The best Gherkin-style acceptance tests are business-oriented, behavior-driven, and avoid unnecessary technical or UI details. They describe actions in a way stakeholders can understand, focusing on system behavior rather than implementation mechanics.
Option A follows Gherkin conventions:
GIVEN clearly describes the system state (account balances).
WHEN describes a user action (transferring funds).
THEN describes a verifiable outcome (account balances updated correctly).
Option B includes unnecessary UI actions like clicking buttons or field names, which are implementation-specific and violate the abstraction level expected of acceptance tests.
Option C uses appropriate structure but introduces incorrect balances in the THEN step (possibly a typo; $4500 on X is wrong if funds were transferred from Y to X).
Option D uses improper syntax — WHEN is misused as another GIVEN, and THEN describes a computation rather than a system behavior.
Exact Reference – ISTQB CTFL Acceptance Testing Syllabus (Section 2.2.2):
“Acceptance criteria in BDD are best captured through Gherkin scenarios that are understandable by business stakeholders and focus on expected outcomes, not implementation details.”
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