Bug Life Cycle Explained — With Jira Workflow (2026)

Last updated 2026-07-20 · 9 min read · By Avinash K

"Draw the bug life cycle" is the #1 whiteboard question at QA interviews in India and remains a favorite in the US. Candidates who list only 4 states fail; those who explain Deferred and Reopened with real examples pass. This guide walks the full workflow using the standard Jira setup.

Key takeaways

• The 9-state defect life cycle recruiters expect you to draw.
• The 3 transitions candidates most often forget.
• How Deferred vs Rejected differs — and why it matters.
• A JQL query for your daily triage.

New → Assigned → Open → Fixed → Retest → Verified → Closed
                        ↓             ↑
                     Deferred      Reopened
                        ↓
                     Rejected / Duplicate / Not-a-bug

Nine states, six transitions. Practice drawing this in 60 seconds and explaining each arrow.

• New — filed, not yet triaged.
• Assigned — engineering owner set.
• Open / In progress — developer actively working.
• Fixed — code merged, awaits QA validation.
• Retest — deployed to test env.
• Verified — QA confirmed fix.
• Closed — released to prod.
• Reopened — fix failed or regressed.
• Deferred / Rejected / Duplicate / Not-a-bug — terminal, non-fix outcomes.

Deferred = valid bug, low priority, pushed to a later release. Rejected = not a bug (works as designed, or requirements mismatch). Never mark a valid bug Rejected just to close it — that is how tech debt hides.

Configure the workflow above in Jira Admin → Workflows. For daily triage:

project = QA AND status in (New, Reopened) AND assignee = currentUser() ORDER BY priority DESC

See Atlassian's workflow reference for the JSON schema.

Pair this with Selenium interview questions and rehearse live with the AI mock interview. Cross-reference with severity vs priority — see our 30 real bug examples.