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Series · 7 parts · 33 min

QA Skills Path

  1. Part 15 min readBeginnerUp next

    The QA Skills Path for 2026: What to Learn, in What Order

    Learning testing tools in a random order leaves you with a suite that runs but can't say what it covers. Learn in order instead: test design, one language and the API, the UI, the checks functional tests miss, CI, then AI, all on one checkout.

  2. Part 24 min readBeginner

    Test Design Techniques: Pick the Few Tests That Find Bugs

    Testing with whatever values come to mind misses the bug at the edge and leaves a coverage claim nobody can check. Pick values with partitions, boundaries and decision tables, explore in timed sessions, and write bug reports a developer can reproduce.

  3. Part 34 min readBeginner

    Test Below the UI: Your First API Tests in Python

    Testing only through the UI is slow and misses what anyone can do with curl. Write your first pytest tests against the API: the €50.00 boundary, the order chain from login to delete, and the two-user test for broken object level authorisation.

  4. Part 45 min readIntermediate

    Why Your UI Tests Flake, and the Fix for Web and Mobile

    Flaky UI tests teach a team to ignore red. Fix the three usual causes: brittle locators, fixed sleeps and shared data. Use role and test-id locators, web-first assertions, API setup, Accessibility IDs on mobile, and same-day quarantine.

  5. Part 55 min readIntermediate

    Green Tests, Broken Checkout: The Checks Functional Tests Miss

    A green functional suite can't see a renamed field, a slow peak, an open security hole or a form a keyboard can't finish. Add a Pact contract, a k6 test against an SLO, a ZAP baseline scan, and axe plus a keyboard pass.

  6. Part 65 min readAdvanced

    Quality Gates in CI: Make Your Tests Block a Bad Merge

    Tests that run only when someone remembers put the gate in a person. Run them in four CI tiers that each block the next, keep the commit gate under ten minutes, give every run fresh data, and quarantine flaky tests the same day.

  7. Part 75 min readAdvanced

    AI in Testing: Use It Without Trusting It, and Test AI Features

    Trusting AI output gives you tests that can't fail and an assistant that invents policy. Review every AI-written test by breaking the feature on purpose, keep agents out of the gate, and test AI features with eval sets run in CI.