ISTQB Chapter 4 Practice Questions: Test Analysis and Design
Chapter 4 is the largest block on the exam at 11 of the 40 questions, and the only chapter where most questions hand you data and expect you to work on it. Four of the eight K3 objectives in the whole syllabus live here. Time spent on this chapter returns more marks than time spent anywhere else.
Every question in this drill comes from chapter 4, Test Analysis and Design, which is 11 of the 40 questions on the real exam.
What chapter 4 covers
The syllabus sections this drill draws from.
- 4.1 Test techniques overview - black-box, white-box, experience-based
- 4.2 Black-box test techniques - equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision tables, state transition testing (all K3)
- 4.3 White-box test techniques - statement testing, branch testing, value of white-box testing
- 4.4 Experience-based test techniques - error guessing, exploratory testing, checklist-based testing
- 4.5 Collaboration-based test approaches - collaborative user story writing, acceptance criteria, ATDD (K3)
Most wrong answers here are the neighbouring concept. See the 4 concepts this drill separates before you start, or work the drill first and use them to check your misses.
Start the drill
Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL v4.0)
Practising Chapter 4 only: every question in this set matches that filter. There is no clock - a drill is shorter than a real paper and covers one topic, so timing it would tell you nothing. Work at your own pace and submit when you are ready; you get a full answer review when you finish.
- Questions
- 0
- Time limit
- None
- Pass mark
- 65%
- Cost
- Free
No timer on a drill - take as long as you need.
How this level is examined
The black-box techniques - equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision table testing and state transition testing - are procedures, and they should be rehearsed until they are mechanical. Under exam time pressure the failure mode is almost never conceptual; it is dropping a boundary, transposing a decision table, or reading a state model's row and column the wrong way round.
The white-box techniques, statement and branch testing, are examined at K2 in v4.0 - you are asked why they are valuable and what coverage means, not to compute coverage from a control flow graph. That is a genuine change from earlier syllabus versions, and material from older question banks over-tests it.
The experience-based techniques (error guessing, exploratory testing, checklist-based testing) and the collaboration-based approaches (collaborative user story writing, acceptance criteria, ATDD) are the parts candidates skip. ATDD in particular carries a K3 objective - you can be asked to derive test cases from acceptance criteria, not merely to describe the practice.
Concepts this drill separates
Separate these and the distractors stop working, because there is nothing plausible left for a wrong answer to be built from.
Black-box Testing versus White-box Testing versus Experience-based Testing
Black-box testing derives tests from the specified behaviour without reference to the internal structure; white-box testing derives them from that structure; experience-based testing draws on the tester's knowledge and intuition rather than either.
How to tell them apart: The deciding detail is what the tests were derived from, not who ran them or at which level. Deriving from a requirement is black-box even when a developer does it at component level. Experience-based is the family left when neither the specification nor the structure gives you the test, and the syllabus treats it as complementary to the other two rather than a substitute for them.
Equivalence Partitioning versus Boundary Value Analysis
Equivalence partitioning divides data into partitions whose members should be handled alike and takes one value from each; boundary value analysis tests the values at the edges of those partitions, and can only be used where the partition is ordered.
How to tell them apart: The two are used together, so read what the question asks you to count. A representative from inside each partition is partitioning. For boundaries, check first whether the syllabus's 2-value form (the boundary and its nearest neighbour outside) or the 3-value form (the boundary plus its neighbours on both sides) is being asked for - they give different counts.
Decision Table Testing versus State Transition Testing
Decision table testing derives tests from combinations of conditions that hold at one moment; state transition testing derives them from the sequence of events over time and the states they move the system through.
How to tell them apart: Ask whether order matters. If the same set of inputs in a different order would behave differently, it is a state model. If the outcome depends only on which conditions are true together, it is a decision table.
Statement Testing versus Branch Testing
Statement testing exercises the executable statements in the code; branch testing exercises the branches - the transfers of control between nodes, which in CTFL v4.0 means unconditional ones as well as decision outcomes.
How to tell them apart: Branch coverage subsumes statement coverage: 100% branch coverage guarantees 100% statement coverage, but not the reverse. One test through an if with no else can run every statement while leaving a branch untaken. Beware the v3.1 answer that equates a branch with a decision outcome only.
Worked examples
These 5 come with the answer and the reasoning already shown, so you can see what this kind of question looks like before you start. They are drawn from the questions-and-answers page and are deliberately held out of the drill above, so the drill still tells you something you did not already know.
1. Which requirement currently has no test coverage?
K2Requirement TC001 TC002 TC003 REQ-001 X REQ-002 X REQ-003 X REQ-004 - A.REQ-003
- B.REQ-002
- C.REQ-001
- D.REQ-004
Correct answer: D
Each row of the matrix shows which test cases cover that requirement. REQ-001, REQ-002 and REQ-003 each have one linked test case, but REQ-004 has none, so it is the requirement with no test coverage.
2. A tester wants to achieve 100% valid transition coverage. What is the MINIMUM number of test cases required for the state model below?
K3Document approval state model:
- A.4
- B.2
- C.1
- D.3
Correct answer: C
Draft-Submit-Submitted-Reject-Rejected-Revise-Draft-Submit-Submitted-Approve-Approved traverses all four valid transitions in a single test case. The Revise loop returns to Draft, so no second case is needed.
3. A numeric field accepts integers from 10 to 99 inclusive. Using three-value boundary value analysis on the LOWER boundary only, which values must be tested?
K3- A.10, 11 and 12
- B.9, 10 and 11
- C.9 and 10
- D.10 and 11
Correct answer: B
Three-value BVA tests the boundary itself and its neighbours on both sides: 9 (just outside), 10 (the boundary), 11 (just inside).
4. A state model has 5 states and 7 valid transitions. How many transitions must be exercised to achieve 100% valid transition (0-switch) coverage?
K3- A.12
- B.7
- C.5
- D.35
Correct answer: B
0-switch (valid transition) coverage requires every valid transition in the model to be exercised at least once, so all 7.
5. Which statement BEST describes error guessing?
K2- A.Anticipating where defects are likely, based on experience of how systems fail
- B.Randomly selecting inputs until a failure occurs
- C.Guessing the root cause of a failure after it occurs
- D.A structured technique that derives tests from a formal model
Correct answer: A
The tester uses knowledge of past defects and likely mistakes to target testing.
Other drills
By cognitive level
- ISTQB K3 Practice Questions
- ISTQB K2 Practice Questions
- ISTQB K1 Practice Questions
- What K1, K2 and K3 mean - how the levels map to the exam
By syllabus chapter
- Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Testing - 8 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 2: Testing Throughout the SDLC - 6 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 3: Static Testing - 4 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 5: Managing Test Activities - 9 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 6: Test Tools - 2 of 40 on the exam
Level and chapter combined
- ISTQB K3 Practice: Chapter 4 Test Design Techniques - the densest block of applied marks on the paper
Full-length papers
- ISTQB Practice Test 1 - 40 questions with answers
- ISTQB Practice Test 2 - 40 questions with answers
- ISTQB Practice Test 3 - 40 questions with answers
- Timed mock exam simulator - a fresh random draw each time