If you are a chemistry student, you might already know how to check if a battery is dead or not without using any technical instrument but if you do not have a science background then knowing a few tidbits will help you immensely.
The one and only hack that you would need for this purpose is throwing your battery on to a hard surface. Yes, only that! The dead alkaline batteries basically produce a gas that fills up inside the battery box thus, when you throw the battery on to a hard surface in a vertical position, it makes a thump sound and usually keeps on standing. While if the battery has not yet worn out, it will make a muffled sound and will bounce off repeatedly. Simple, right? Go try it for yourself now!
h/t: Gizmodo