Which black-box testing technique executes all valid and invalid state transitions?

State transition testing is a black-box testing technique specifically designed to evaluate the behavior of a system based on its states and the transitions between those states. This technique is particularly useful for systems where the output is dependent on the current state and the conditions leading to transitions between those states.

In state transition testing, the tester defines a state diagram or state table that outlines all possible states the system can be in and the events or conditions that trigger transitions from one state to another. The execution of this testing method ensures that both valid transitions (those that the system should allow according to its specification) and invalid transitions (those that the system should prevent or handle appropriately) are assessed. This allows for a comprehensive verification of the system’s response across all scenarios, ensuring it behaves correctly under usable conditions while also managing error situations effectively.

The other techniques listed do not focus primarily on state transitions. Pairwise testing mainly addresses combinations of input parameters to identify issues within parameter interactions. Exploratory testing is more about simultaneously learning, test design, and execution without a predefined set of steps, and orthogonal array testing involves statistical methods to optimize test coverage, but again does not explicitly deal with state transitions. Thus, state transition testing stands out as the most appropriate technique for the prompt,