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hardQA Engineer interview question

You are not a penetration tester, but you are the only QA on the team. How do you include security testing in your everyday work?

What the interviewer wants to hear

  • Use OWASP Top 10 and the API Security Top 10 as a checklist
  • Access control tests with two accounts and different roles: IDOR, privilege escalation
  • Input handling: SQL injection, XSS, file upload, server-side validation
  • Authentication and sessions: tokens, expiry, logout, password reset, rate limits
  • Automate scans like OWASP ZAP and dependency checks in CI, and protect test data
  • Know limits: escalate findings, never test production without permission, involve specialists

Model answer

I use the OWASP Top 10 and API Security Top 10 as a checklist for each feature. The most valuable habit is testing access control with two accounts and different roles: changing IDs in URLs and request bodies, calling admin endpoints as a normal user and adding fields like role to requests. I check input handling with safe probes for SQL injection and XSS, and confirm validation happens on the server, not only in the browser. For authentication I test token expiry, logout, password reset links, brute-force limits and that error messages do not reveal whether an account exists. I run OWASP ZAP baseline scans and dependency checks in CI, and make sure secrets and real personal data never appear in logs. I only test environments I have permission for, and I report serious findings privately and bring in security specialists when needed.

Can you answer it under time pressure?

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

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