Software Testing

Start with software quality, then identify the checks that are worth automating.

• SDLC, STLC, functional and non-functional testing; unit, integration and end-to-end tests.
• Requirements, acceptance criteria, test cases and test-data design.
• Boundary values, equivalence classes, negative scenarios and risk-based coverage.
• Defect reporting, severity, priority, retesting and regression testing.

Practical exercisePrepare a test plan for a sample shopping application and select stable, high-value regression scenarios.

Develop the programming skills needed to read, write and maintain browser tests.

• Variables, data types, operators, conditions, loops and functions.
• Arrays, objects, modules, imports and reusable utilities.
• Promises, async/await, error handling and common asynchronous mistakes.
• TypeScript types, interfaces, optional properties and configuration.

Practical exerciseWrite typed helpers to generate test data and validate sample API response objects.

Create a Playwright Test project and understand the test execution lifecycle.

• Node.js, package management, project installation and browser dependencies.
• Test files, configuration, browser, context and page objects.
• Test isolation, hooks, annotations, tags and selecting test runs.
• Headed and headless execution; using code generation as a starting point for reviewed tests.

Practical exerciseCreate and run a small login test suite with independent browser contexts and clear assertions.

Make tests resilient by locating elements through user-facing meaning and checking observable behaviour.

• Role, label, text and test-id locators; scoped and filtered locators.
• Auto-waiting, actionability and web-first assertions.
• Visibility, text, URL, count and state assertions.
• Dynamic content, locator strictness and avoiding arbitrary sleep delays.

Practical exerciseAutomate a changing results page and replace brittle selectors and fixed waits with reliable checks.

Handle the controls and browser behaviours found in real web applications.

• Forms, dropdowns, checkboxes, tables and keyboard interactions.
• Frames, dialogs, multiple tabs and pop-up windows.
• File uploads, downloads, screenshots and event coordination.
• Positive, negative and validation scenarios for user journeys.

Practical exerciseAutomate registration, search and a checkout journey with validation and download checks.

Test services directly and use controlled network responses to make UI scenarios repeatable.

• HTTP methods, headers, authentication, status codes and JSON payloads.
• Playwright APIRequestContext and validating response data.
• Creating test prerequisites through APIs and cleaning up test data.
• Request interception, mocked responses and failed-network scenarios.

Practical exerciseBuild API checks and a UI scenario that verifies how the application handles an unavailable service.

Organise a growing test suite so that changes stay understandable and maintainable.

• Page Object Model responsibilities and reusable page/component actions.
• Built-in and custom fixtures, setup, teardown and fixture scope.
• Shared configuration, environment variables and helper modules.
• Separating assertions, test data and page behaviour without hiding test intent.

Practical exerciseRefactor the sample application tests into page objects and fixtures with a clear folder structure.

Cover different users and inputs while keeping tests independent and secrets protected.

• Authentication setup projects and reusable storage state.
• Multiple roles, isolated accounts and permission-based scenarios.
• Parameterised tests, typed datasets and meaningful test names.
• Test-data lifecycle, environment configuration and excluding secrets from source control.

Practical exerciseRun the same workflow for several user roles and input datasets, with separate authentication state.

Run the same checks across browser engines and control execution at scale.

• Projects for Chromium, Firefox and WebKit.
• Device emulation, viewports and responsive behaviour checks.
• Workers, parallel execution, sharding and independent test data.
• Retries, timeouts and identifying flaky tests without hiding defects.

Practical exerciseRun a cross-browser and mobile-viewport matrix, then investigate a browser-specific failure.

Turn a failed run into evidence that helps you locate and explain the cause.

• UI mode, Playwright Inspector and browser developer tools.
• Trace Viewer, screenshots, videos and network evidence.
• HTML and CI-friendly reports; attaching useful failure details.
• Distinguishing application defects, test defects and environment failures.

Practical exerciseDiagnose a failing test from its trace and produce a concise defect report with supporting evidence.

Make automated tests part of the team’s regular change and release process.

• Git workflows, pull requests and workflow triggers.
• Installing dependencies and Playwright browsers in CI.
• Environment secrets, browser matrices and controlled parallel runs.
• Uploading reports and traces, reviewing failures and setting quality gates.

Practical exerciseConfigure a GitHub Actions workflow that runs tests on a pull request and preserves reports for review.

Build a maintainable browser and API automation project and practise explaining your decisions.

• Scope a regression suite from requirements and user journeys.
• Combine page objects, fixtures, API setup and data-driven tests.
• Run cross-browser checks in CI and document results and known limitations.
• Practise JavaScript, TypeScript, Playwright and framework-design interview scenarios.

Practical exercisePresent a working automation repository with a test strategy, setup guide, CI results and debugging examples.