57 Business Analyst interview questions with answers

All Business Analyst interview questions

• Who is a Business Analyst? What are the main responsibilities on a software project?

• How does a Business Analyst differ from a Data Analyst?

• How does an IT Business Analyst differ from a pure business-side Business Analyst?

• Distinguish BA, Product Owner, and Project Manager. Where do the three overlap?

• What documents does a BA typically produce and use on a project?

• What skills does a BA need? How deep should the technical skills go?

• What strengths does a BA need to work effectively with many stakeholders at once?

• What are the career paths for a BA?

• Why did you choose the BA career? What motivates you toward this role?

• What is CBAP? Are BA certifications necessary?

• What are the phases of a software project? What does the BA do in each?

• How do you get up to speed on a completely new business domain?

• What difficulties do BAs commonly face during project delivery?

• Distinguish a need from a requirement. Why must a BA separate them?

• How do functional and non-functional requirements differ?

• How do you capture non-functional requirements when the client never raises them?

• What is a BRD? How does it differ from an SRS/FRD?

• What are the main components of an SRS document?

• What is requirement elicitation? Which techniques exist and how do you choose?

• How do you make sure requirements are complete and nothing was missed?

• As a BA, what criteria do you use to measure the quality of a requirement?

• How do you prioritize requirements? Which techniques are available?

• What is scope creep? What causes it and how do you prevent it?

• What is a Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) and what is it for?

• How does BABOK classify requirements?

• Requirements change mid-project — how do you manage change requests?

• How do you write a user story? What makes a good one?

• What is a use case? Explain the use case model.

• What is a use case diagram and when should you use it? What kinds of actors exist?

• How do alternate and exception flows differ? How do you identify alternate flows?

• In a use case diagram, how do include and extend differ?

• What steps do you follow to design a use case?

• What is an activity diagram? What are its main components?

• What is BPMN? What are its basic elements and how does it differ from a flowchart?

• Which diagrams do BAs commonly use? Name the two you use most and why.

• Compare sketch, wireframe, mockup, and prototype.

• What is a persona? What does a BA use personas for?

• How do Agile and Waterfall differ? How does BA work change between them?

• What does the Agile Manifesto say? How does it affect BA work?

• What is INVEST? How do you use it to evaluate a user story?

• What are Acceptance Criteria? Why write them and how do you write them well?

• How are user stories and use cases similar and different? When do you use each?

• What qualities does an Agile Business Analyst need?

• What is GAP analysis? When is it done and what kinds of gaps are there?

• What is Pareto analysis? What does a BA use it for?

• What is CATWOE? When is it used in business analysis?

• How do you assess the feasibility of a solution?

• How do risks and issues differ?

• What risk responses exist? How do mitigation and avoidance differ?

• Which tools does a BA typically use?

• How much SQL does a BA need? Which SQL questions come up in BA interviews?

• Should a BA take part in testing? What is the BA role in UAT?

• How do you handle conflicting requirements from different stakeholders?

• You find that a client requirement is not technically feasible. How do you handle it?

• A developer pushes back on a requirement you wrote. What do you do?

• What would you do when working with a difficult stakeholder who reacts sharply?

• Tell me about a time you missed a deadline.