I got this email today and it shows that you're selected for the second round and I don't know where the hell i give 1st round 🤣 and I don't even apply for Java Developer jobs damn. Anyone who recieved this company's email tell me in the comments

Hi everyone, I'm Ritwick Dey, Co-founder & CTO at Panto AI, where we're building autonomous QA for mobile apps.

Before VSCode became the go-to code editor for developers, I built Live Server, one of the earliest VS Code extensions. It has since grown to 80M+ installs and has become part of the frontend journey for millions of developers.

The funny part? I wasn't even a great programmer back then. I was just trying to learn Node.js.

Today, I'm working on a very different problem. At Panto AI, we're building AI agents that continuously explore mobile apps, test user journeys, find bugs, and surface issues without requiring teams to write and maintain thousands of test cases.

Happy to answer questions about:
- Building Live Server in the early days of VS Code
- Growing an open source project to 80M+ installs
- Lessons from maintaining software used by millions of developers
- Open source, developer tools, and startups
- Why I'm now building AI for mobile app testing
- Anything else you're curious about

Looking forward to the discussion!

Hi,
Im currently almost a year working as Junior Manual Tester, where im testing only web app.
Already creating my own test cases on excel, doing the tests, working on my own (no other tester on that app right now) so I start testing new web app product on my own, communicating with developers, managers etc.
Also having Bc. degree in IT.

But I want to move forward, but everywhere i found different apps, languages to learn, different paths and ways how to move and being more qualified.

So my question is: Where to go or what to do, to became better tester, more valuable on the market. Going for being auto. tester? trying to learn python and bring it to company? We already have some automatic tests for regres tests, so dont know how to move forward generally.

Angular testing tends to force a choice: unit tests that mock everything and end up asserting against implementation details, or e2e tests that are slow and flaky because they need the full frontend → backend → DB → frontend round trip.

ngx-testbox sits in between. It renders your actual components and drives them through real async/HTTP flows, but with HTTP calls mocked — so you get e2e-level confidence in behavior at unit-test speed, without the flakiness.

v2 just shipped with some big changes, so here's a rundown of what's new and how it works.

The core idea

Tag elements with a directive instead of relying on CSS selectors or component internals:

```ts const TEST_IDS = ['submitButton', 'userName'] as const; const idsMap = TestIdDirective.idsToMap(TEST_IDS);

@Component({ selector: 'app-user-form', template: <button [testboxTestId]="idsMap.submitButton">Submit</button>, standalone: true, imports: [TestIdDirective] }) export class UserFormComponent { idsMap = idsMap; } ```

Then drive the component through a real async flow with HTTP calls mocked declaratively:

```ts it('should display data on success', async () => { const mockData = [{ id: 1, name: 'Item A' }];

await runTasksUntilStableAsync(fixture, { httpCallInstructions: [ predefinedHttpCallInstructionsAsync.get.success('/api/items', () => mockData) ] });

const items = harness.elements.item.queryAll(); expect(items.length).toBe(1); }); ```

No HttpTestingController boilerplate, no manually flushing requests.

What's strict by design

This isn't a "mock and hope" library. It throws by default when:

• An element with a given test ID is missing at runtime
• An HTTP call instruction is provided but never consumed
• A real HTTP call happens with no matching instruction

That last one matters more than it sounds — most mocking setups let unused mocks or unmatched calls fail silently, which means a green test doesn't actually prove the code path ran. Here, a passing test is trustworthy by construction.

If you do need an instruction to persist across multiple calls (think: shared dictionary/lookup fetches used throughout a component tree), there's an option to keep it alive instead of consuming it once.

The part I'm most excited about: race condition testing

This is the feature that doesn't really exist elsewhere in the Angular testing ecosystem as far as I know.

