Exploratory Testing

Exploratory Testing is a software testing (hands-on, unscripted) approach where a tester simultaneously designs and executes tests based on their knowledge, experience, and intuition. Instead of following a pre-written script, the tester acts as a detective, actively exploring the application to find bugs and identify unexpected behaviors that might be missed by more formal testing methods.

Example: A tester is tasked with evaluating a new online banking portal. Instead of using a predefined set of test cases, they start Exploratory Testing by trying a series of actions that a normal user might not, such as logging in, quickly navigating to a different page, and then hitting the browser's back button. This unscripted path might reveal a session management flaw where they are still logged in but now have access to a page they shouldn't, a problem that a typical scripted test might not have found.