A release candidate of a SUT, after being fully integrated with all other necessary systems, has successfully passed all required functional tests (90% were automated tests and 10% were manual tests). Now, it is necessary to perform reliability tests aimed at evaluating whether, under certain conditions, that release will be able to guarantee an MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) in the production environment higher than a certain threshold (expressed in CPU time). Which of the following test environments is BEST suited to perform these reliability tests?

• A. Preproduction environment
• B. Build environment
• C. Integration environment
• D. Local development environment

A suite of automated test cases was run multiple times on the same release of the SUT in the same test environment. Consider analyzing a test histogram that shows the distribution of test results (pass, fail, etc.) for each test case across these runs. Which of the following potential issues is MOST likely to be identified as a result of such an analysis?

• A. Unstable automated test cases
• B. Security vulnerabilities in automated test cases
• C. Maintainability issues in automated test cases
• D. Outliers in test execution times

You have been recruited as a TAE by a large travel agency and are now responsible for a mature TAS that is dedicated to functional testing of the company's booking system, which covers flights, hotels, and packaged holidays. This application contains a complex UI and a lot of functionality. It is undergoing constant maintenance and enhancement by an Agile team that adds tests to the regression test suite at the end of every iteration.
The TAS supports structured scripting and this has been implemented to a high standard, with a well-managed script library and minimal code duplication. The TAA will not support any more advanced scripting techniques. The test automation that has been achieved so far was well received at first but is now the target of increasing criticism. It is perceived as being old-fashioned, poorly documented and, in particular:
1. The test script maintenance overhead is becoming excessive because the test analysts frequently want data values to be changed.
2. Test analysts are complaining that a new test which is similar to an existing one, except for data values, requires a new high-level script, and that they must ask a technical test analyst to do this for them.
3. The nightly full regression run is taking a long time and there is a risk that, as more tests are added, it will soon take too long to run in the available window.
4. Some tests break frequently because of a slow response from the SUT.
5. Some transactions are difficult to verify because they rely on variables that cannot be seen through the UI of the SUT.
6. The UI of the TAF is difficult to learn.
Your new manager wants quick improvements to address items 1, 2 and 3. She has accepted that the TAA may need to be enhanced to support the improvements.
Which TWO improvements will BEST fit this scenario?
a) Transition the automation to data-driven testing
b) Transition the automation to keyword-driven testing
c) Adopt a set of standard verification methods
d) Review the test automation scripts for functional duplication
e) Implement hard-coded waits in scripts that have been affected by slow SUT response

• A. b and c
• B. a and d
• C. c and e
• D. a and b

What does contract testing verify?

• A. That data shared between services is consistent with specified rules
• B. That contractual provisions for supply of the SUT have been met
• C. That the service provider has defined the consumer's expectations
• D. That schema validation has been successfully performed

What outcome can happen as a result of a high level of test tool intrusion?

• A. Corruption of data in some test data sets
• B. Failures that will not be seen in production
• C. A greater need for configuration management controls
• D. Lack of repeatability of some test results