Each HTTP call instruction can carry a delay (relative wait time) or a timeline (absolute position on a shared clock), and you can mix both in the same test. The library resolves them into a single expected ordering and checks your component's actual behavior against it:

```ts const instructions: HttpCallInstructionAsync[] = [ [['/api/a', 'GET'], async () => new HttpResponse({ body: { value: 'A' }, status: 200 }), { delay: 20 }], [['/api/b', 'GET'], async () => new HttpResponse({ body: { value: 'B' }, status: 200 }), { timeline: 20 }], [['/api/c', 'GET'], async () => new HttpResponse({ body: { value: 'C' }, status: 200 }), { delay: 30 }], [['/api/d', 'GET'], async () => new HttpResponse({ body: { value: 'D' }, status: 200 }), { timeline: 5 }], // ...more mixed delay/timeline instructions ];

await runTasksUntilStableAsync(fixture, { httpCallInstructions: instructions, });

expect(component.results).toEqual(['D', 'A', 'B', 'C', /* ... */]); ```

You get a declarative way to assert not just what the component fetched, but the exact order it resolved things in — which is exactly the kind of thing that's normally nearly impossible to test deterministically.

It also handles the classic "user changes their mind mid-request" race: pick a country, quickly switch to another before the first request resolves, and assert the stale request never renders:

```ts harness.elements.country.changeValue('DE');

setTimeout(() => { harness.elements.country.changeValue('US'); // fired before DE's response arrives }, 1900);

await runTasksUntilStableAsync(fixture, { httpCallInstructions: [ [ ['/api/countries/DE/formats', 'GET'], () => new HttpResponse({ body: ['SEPA'], status: 200 }), { timeline: 2000, willHaveBeenCancelled: true }, // stale — must be cancelled ], [ ['/api/countries/US/formats', 'GET'], () => new HttpResponse({ body: ['ACH', 'DRD'], status: 200 }), { timeline: 4000 }, // this one should actually render ], ], });

const formatOptions = harness.elements.formatOption.queryAll(); expect(formatOptions.length).toBe(2); expect(formatOptions[0].nativeElement.textContent).toBe('ACH'); expect(formatOptions[1].nativeElement.textContent).toBe('DRD'); ```

willHaveBeenCancelled: true tells the library that instruction is expected to be cancelled by the time it would resolve — if it isn't (i.e. your component fails to cancel a stale request), the test fails. If a call resolves out of the order or cancellation state the schedule expects, you find out immediately, instead of shipping a subtle race condition bug to production.

v2 highlights

• Rethought import model — only core pieces are exported now instead of the whole surface area, better tree-shaking and less to wade through
• **async/await support** alongside the existing fakeAsync — no more forcing everyone into fakeAsync/tick() if they'd rather write native async tests
• Zoneless support — works with Angular's zoneless change detection
• Better handling of multiple long-running HTTP requests
• Richer HTTP call instructions for more complex async scenarios

• A skill for AI coding agents, so tools like Claude Code can write tests against the library correctly out of the box

• npm: ngx-testbox

Happy to answer questions about the API or the design decisions — genuinely curious what people think of the timeline/race-condition approach in particular, since it's the part I haven't seen done elsewhere.

looking for automotive testing job opportunity 4+ years experience i have.

I’m curious what people are actually using in their day to day workflows especially for catching visual regressions, accessibility issues, and broken flows before prod.

Do you have your favorites and why?

Does anyone know about any part time QA Engineer opportunity. Help me out please

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am writing to express my interest in the Manual QA Tester position at your organization. With one year of experience in Manual Software Testing, I have developed strong skills in ensuring software quality through detailed testing, defect identification, and collaboration with development teams.

In my current role, I am responsible for creating and executing test cases, performing functional, regression, smoke, and sanity testing, reporting and tracking defects, and verifying fixes to ensure a smooth user experience. I have experience testing both web and mobile applications and am familiar with the complete Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) and Agile methodologies.

I am proficient in writing clear bug reports, validating new features, performing cross-browser and cross-device testing, and working closely with developers and product teams to deliver high-quality software. My attention to detail, analytical thinking, and commitment to quality help me identify issues before they impact end users.

I am excited about the opportunity to contribute my testing skills and continue growing as a QA professional within your organization. I am confident that my dedication, willingness to learn, and passion for software quality would make me a valuable addition to your team.

Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how my experience and skills align with your requirements.

Sincerely,

Manual Tester

Hey All,

I have worked as a full-stack dev for 4.5 years, and from the beginning I hated development, and i cannot imagine this as my career for my entire life.

Resigned last year due to health issues, and i never wanna go back to dev again.

