What a junior QA engineer should know

Why entry is faster here

The bar is lower: you don't need to write complex programs to start being useful. The foundation is attentiveness, systematic thinking and the ability to describe problems clearly.

The path continues, too: many move into test automation and from there into development.

A caveat: "faster" doesn't mean "easy". A good tester is someone who can think about how things might break, and that's a distinct cast of mind.

What you need at the start

Types and levels of testing. What checking new functionality means versus checking that nothing old broke, and how testing a single part differs from testing the whole system.

How to write test cases. Clear steps, an expected result, preconditions. A test another person can't execute is useless.

How to write bug reports. The most important practical skill. A good report contains: the steps taken, what was expected, what happened, and where and under what conditions.

A bad report is "the button doesn't work". Those get sent back, and you lose time.

How the web works. Requests and responses, status codes, browser tools. You need it to distinguish an interface failure from a server failure.

Databases at a basic level. Selecting with a condition — to check that data really was saved.

Tools for inspecting requests. Being able to send a request by hand and read the response.

What comes later

• Test automation.
• Load testing.
• Security testing.
• Test management systems.

Building a tester's portfolio

Harder than a developer's, but achievable:

Write a test set for an existing service. Take any application and produce a considered set of checks for one section. Publish it.

Document bugs you find. Look for defects in open projects and report them properly. That's public proof you can describe problems.

Test someone's pet project. Find a person building something and offer to test it. They benefit; you get real experience and a reference.

The last is the most valuable: you work with a live author, discuss priorities and learn to explain why a defect should be fixed. That's exactly what interviews ask about.

What's expected of you at entry

Not knowledge of every term. Attentiveness, thoroughness, and the ability to describe a problem so that it can be reproduced.

Testing that is simple: take any website, find three non-obvious problems, and write each up properly. If you managed it, you're ready to apply.