All The Useful Business Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Q 1. What are the responsibilities of a business analyst?

Building an exhaustive business analysis, which outlines the problems, opportunities, and solutions for business.
Allocation and anticipation
Planning and monitoring
Deviation reasoning
Estimation
Broadcasting
Characterizing business requirements and broadcasting them back to clients.

Q 2. What is the Difference Between Agile vs. Waterfall?

Agile   vs    Waterfall
Uses the iterative approach which allows in changing the scope of the project    - Uses the sequential approach where the project is divided into different phases
It is okay when the scope of the project is not defined  -    It is okay when the scope of the project is not defined Scope of the project should be defined beforehand
Availability of the customer is required through the entire project     -The availability of the customer is needed only when we reach the defined milestone.

Q 3. What is BRD? How is it different from SRS?
A Business Requirement Document centers around the business point of view as it holds the minutiae of the business explanation for a project.

BRD   Vs    SRS
Stands for Business Requirements Document    - Stands for Software Requirements Specifications
It includes the documentation of all the requirements provided by the client -    It includes the documentation describing the functional and non-functional requirements of the software
It represents the functional specification of the software    - It represents the functional as well as technical specifications of the software
It is created by Business Analysts -    It is created by System Architect

Q 4. Do you think flowcharts are important? Why or why not?
Yes, flowcharts are essential. One of the significant benefits of a flowchart is it gives the visual clarity on the process or progress.

With proper flow charts, it is easier to demonstrate the workflows to stakeholders. They can also play the mode of instant communication.

Q 5. What is Business Model Analysis?
A business model is an integrated framework to understand, design, and test your business assumptions in the marketplace. This model can be used in establishing new business opportunities or can help in the growth of an existing business in the marketplace.

Q 6. What are the most common reports that you've prepared as a business analyst?
General reports
Aggregate reports
Dashboard reports

Q 7. What is the difference between Business analysis and Business Analytics?

Business Analysis    vs Business Analytics
The primary focus is on processes, techniques, and functions.    - The primary focus is on data and statistical scrutiny.
Responsible for solving or managing complex business problems. -    Responsible for predicting future states.
Skills: Analysis, Documentation, Stakeholder management    - Skills: Statistics, data analysis, software programming

Note: This question is something that has been asked almost in all the business analyst interview questions.

Q 8. What approach do you use to collect business requirements?
There are multiple approaches that one should consider while gathering business requirements.

Brainstorming
Analysis of the document
Requirement workshops
Prototyping
Observation

Q 9. How do you perform risk management in your project?
Risk management is the process of examining, recognizing, and afterward reacting to any risk that emerges over the life cycle of a project.

Building a risk management convention into your organization's way of life by making a consistent arrangement of standard devices and layout, with proper training, can reduce overhead after some time.

Q 10. How do you decide that as a business analyst, you have gathered all the requirements?
They are classifying the significant stakeholders.
Objective and requirements are clearly defined.
They are classifying all the regulations, construction and design standards, closure on technology, budget, etc.
They are classifying the external interfaces which lie in between our system and, therefore, the outside world.

Q 11. What is SRS, and also explain its key elements?
A software requirements specification (SRS) is a comprehensive summary of software that needs to be developed. It contains all the requirements, whether they are functional or non-functional.

Essential Elements (in general SRS): 
Functional requirements
System requirements
Technical requirements
Constraint
Assumptions
Criteria of acceptance

Q 12. What is Gap Analysis?
A gap analysis process allows all the organizations to decide how to best accomplish their business objectives. With this analysis, one can compare the current state with an ideal state or goals, which features inadequacies and opens the door for improvement.

Note: The answer to this question varies domain to domain; technical skills might be needed if your field or profile relates to it. However, for general ba interview questions, the above mentioned is the perfect answer.

Q 13. What are the key strengths of a business analyst?
Key strengths of a business analyst
Communication skills
Problem-solving skills
Analytical skills
Good listener
Relationship building skills

Q 14. How will you define a good quality requirement as a business analyst?
Business analysts should have a clear picture of the client's business and the current state. Also, have a good idea about the problems they are facing for the same.

If BA gets the clarity on these things, then whatever the client quotes, BA will be able to analyze and provide the solution accurately.

Q 15. What are the problems that a business analyst may face?
Business analysts face many problems, such as:

The delusion of Business analysts' scope of work.
Change in client requirements or business needs.
Conflict with clients
Specifications created in the beginning are not satisfying the needs of developers.

Q 16. When creating a business plan, what are the main points a business analyst must address?

Client requirements or needs.
Business analysts should make a systematic plan which defines the people, process, technology, etc.

What business rule should apply here?
Future process map

Q 17. What is UML modeling?
Unified Modeling Language (UML) is used as a general-purpose designing language, especially in the field of software engineering.

Nowadays, people have found multiple ways to represent it in the form of workflows or processes with the use of several tools out there.

Q 18. What is requirement prioritization? What are the different techniques used for it?
Requirement prioritization is a way by which one can determine the candidate's requirements of a software product that should be included in a particular release.

Techniques used:
Ranking
Grouping
MoSCoW technique
Bubble Sort technique
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)