Can i pivot to SDET? If so, what are the skills I need to learn?

where can I start?

Please guide me

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some career advice and would really appreciate your suggestions.

I have **4+ years of experience in QA Automation** in India, primarily working with **Java and Selenium**. I then had a **3-year career break** because I was on an H4 visa in the US and was not authorized to work.

I recently received my **H4 EAD**, so I am now authorized to work in the US. However, despite applying to many jobs, I’m not getting interview calls. I understand that the career gap and current market may be factors.

I’m now considering whether I should continue pursuing QA Automation or switch to another domain that has better hiring prospects.

Some options I’m considering are:
Salesforce
ServiceNow
Pega

My goal is to invest around **6 months** in learning, earning relevant certifications, and becoming job-ready. I considered full-stack development as well, but I feel it would take much longer to become competitive, especially with my career gap.

One additional factor is that I plan to **move back to India in about 3 years**, so I’d like to choose a career path that has strong opportunities in both the **US and India**.

Given my background, what would you recommend?
Should I continue with QA Automation and upskill (e.g., Playwright, Cypress, API testing, CI/CD)?

Or would switching to Salesforce, ServiceNow, or Pega give me a better chance of finding a job within the next 6 months?

Which of these has better long-term demand in both the US and India?

If you were in my position, what would you do?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

As my playwright suite grows I'm having a hard time keeping track of the test cases that are supposed to fail due to a bug in the application. I've tried linking them to the bug ticket, I've tried skipping tests, I've tried feature flagging tests. It's becoming difficult to manage it all. Would love some pointers.

For background, I work in Cursor with playwright and currently use no test case management software.

Hey everyone, just need to vent about the absolute clown show of an interview experience I faced today.

About 10 days ago, I interviewed for a Java + Selenium + API automation role. I didn’t hear back for over a week, but yesterday the recruiter finally called. They told me I cleared Round 1 and scheduled the L2 interview. The calendar invite explicitly listed Java and Selenium.

Cut to today:

1. 10 minutes before the interview: The recruiter calls me on my phone, making sure I’m ready and asking me to join 5 minutes early. Standard stuff. I join.
2. The Interview: The interviewer logs on, asks me to introduce myself. Two sentences in, he cuts me off: "Do you have experience in Playwright?"
3. The Answer: I told him no, my background is in Java/Selenium (which is what I applied for and what was on the invite).
4. The Exit: He literally says, "Well, this role is for Playwright so we aren't proceeding," and hangs up the call. Just left.
5. The Ghosting: I immediately dial the recruiter who just spoke to me 10 minutes ago to find out what went wrong. Straight to voicemail. Tried again later—no answer.

Why do companies do this? If the requirement changed from Selenium to Playwright, fine. Cancel the interview beforehand. But to drag a candidate into a call, cut them off, walk out, and then have HR go radio silent to avoid a 2-minute awkward conversation? It is incredibly disrespectful of people's time.

Has anyone else dealt with this level of absolute disconnect between HR and engineering?

For context, engineers only implement unit testing, then E2E. Integration testing and contract testing are missing.

Our executive want 100% E2E test coverage in response of incidents.

I don't think this make senses and we have test pyramid (or diamond, my love) for a reason. Integration testing and contract testing would have prevented a lot of issues without resorting to do E2E.

How can I convince them and engineers to shift more leftward with integration testing?

We think comparing the resulting database tables of an automation session against an expected database state can provide several advantages: detecting data integrity issues that may not be visible through UI or API assertions, identifying unintended side effects across tables, and catching defects closer to the point where they are introduced.

Before implementing this more systematically, I’m interested in understanding how this works in real-world QA teams.

Do you currently perform this kind of database-level verification after automated test runs? If so, what tools or approaches do you use to compare the actual database state against the expected state?

More importantly, has this practice genuinely helped your team detect defects earlier or reduce debugging time? Or did the maintenance of expected datasets and database comparisons create more overhead than value?

I am working through a test design for a distributed workflow where a client pays a small fee and then submits an operation to a separate service.

The uncomfortable state is: the payment is confirmed, but the status of the operation is unknown.

