Software testing test

scarymoon1

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but I have an assessment for a graduate software testing job next week, the test is an hour long. It will assess my maths and logic skills, knowledge of databases, testing, programming, and an optional section on programming languages. I've no idea how to prepare, I only did programming really in college and that was years ago. Did anyone ever do a test similar to this before? I really would love this job. Thanks

mark renton

wow - software testing must have changed dramatically since I earned my stripes 12 years ago

since when is programming required for testing software?

Manach

When I'm in the role of tester, usually part of that involves static testing the code before it is mainlined to help scan for issues.
As for DB skills, I'd suppose the ability to do basic SQL and check what are the common QA patterns encountered - ie how to spot if a DB connection is down etc.

samhail

The Maths and logic skills would be pretty straight forward. I wouldn't worry about it if you were happy with maths and things like that in college.
With databases. get an refresher/overview of them and have a look at some SQL queries. all that you would need.
Options of Programming would probably be c/c++; Java; or Web technologies. so if you know what the code looks like you would be fine.
If it's a graduate testing job then you wouldn't need to know much if anything about testing at this stage.
Sounds like you are really looking forwarding to working with this company.
Best of Luck with the interview (and if I'm right enjoy SA... been there )

kayos

john47832 wrote: »

wow - software testing must have changed dramatically since I earned my stripes 12 years ago

since when is programming required for testing software?

Depending on the tools used for automation it can be a part.

Zulu

Scripting is useful for system testing and environment prep, but thats as close to development I've ever gotten in 12 years. (Hey John we must have started the same year!)

I guess if they're looking for someone to aid in test automation and they are utilising a test driven development approach, they want fairly good dev skills, but I've never seen that implemented to such an extent. Agile, huh? pffffft.

Aswerty

Well this sounds like a test job similar to what MS and Google have, a software development engineer in test (SDET). This as far as I know means unit testing, regression testing and developing test suites for products. There is a huge difference between this and straight up usability testing.

Then again they might just want someone to understand the technologies listed and the job isn't for an SDET but a more traditional tester.

veryangryman

john47832 wrote: »

wow - software testing must have changed dramatically since I earned my stripes 12 years ago

since when is programming required for testing software?

If your a good tester (i admit there are few out there) you should be using programming all the time to automate some of your tests/make them more efficient. Only so many hours in the day to get them done otherwise. Certainly for regression tests

mark renton

Ahh yes - the good old days were so simple, all we had to worry about then was how to fit 4 images onto 1 floppy disk

my biggest claim to fame from the glory days: Outlook 2003, File Menu - see where all the text is nicely aligned and hotkeys are not duplicated - that was me - the thanks button below I feel is insufficient in this case but its all we have...

Zulu

john47832 wrote: »

- the thanks button below I feel is insufficient in this case but its all we have...

With 12 years under your belt, you should have learned that there is no thanks in testing!

veryangryman wrote: »

If your a good tester (i admit there are few out there) you should be using programming all the time

If only life was that simple. It all depends what your testing, where you're testing, and how your testing.
Also, its worth noting that there's a vast difference between scripting & development. I wouldn't compare my scripting to what some of the developers I know do, likewise, I'd laugh if they compared their unit tests to what I produce.

...but this is all very OT.

Mr. Loverman

Zulu wrote: »

With 12 years under your belt, you should have learned that there is no thanks in testing!

You said it. It's gotta be the most thankless job out there.

If you say quality is bad and the release date needs to be moved, they get angry at you. If you give in to the pressure and let the software release as scheduled and any customers complain about quality, they get angry at you.

Basically it's a no-win job unless you have a strong development team who produce quality code. Which rarely happens.

**** I hope I never have to work in testing again...

RedXIV

If you did programming in college before and actually understood it you should be fine. Pretty sure I know who you're going for a job with (us!) and I did programming in college and found the test handy enough.

The databases isn't too bad either, just get to grips with the most common commands and you'll be fine.

Best of Luck!

mark renton

Zulu wrote: »

With 12 years under your belt, you should have learned that there is no thanks in testing!

Yea - I was reaching there, and such is the reason I am no longer a sw tester though I do have to test in current position on a fairly regular basis, and would say entry level sw testing has stood me well

the op's specifications sound much nearer QA to me than entry level sw testing