Skip to content
SDETRole
SDETRole

Learning path 01 · Beginner

Software Testing Fundamentals

Start here if you are new to QA or want to make your fundamentals interview-proof. You will learn where testing fits in delivery, how to design test cases that find bugs, and how to report defects that get fixed.

Start the path

0/11 lessons completed

What you will be able to do

  • Explain the seven testing principles and the difference between an error, a defect and a failure
  • Place testing activities correctly in Waterfall, V-Model, Agile and DevOps life cycles
  • Walk through the six STLC phases with their entry criteria, exit criteria and deliverables
  • Derive test cases with equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision tables and state transitions
  • Write test scenarios from user stories and acceptance criteria
  • Report a defect that gets fixed, and argue severity and priority separately during triage
  • Choose between smoke, sanity, regression and exploratory testing for a given release

Prerequisites

  • No prior testing or programming experience needed
  • Basic familiarity with using web or mobile apps

Who this path is for

New QA engineers, developers moving into testing, and anyone preparing for a first QA or SDET interview. Experienced testers can use it to make their vocabulary interview-precise.

Syllabus: 11 lessons

  1. 01 Introduction to Software Testing What testing is, why it exists, the seven testing principles explained without myths, and the vocabulary of errors, defects and failures you will use every day.
  2. 02 SDLC: Where Testing Fits The software development life cycle phases, the main models (Waterfall, V-Model, iterative, Agile, DevOps) and exactly where testing activities belong in each.
  3. 03 STLC: The Software Testing Life Cycle The six STLC phases from requirement analysis to test closure, with entry and exit criteria, deliverables and how the cycle compresses inside an Agile sprint.
  4. 04 Test Case Design Techniques Equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision tables, state transitions, pairwise and experience-based techniques, with worked examples you can reuse.
  5. 05 Writing Test Scenarios What a test scenario is, how it differs from a test case and a test condition, and a repeatable method for deriving scenarios from user stories and acceptance criteria.
  6. 06 The Bug Lifecycle The states a defect moves through from New to Closed, who moves it, what each resolution means, and how to write defect reports that get fixed instead of bounced.
  7. 07 Severity vs Priority Severity measures a defect's impact; priority measures how soon to fix it. Learn the levels, the four quadrants with examples, and how to argue triage decisions well.
  8. 08 Regression Testing Why changes break things that used to work, how to select regression tests by risk and impact, and how to build a regression suite that stays fast and trustworthy.
  9. 09 Smoke vs Sanity Testing Smoke tests check a build is stable enough to test at all; sanity tests check a specific change works before deeper testing. Learn when to use each and how to automate them.
  10. 10 Exploratory Testing Simultaneous learning, test design and execution: how to run focused exploratory sessions with charters, heuristics and notes that produce results you can report.
  11. 11 Agile and Scrum for Testers How testing works inside Agile teams: the Scrum roles, events and artifacts, where a tester contributes in each, acceptance criteria, Definition of Done and the testing quadrants.

How the fundamentals path is structured

The path moves from why testing exists to how a tester works day to day. Introduction to Software Testing sets up the vocabulary, then SDLC and STLC show where testing happens and what it produces. The middle of the path is the most valuable part: Test Case Design Techniques and Writing Test Scenarios teach you to choose tests deliberately instead of listing everything you can think of.

The last lessons cover the work around execution: the bug lifecycle, severity vs priority, regression, smoke and sanity testing, exploratory sessions and how testers fit into Scrum.

What to practise alongside each lesson

Reading definitions is not enough to pass a screening round. Pair the lessons with small exercises:

Common mistakes beginners make

  • Treating severity and priority as the same field. Severity is impact; priority is fix order, and they often disagree.
  • Testing only the happy path. Most real defects sit at boundaries, in invalid input and in state changes such as logging out mid-checkout.
  • Writing test cases so detailed that nobody maintains them. A scenario plus clear expected results is often enough for exploratory work.
  • Calling every quick check a "smoke test". Smoke tests ask whether a build is testable at all; sanity tests check one specific change.

Suggested study plan

Most learners can finish the path in two to three weeks at 30–45 minutes a day. Do the lessons in order, because later lessons use the terms defined earlier. If you already work in QA, skim the first three lessons and spend your time on test design and triage, which interviewers probe with scenario questions such as "how would you test a login page?". When you are done, continue with Programming for Testers or the SDET roadmap.

Type to search across SDETRole.

Full-text search by Pagefind · runs in your browser Open search page →