Course
Study in order by section. Practice work happens in the Lab (HelpDesk, API, work board) — separate from these study tracks.
Practical
Lab UI/API/release quizzes
1 · Selenium
Automation lessons
2 · Senior QA
Judgment cases
3 · Professional QA
Full disciplines
Lab · Work
HelpDesk + reports
Study track
Practical Lab assessments
For Python-fluent learners: real HelpDesk UI/API/release/reporting checkpoints (not Python basics).
1. Practical — Selenium on HelpDesk
Real automation scenarios against HelpDesk UI. Assumes you already know Python.
- UI automation checkpoint (25 min)
2. Practical — HelpDesk API
Contract and auth checks against /lab/api/ using requests (Python assumed).
- API practical checkpoint (25 min)
3. Practical — Releases & regression
Deploy Lab releases, predict breakage, retest, and sign off like production QA.
- Release regression checkpoint (25 min)
4. Practical — Defects & reporting
Write production-grade defects and test reports from Lab findings.
- Reporting checkpoint (20 min)
5. Practical — End-to-end QA workflow
Capstone: plan → execute Lab work → automate critical path → report like a hire-ready QA.
- E2E workflow checkpoint (30 min)
Study track
Selenium automation
Learn to drive browsers with Python — locators, waits, POM, CI basics.
6. Getting Started
Install Selenium, start a browser, and open a page from Python.
- Install Selenium and WebDriver (8 min)
- Your first automation script (10 min)
7. Finding Elements
Use ID, CSS, and XPath locators to target page elements reliably.
- Locators: ID, CSS, and XPath (12 min)
- find_element vs find_elements (8 min)
8. Interactions
Type into fields, click buttons, and work with selects and checkboxes.
- Typing and clicking (10 min)
- Selects and checkboxes (12 min)
9. Waits
Replace brittle sleeps with explicit waits for dynamic pages.
- Explicit waits with WebDriverWait (14 min)
10. Assertions & Structure
Turn scripts into real tests with clear assertions and pytest style.
- Assertions that catch regressions (10 min)
- Organizing tests with pytest (12 min)
11. Page Object Model
Hide selectors behind page classes to keep tests readable.
- Intro to Page Objects (14 min)
12. Alerts, Frames & Windows
Switch context for dialogs, iframes, and multiple windows.
- Handling JavaScript alerts (10 min)
- Windows and iframes (12 min)
13. Headless & Next Steps
Run browsers without a UI and prepare for CI pipelines.
- Headless Chrome and CI tips (10 min)
Study track
Senior QA judgment
Real-case decisions: severity, risk, flakes, escapes, what to automate.
14. Senior QA — Real Cases
Judgment calls senior QA faces: risk, severity, flakes, releases, and escape analysis. Practice in the Lab HelpDesk.
- Severity vs priority in production defects (15 min)
- Risk-based testing before a release (18 min)
- Flaky automation and CI triage (16 min)
- Escape analysis and production incidents (16 min)
- What to automate vs explore in HelpDesk (14 min)
Study track
Professional QA engineering
Degree-style track: strategy, design techniques, API, perf, security, a11y, mobile, CI/CD, soft skills, career.
15. QA Foundations — Strategy & Planning
Build a test strategy, plan scope/risk, and write testable acceptance criteria.
- Writing a test strategy (20 min)
- Test planning and estimation (18 min)
16. Test Design Techniques
Equivalence partitioning, BVA, decision tables, state transition, pairwise, and exploratory charters.
- Equivalence partitioning and BVA (20 min)
- Decision tables and state transition (18 min)
- Pairwise and exploratory testing (18 min)
17. API & Contract Testing
HTTP APIs, status codes, schemas/contracts, and auth—practice on HelpDesk JSON API.
- HTTP API testing fundamentals (20 min)
- Contract and schema testing (18 min)
18. Performance Testing Basics
Latency, throughput, load vs stress vs soak, and reading simple results.
- Performance concepts and SLOs (18 min)
- Designing a minimal performance check (16 min)
19. Security Testing Basics
AuthZ/AuthN, OWASP-minded checks, secrets handling, and responsible disclosure habits.
- Auth, sessions, and authorization (18 min)
- OWASP-minded checks for web apps (18 min)
20. Accessibility Testing
WCAG mindset, keyboard, semantics, contrast, and automating a11y smoke checks.
- Accessible by design checks (16 min)
- Automated a11y smoke (14 min)
21. Mobile Testing
Mobile web vs native, viewports, gestures, device labs, and what to automate first.
- Mobile web quality risks (16 min)
- Native apps and device farms (overview) (14 min)
22. CI/CD, Quality Gates & Environments
Pipelines, gates, progressive delivery, and environment purpose.
- Pipelines and quality gates (18 min)
- Environments and progressive delivery (16 min)
23. Test Data, Environments & Observability
Data strategies, env parity, logs/metrics/traces, and using telemetry in QA.
- Test data management (16 min)
- Observability for QA (16 min)
24. Soft Skills — Stakeholders, Mentoring, Metrics
Communication, influence without authority, mentoring, and quality OKRs.
- Stakeholder communication (16 min)
- Mentoring and quality metrics/OKRs (16 min)
25. Career & Process — Agile, Compliance, Senior Bar
Agile QA participation, compliance awareness, and what “senior” looks like in hiring.
- Agile ceremonies for QA (16 min)
- Compliance awareness for QA (14 min)
- The senior QA hiring bar (18 min)