Map (suggested to use entrySet).

How can we execute tests in parallel using GitLab?

Can you explain the TestNG XML structure used to run parallel tests?

Explain the Runner class structure when using Cucumber with TestNG for parallel execution.

What data sources can be used for test data in an automation framework?

Write a code snippet to read data from Excel in Java.

Explain commonly used TestNG annotations.

What are Cucumber Hooks and what types of hooks are available?

What is the difference between Scenario and Scenario Outline in Cucumber?

What is the difference between Hooks and Background in Cucumber?

How do you design a CI/CD pipeline using GitLab (gitlab-ci.yml)?

What scheduler options and cron expressions can be used in CI/CD pipelines?

What is the order of execution in Cucumber scenarios including hooks?