Foundation Agile Tester Free Sample Questions

20 free sample questions203 in the full practice test Other version: ISTQB-AGILE(239)

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CTFL-AT Sample Questions

  1. Question 1

    A mature Agile team is consistently struggling to complete all planned user stories within their two-week sprints, leading to frequent scope spillover. The burndown chart shows a steep drop only in the last two days of the iteration. During the retrospective, the team identifies that manual regression testing of the entire application is consuming over 40% of the sprint time. Which action would be the most effective long-term solution to improve the team's velocity and predictability?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: D

    The core issue is the unsustainable manual regression effort, which is a common problem as an Agile project grows. Automating the regression suite and integrating it into a CI pipeline provides rapid feedback without consuming valuable sprint time. This directly addresses the root cause, freeing up testers to focus on new features and exploratory testing. Extending sprints or adding hardening sprints are anti-patterns that delay feedback. Risk-based testing is a good practice but doesn't solve the underlying scalability problem of manual regression.

  2. Question 2

    During a planning poker session for a user story involving a complex financial calculation, the estimates are wildly divergent: the Product Owner estimates 3 story points, the developers estimate 8, and the testers estimate 20. What is the most productive next step for the team to take?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    The primary purpose of planning poker is not just to produce a number, but to foster conversation and create a shared understanding of the work involved. A large divergence in estimates indicates a significant difference in understanding the complexity, risks, or effort. Having the high and low estimators explain their rationale is the standard practice to uncover hidden assumptions (e.g., testers may be considering complex data validation and regulatory compliance testing that others overlooked).

  3. Question 3

    Multiple answers

    A tester in an Agile team is preparing for an exploratory testing session on a new 'Wishlist' feature. Which of the following TWO items are essential components of a well-defined test charter for this session? (Select TWO).

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answers: B, C

    A test charter's primary purpose is to provide a clear mission or goal, guiding the exploration without overly constraining it.

    The charter should define the scope of the session, indicating which features or areas are in-scope for exploration.

  4. Question 4

    In the context of the Agile Test Pyramid, tests that check business logic through a service layer or API are typically more numerous than end-to-end GUI tests.

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: A

    This is true. The Agile Test Pyramid model advocates for having a large base of fast, reliable unit tests, a smaller middle layer of service/API/integration tests, and a very small top layer of slow, brittle end-to-end GUI tests. Therefore, service layer tests should be more numerous than GUI tests.

  5. Question 5

    A new Agile team is struggling with writing effective user stories. Their stories are often vague, such as "Improve the reporting dashboard." A tester on the team suggests using the INVEST criteria to help the Product Owner refine the backlog. How does the 'T' in INVEST directly benefit the testing process?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: C

    The 'T' in the INVEST acronym stands for 'Testable'. This principle dictates that a user story must be written with enough clarity and detail, including specific acceptance criteria, so that it's possible to determine whether the implementation is complete and correct. If you can't test it, you don't know when you're 'done'.

  6. Question 6

    What is the primary goal of a 'Sprint Zero' from a testing perspective?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    Sprint Zero is a preparation phase before the first feature-developing sprint. From a testing viewpoint, its main purpose is to set up the foundation for successful testing throughout the project. This includes setting up test environments, selecting and configuring test automation tools, defining an initial test strategy, and performing initial risk analysis.

  7. Question 7

    A tester joins an Agile team that uses Behavior-Driven Development (BDD). The team writes acceptance criteria in the Gherkin Given-When-Then format. What is the tester's main contribution during the creation of these BDD scenarios?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: C

    BDD is a collaborative process. The tester's key role is to bring a critical, quality-focused perspective. While developers focus on implementation and Product Owners on business value, the tester should think about what could go wrong. This involves proposing negative scenarios (e.g., 'When I enter an invalid password'), boundary conditions, and alternative user flows to ensure the acceptance criteria are comprehensive and robust.

  8. Question 8

    An Agile team is using the testing quadrants to guide their strategy. A user story is focused on refactoring the database connection pool for better performance and resilience, with no changes to the user interface. According to the Agile Testing Quadrants model, testing for this story would primarily fall into which quadrant?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: D

    Quadrant 4 is focused on technology-facing tests that critique the product, which includes non-functional tests like performance, load, stress, and scalability. Since the user story is about improving performance and resilience of a technical component (the database connection pool) without changing business-facing functionality, the primary testing effort (e.g., load testing, stress testing the connection limits) falls squarely within Q4.

  9. Question 9

    A key principle of the 'whole-team approach' in Agile is that the responsibility for quality is shared among all team members, not just the testers.

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: A

    This statement is true and captures the essence of the whole-team approach. In Agile, quality is not a separate phase or the sole responsibility of a QA department. Developers, testers, product owners, and business analysts all contribute to and are collectively responsible for building a quality product.

  10. Question 10

    During an iteration planning meeting, a tester points out that a proposed user story lacks specific, measurable acceptance criteria, making it difficult to define 'done'. Which Agile principle is the tester upholding by raising this concern?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    By insisting on clear, testable acceptance criteria, the tester is ensuring that the team knows precisely what constitutes 'working software' for that feature. Without this clarity, the team cannot definitively measure progress or declare the story complete. The tester's action directly supports the principle that tangible, working software is the ultimate goal and measure of success.

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