Ask HN: Do you think QA engineer should know how to code and why?

[youngdev]

Friend of mine is a QA engineer. I been asking him to learn to code to personal and professional benefits.

Just curious do you think a QA engineer needs to know how to code? If yes, then why and which language he should learn?

As a QA they get to work on applications devloped on different tech stacks. So which language would a benefit the most for a QA engineer.

[mixmastamyk]

Yes, definitely the engineer should code and write tests. (That's why they're called engineers.) The analyst is the one who doesn't need to, but of course it couldn't hurt either.

I recommend python for simplicity and power. But perl or ruby would be fine too if they are a core tech at your company.

[Toph]

Agree they should learn. Disagree that's why they're called "engineers". Plenty of engineers in various fields don't code.

[youngdev]

Mixmastamyk, thanks for your reply. The problem is if he learns python and lands next job which is completely .Net shop or Java shop, how would python benefit him there?

Since he is in valley I think it makes sense for him to learn Core Java with test automation tools like Selenium. What are your thoughts?