Manual Testing Interview Question: Difference Between Error, Defect, and Failure

Most of the time we face this question in our testing interview and most of the people find it difficult to find the difference between these term even after living in the industry since long time.

Error: This is cause due to human actions like code is not following the standard, there is some mistake in syntax, or there is mistake in invocation of variable or might be there is some mistakes in which database connectivity code is faulty. These all are counted as Error.

Defect: Defect is formal name of bug and if we are tester than we would be familiar with Bug.Defects may occurs due to errors(Mistakes in code or document) that cause deviation from actual result. Once a tester find error then this is called defect and when this is acknowledge by Developer or Design team along with Manager this become Bug.

Failure: Failure are caused by environment or sometime due to mishandling of product. Suppose we are using a compass just beside a current running wire then this will not show the correct direction and this is not helping in getting the right information from the product. In the same way radiation,magnetism,Electronic field. These things not only have impact on product but also impacts its hardware also.

In other way when a defect is found by end-user then this is called failure.

Hope this will help you to answer one more question in your interview 

Dwarika Dhish Mishra

My name is Dwarika Dhish Mishra, its just my name and I am trying to bring the worth of my name in to actions and wants to be the solution not the problem. I believe in spreading knowledge and happiness. More over I am fun loving person and like travelling a lot. By nature I am a tester and a solution maker. I believe in the tag line of http://ted.org “Idea worth spreading” . For the same, I have created this blog to bring more and more learning to tester fraternity through day to day learning in professional and personal life. All contents are the part of my learning and so are available for all..So please spread the contents as much as you can at your end so that it could reach to every needful people in testing fraternity. I am pretty happy that more and more people are showing interest to become the part your Abode QA blog and I think this is good sign for us all because more and more content would be before you to read and to cherish. You may write or call me at my Email id: dwarika1987@gmail.com Cell: 9999978609

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16 Responses

  1. sushma says:

    Nice

  2. Tarun Banga says:

    There is one point which I feel i should mention to correct the concept,
    Tester observe the difference in behaviour then they see failure. and enter the details in system to track.
    So tester always observe failure not errors. When defective code is executed, failures occur, If these failures are visible to customers, users, or other stakeholders, dissatisfaction with system quality may result

    People make errors which introduce defects in the system and Tester observe the effect of defect whcih is failure.
    So developer introduce defects because of errors, tetsre find the failure and developer again find the defect by debugging i.e. the root cause of the failure and fix it. Then Tester verify the failure i.e. failure is gone or not.
    In short Failure occurs due to defect and defect occurs due to erros.
    Hope this helps

  3. Venkatesh T says:

    Please check below answer wheather my view is correct or not.
    Defect : When an error founded by test engineer, then it is called as a defect.

    Bug : Those error aggreed by the developer then it is called as bug.
    Error : syntax error, logical user interface error, grafical user interface error.
    It is a mismatch in a coding.
    It is a deviation between the actuval result and expected result.
    Kindly, let me know your comments on the same.

  4. Monica says:

    Hello sir,
    can u explain what is the difference between test life cycle and software testing life cycle??

  5. Monica says:

    Hello sir,
    Again i have one more doubt,what is test scenario??
    and what is the difference between test case and test scenario sir
    ???
    Thanks,
    Monica

  6. Aarti says:

    A mistake in coding is called error ,error found by tester is called defect, defect accepted by development team then it is called bug ,build does not meet the requirements then it Is failure.

  7. gaurav yadav says:

    Can you explain citrix protocol in HP LR with example.

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