How do you plan and run an exploratory testing session, and how do you report what you found?

What the interviewer wants to hear

• Use a charter: the area, the goal or risk, and the time box
• Simultaneous learning, test design and execution
• Use heuristics and personas to guide ideas
• Take notes during the session: what was covered, bugs, questions
• Debrief and share coverage, bugs and follow-up ideas

Model answer

I plan exploratory testing with a short charter, such as "Explore the checkout with saved cards to discover problems with expired cards and currency," and a time box of 60 to 90 minutes. During the session I learn the feature, design tests and run them at the same time, using heuristics like boundaries, interruptions, wrong order of steps and different user personas. I keep notes as I go: what I covered, bugs found, questions for the product owner and ideas for later sessions, plus screenshots and timestamps. Bugs go into Jira straight away with clear steps. At the end I debrief with the team on what was covered, what was not and how risky the area feels. Good findings often become new regression test cases.

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