What is white-box testing?

What is white-box testing?

• A. A method of software testing that tests internal structures or workings of an application, as opposed to its functionality.
• B. Tests external functionality only.
• C. Tests user acceptance.
• D. Tests performance under load.

Answer: (A)

White-box testing is about looking inside the code to verify how the software is implemented. It uses knowledge of the internal structure, logic, and data flow to design tests that exercise specific paths, branches, and statements. The goal is to ensure the code behaves correctly for how it's written, not just for what it’s supposed to do from an external perspective. This is why the description that it tests internal structures or workings, as opposed to just external functionality, matches white-box testing. Testing external functionality only aligns with black-box testing, where you don’t rely on internal code structure. User acceptance testing focuses on whether the system meets user needs, not on code internals. Performance under load is about how the system behaves under stress, i.e., load testing.

White-box testing is about looking inside the code to verify how the software is implemented. It uses knowledge of the internal structure, logic, and data flow to design tests that exercise specific paths, branches, and statements. The goal is to ensure the code behaves correctly for how it's written, not just for what it’s supposed to do from an external perspective. This is why the description that it tests internal structures or workings, as opposed to just external functionality, matches white-box testing.

Testing external functionality only aligns with black-box testing, where you don’t rely on internal code structure. User acceptance testing focuses on whether the system meets user needs, not on code internals. Performance under load is about how the system behaves under stress, i.e., load testing.