Walk me through the life cycle of a defect, from the moment you find it until it is closed.
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Defect is logged as New with clear steps, expected and actual results and evidence
- Triage assigns severity, priority and an owner, or rejects, defers or marks it duplicate
- Developer fixes it and marks it Fixed or Ready for test on a specific build
- QA retests: Closed if the fix works, Reopened if it does not
- Regression around the fix checks for side effects
Model answer
When I find a defect I first reproduce it and log it as New in Jira, with environment, build, exact steps, expected and actual results, and a screenshot, recording or logs. In triage the team sets severity and priority and assigns it, or marks it as a duplicate, rejected because it works as designed, or deferred to a later release. The developer fixes it and moves it to Fixed or Ready for QA, noting the build that has the fix. I retest with the original steps and data. If it works I close it, and if not I reopen it with new evidence. I also run regression tests around the fix, because fixes can break nearby features. Keeping statuses accurate makes the defect dashboard trustworthy for release decisions.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed easy round and get scored on every answer.
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