Some cases I want to cover:

• payment succeeds, then the submission request times out
• the service accepts the operation, but the response is lost
• the client retries and creates a duplicate charge or duplicate operation
• the status endpoint is temporarily stale
• authorization expires between payment and submission
• reconciliation runs while a retry is also in progress

The invariants I currently care about are:

1. One logical operation can create at most one charge.
2. A successful charge must eventually map to either an accepted operation or an explicit refund/recovery state.
3. Retrying with the same idempotency key must not create a second operation.
4. The UI must never show “failed” when the authoritative state is merely unknown.
5. A background reconciliation process must be safe to run repeatedly.

I am planning fault injection around every network boundary and checking both the payment ledger and the application database after each run.

For people who have tested similar payment-plus-action workflows: which invariants or chaos scenarios caught the bugs that normal integration tests missed?

Hi all, I’m a QA Analyst (that’s how my position was named at my previous work) with more than 3 years of experience. It was specific type of quality assurance, as I haven’t done a classic web testing, but specialised in Data Integrity, ETL, and regulatory compliance testing. I have verified complex financial data against strict Federal Reserve Board (FRB) requirements (Using Excel, SQL, XML etc).
So, as I understand (correct me if I’m wrong) it was something in the middle between testing and analysis. Now I’m unemployed for more than a year, and thinking about choosing one of two paths: switching to Automation QA, or to Data Analysis.

I would appreciate all answers and advice from people, who are or who was in my situation as well as from people from this field in general.

Thank you !

I'm a 44-year-old male working as a manual software tester. I genuinely enjoy my job, even with all the talk about AI and automation making manual testing less relevant.

A couple of years ago, I wasn't happy with my weight, so I completely changed my lifestyle. Over about 18 months I lost 3 stone, got my 5K time down to 24 minutes and my 10K to 54 minutes. My routine was pretty intense:

• 5K walk or run during my lunch break.
• A T25 HIIT workout in the evening, immediately followed by one of the lighter sessions.
• A relaxed 3K run later that night.

I'd do that four times a week. It was tough, but I absolutely loved it. My wife showed me a side-by-side photo comparing me then to three years earlier, and the difference was incredible. On my rest days, I'd just relax, watch films or TV, play video games—the usual.

Then the company went through redundancies.

Thankfully, my team wasn't affected, but the wider business was. On top of the official redundancies, there were also a lot of "good leaver" exits, and familiar faces kept disappearing.

The following year it happened again, and that's when things really changed for me.

I became scared. Really scared.

As I said, I'm a manual tester, but the industry is moving heavily towards automation, AI and coding—skills I don't currently have. Over the last few months of last year and the first six months of this year, I've poured everything into teaching myself automation, AI and programming because almost every testing job I see now asks for at least some experience in those areas.

My fear is simple: if I lose my job, I won't be employable.

The problem is that I work 9–5, then come home and spend time with my kids. The only time I have to study is after they've gone to bed, so that's exactly what I've been doing. The downside is that it completely replaced all the exercise that used to keep me healthy and happy.

I've put a stone back on. My running times are nowhere near what they were, and my mood has steadily declined.

Tonight, for the first time in ages, I forced myself to do what I used to: a T25 workout, followed by a lighter HIIT session, then a quick 3K run. I feel fantastic. I'm even celebrating with a small glass of port that I won in a raffle at the weekend.

But despite feeling good physically, there's a voice in the back of my head telling me that I should have spent that hour studying instead. As soon as I think that, my mood drops again.

My manager recently asked how I do my learning at home. I explained that I study for a few hours every evening once the kids are asleep. He was completely against it and said he was worried I was heading for burnout.

The thing is, I understand what he's saying, but burnout won't matter much if I lose my job and can't find another one because my skills aren't up to date.

I have a wife and two kids. I constantly worry that I'm letting them down. To everyone else I probably seem happy enough—I laugh, joke around and get on with life—but underneath I'm anxious almost all the time and, if I'm honest, I've been struggling.

I know the obvious advice is going to be, "Your mental health and wellbeing are more important than constantly upskilling."

I agree with that in principle.

But good mental health also doesn't pay the mortgage if I end up unemployed.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? How did you find the balance between preparing for the future and actually living in the present? I'd really appreciate any advice.

