Skip to content
RED SAGSkills
easyBusiness Analyst interview question

Explain functional and non-functional requirements with examples.

What the interviewer wants to hear

  • Functional: what the system does
  • Non-functional: how well it performs (quality attributes)
  • Examples of each
  • Non-functional must be measurable

Model answer

Functional requirements describe what the system must do, meaning its behaviour and features. For example, a customer can transfer money to a saved beneficiary, or the system generates a monthly statement as a PDF. Non-functional requirements describe how well the system must do it. They cover quality attributes like performance, security, availability, usability and scalability. Examples are: the transfer must complete within three seconds for 95 percent of requests, the system must be available 99.9 percent of the time, and all customer data must be encrypted. Non-functional requirements are often forgotten, but they can decide whether a system succeeds. I always make them measurable, because words like fast or secure cannot be tested. I usually agree them with architects and the business early.

Can you answer it under time pressure?

Take a timed easy round and get scored on every answer.

Start mock interview

More easy Business Analyst questions