Hi,
I am currently going for an interview for position as test engineer at software company. What should I prepare for the interview? since I am new to this position actually. Also, are there any resources to learn about test engineer?
While I'm sceptical of the ISTQB certification as such (I'm certified, nobody ever cared), I agree with ahoka that the syllabus offers you a very useful guideline to understand the field of testing, especially the nuances and tradeoffs involved.
Go through it, and think about things like the seven testing principles.
If I were to interview you, I'd also throw a whiteboard-ish test at you: I'd pose a problem to you (say, I'd explain a function) and ask you to find test cases.
It's been my observation that this kind of exercise is pretty good at separating the wheat from the chaff: I could see who dares to ask questions, I could see who systematically walks the problem space, I could see who even thinks of testing not just the functional requirements, but also the non-functional ones.
Most importantly, I could use this as a way into a discussion, and see how people carry themselves in such a (vaguely work-like) situation.
I suspect the interviews I conducted were on the more rigorous side, so you might be spared whiteboard tests, but in any case it can't hurt to to try and exercise actually creating and reasoning about test cases.
Also, it can't hurt to find out about the testing tools they use. Either you can find them outright, or you can at least make educated guesses about what they use based on the technologies they build their product on. Actually trying them out would be asking too much, but at least get a feel for what their purposes and limitations are.
I have never worked as a test engineer but as far as I know most large companies use the ISTQB certification, and it covers most of the basic test know-how.
Test Engineer is a broad term. I would look at the job description and prepare accordingly.
Here are some things you should look into:
- Types of testing: white/black box, functional vs non-functional, API testing, browser-based testing
- If you are asked to write test points for a function/form etc. make sure you cover positive, negative, edge cases, upper/lower limit etc.
I understand about white/black box testing, functional vs non functional. But I am confused on covering positive, negative, egde cases part, could you please explain this.
Maybe there are still companies out there that do the defunct record-actions-and-replay approach to automation, but luckily my experience was just as heavy on the engineering side as any of the software engineering work I've done since I "switched". You just don't get as much respect from the software engineer crowd because building CRUD APIs using web frameworks is considered engineering and building an automation framework from scratch is considered QA.
Sorry if I came off on the offensive, just didn't like seeing "engineer" in quotes.
[+] [-] InternetOfStuff|7 years ago|reply
Go through it, and think about things like the seven testing principles.
If I were to interview you, I'd also throw a whiteboard-ish test at you: I'd pose a problem to you (say, I'd explain a function) and ask you to find test cases.
It's been my observation that this kind of exercise is pretty good at separating the wheat from the chaff: I could see who dares to ask questions, I could see who systematically walks the problem space, I could see who even thinks of testing not just the functional requirements, but also the non-functional ones. Most importantly, I could use this as a way into a discussion, and see how people carry themselves in such a (vaguely work-like) situation.
I suspect the interviews I conducted were on the more rigorous side, so you might be spared whiteboard tests, but in any case it can't hurt to to try and exercise actually creating and reasoning about test cases.
Also, it can't hurt to find out about the testing tools they use. Either you can find them outright, or you can at least make educated guesses about what they use based on the technologies they build their product on. Actually trying them out would be asking too much, but at least get a feel for what their purposes and limitations are.
[+] [-] merbot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ahoka|7 years ago|reply
I have never worked as a test engineer but as far as I know most large companies use the ISTQB certification, and it covers most of the basic test know-how.
[+] [-] merbot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ankitsoni|7 years ago|reply
Good luck!
[+] [-] merbot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gwbas1c|7 years ago|reply
(Sometimes this isn't clear, because at the beginning of our careers a lot of us want to be developers.)
[+] [-] ilikehurdles|7 years ago|reply
Sorry if I came off on the offensive, just didn't like seeing "engineer" in quotes.
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
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