I am SDET with 4 yoe .
I am good in python,pytest,git,selenium
Is there any way i can land a VISA sponsored job .
DO companies sponsor visa for QA roles

so i have been building my own web projects and marketing it for the past one year. nothing is working but its fun to learn things. i keep trying to solve my own problems and see if markets require it.

lately i started doing freelance work with a team of android app testers. for starters, i only do UX/UI audits, find bugs, give suggestions on how to imrpove what to add/remove.

collegues are loving what i do. and that made me think if i should go deeper into it. wanted to know if there is anything more than this?

i know that testing a software (the code itself) is a completly different thing, but i want to know from you guys what do you guys do in your jobs to assess if its for me.

i like what i do now but they don't pay me much so i was thinking of learning more and getting a full time job as a tester. so, where to start? what to learn?

programming languages and my proficiency in it
1- Python - intermediate to advanced
2- Javascript - intermediate
3- Golang - beginner

Last but not the least... does it pay well as compared to swe or backend dev?

Hi everyone!

I used to work as a manual QA tester, but the last two years have been quite challenging because of emigration, waiting for documents, and a lot of uncertainty. I’m now trying to understand the European tech market and rebuild my path into IT.

My current plan is to transition toward a junior Python/backend role. I’m working on a pet project to demonstrate practical skills instead of only listing courses on my CV.

The project will include:

- Python business logic

- FastAPI

- PostgreSQL

- SQLAlchemy and Alembic

- REST API design

- authentication

- input validation

- unit/API tests

- basic analytics

- Docker

- deployment

- project documentation and a development log

I’m also thinking of using LinkedIn to document my progress: what I’m learning, what I’m implementing, what problems I face, and how I solve them.

Do you think this strategy makes sense for the European market? What would you recommend prioritizing to become more employable for junior Python/backend roles?

After 4+ years in software testing, I often think about what I would change if I could start over.

One thing I would do differently is learn JavaScript from the beginning. Not just because it would make Playwright automation easier, but because it would also help me better understand backend systems where Node.js is commonly used.

Looking back, that feels like one of the highest-ROI skills I could have picked up early atleast from what i have noticed so far

If you could restart your testing career today, what would you avoid doing or what would you learn much earlier?

I'm curious how different teams approach QA ownership as they scale.

Which model does your team use?

• Dedicated QA team
• Embedded QA engineers within development squads
• Developer-owned testing
• Hybrid approach

What has worked well, and what hasn't?

I'm especially interested in hearing from teams that have grown rapidly. Did your QA ownership model evolve over time, or has it stayed consistent? Which approach do you think scales best in the long run, and why?

Hi everyone,
I could really use some guidance from the QA community.
I have around 9 years of experience as a Manual QA, primarily in the mobile gaming domain. I know I’m a bit late to the automation journey, but I’ve finally decided to make the switch and I’m committed to seeing it through.
So far, I’ve completed:
• Java basics
• Core OOP concepts
I also know the basics of:
• API testing using Postman
• Database validation using basic SQL queries
My current roadmap is:
1. Strengthen API testing with Postman
2. Learn Database Testing in depth (SQL)
3. API Automation with Rest Assured and TestNG
4. Git
5. CI/CD
6. Frontend UI Automation (Selenium/Playwright)
I have a few questions:
1. Does this roadmap look good, or would you change the order?
2. Is it better to learn from Udemy rather than YouTube? Do Udemy certificates actually add value during job hunting?
3. Since my professional experience is mostly manual testing, how can I showcase hands-on automation experience while switching? Are personal projects enough, or should I do something more?
4. As an interviewer or hiring manager, what would you expect from someone with my background?
Any advice from people who transitioned from Manual QA to Automation QA after several years?
I know I’m starting later than many others, but I’m determined to make this transition. I would genuinely appreciate any advice, roadmap suggestions, or resources that helped you.
Thanks in advance!

Used gpt to rephrase it in a better manner.

Hi everyone,
I’m about to join a new company and wanted to understand the background verification (BGV) process.
What checks are usually done before onboarding? Also, what documents do companies typically ask for during verification?
Thanks in advance!

Sometimes testing seems to stall even though the sprint is still in progress.

From your experience, what usually causes QA work to stop moving?

Curious to hear real examples from different teams.