How to Become a QA Engineer ?

How to Become a QA Engineer 

How to Become a QA Engineer- A complete Beginner’s Guide for Freshers 2026 

If you are fresher looking to start a career in IT and re confused about where to begin, becoming a QA ( Quality Assurance ) Engineer is a great option, QA Engineering does not requires advanced skills at the start, yet it offers strong career growth, good salaries, and many job opportunities across the industries How to Become a QA Engineer

This is guide explains what a QA Engineer does, skills required, tools to learn, career path, and step by step instructions to help you become QA Engineer from scratch How to Become a QA Engineer

1, What is QA Engineer?

A QA Engineer ensures that software works correctly before it is released to users, Their main responsibility is to find the bugs, errors, and issues in applications and make sure that product meet business and customer requirements

Simple Examples:

Imagine a food delivery app:

Login buttons doesn’t work

Payment fails after placing order

App crashes on clicking Track Order

A, QA Engineer finds these problems before customers face to them

2, Why choose QA Engineer as Fresher ?

QA is one of the best entry points into the IT industry

Benefits:

• Easy to start compared to development
• Less coding required initially
• High Demand in IT companies
• Opportunity to move into automation, DevOps, or management roles
• Work closely with developers, product mangers, and clients
• For freshers, QA help you understand how software is built, which is useful for long term growth

3, Types of QA Engineers

There are mainly two types of QA Engineers

1, Manual QA Engineers

• Tests Software manually
• Writes test cases
• Executes test scenarios
• Report bugs
• Best starting points for freshers

2, Automation QA Engineer

• Write scripts to automation testing
• Use tools like selenium, Cypress, Playwright
• Requires Programming knowledge
• Many freshers start with manual testing and later move to automation

4, Skills Required to Become a QA Engineer

You do not need to know everything from day one, start step by step

• 4.1 Basic Technical skills
• 1, Software Testing Fundamentals

Learn:

What is testing?

Why Testing is Important?

• Software development Life Cycle ( SDLC )
• Software Testing Life Cycle ( STLC )
• These Concepts from foundation of QA

2, Types of Testing ( Very Important )

Understand this clearly

• Manual Testing – Testing by hand
• Functional Testing – Checking features work correctly
• Regression Testing – Ensuring old features still work
• Smoke Testing- Quick basic checks
• Sanity Testing-  Checking small fixes
• System testing – testing the entire applications
• User acceptance Testing (UAT ) – Final Testing before acceptance

3, Test Cases and Test Scenarios 

You must learn how to:

• Write test cases
• Create Test scenarious
• Understand expected vs Actual results

Example:

Test case: Verify login with valid credentials steps:

1, Open login page

2, Enter Valid username

3, Enter Valid password

4, Click login

Expected Result: User should login successfully

4, 2 Basic Computer Knowledge

A Fresher must know:

• Window/ Linux basics
• File handling
• Browsers ( chrome, Firefox )
• Mobile app vs web apps

4.3 Communication skills

QA Engineers:

• Report bugs
• Talk to developers
• Explain issues clearly
• Good English communication are very important

5, Tools Every Fresher QA Engineer should learn 

5.1Bug Tracking Tools

Learn atleast one:

• JIRA
• Bugzilla
• Azure DevOps

You should know:

• How to Create a bug
• Bug status ( Open, InProgress, Fixed, Closed )
• Priority and severity

5.2 Test management Tools ( Optional for Freshers )

• TestRail
• Zephyr
• QA Test

5.3 SQL Basics ( Very Helpful )

Learn:

• Select
• Where
• Join
• Count

QA Engineers use SQL to verity data in database

5.4 API Testing Basics

Learn:

What is an API ?

Http method ( GET, POST, PUT, DELETE )

Status code ( 200, 400, 401, 500 )

Tools:

Postman

6, Programming knowledge – Do Freshers Need coding ?

Short Answer: No, Not initially

• For manual Testing
• No coding required
• For automation Testing:
• Basic knowledge of Java / Python/ Java script
• You can learn coding after getting a job while working as a manual tester

7, How to Learn QA Step by step ( Roadmap for freshers )

Step 1:

• Learn testing concepts
• Software testing concepts
• SDLC and STLC
• Types of testing
• Time 2-3 weeks

Step 2:

• Practice manual Testing
• Test websites and mobile apps
• Write test cases
• Find bugs in real apps
• Example practice apps:
• E-commerce sites
• Banking apps
• Login forms

Step 3

• Learn Bug Reporting
• Use JIRA or Bugzilla
• Write clear bug reports
• Attach Screenshots

Step4

• Simple queries
• API Testing using Postman

Step5

• Create a QA Resume Includes
• Testing skills
• Tools
• projects ( even practice projects )
• Certifications ( if any )

Step 6

• Apply for Entry level QA Jobs
• Job titles to search:
• QA Tester
• Manual Tester
• Software Tester
• Quality Analyst
• Junior QA Engineer

8, Certifications – Are They Necessary ?

Not mandatory, but helpful for freshers

Popular QA Certifications:

• ISTQB Foundation level
• Manual Testing Certification
• Selenium certification ( for automation )
• Certifications Improve resume visibility

9, Common Interview Questions for Freshers 

Be Prepared to answer:

• What is software Testing ?
• Difference between verification and validation ?
• What is Test case ?
• What is severity and priority ?
• Explain SDLC and STLC ?
• What is Regression Testing ?
• Practice Explaining answers in simple words

10, Career Growth in QA Engineering 

QA is not a dead- end Job

Career path:

• Junior QA Engineer
• QA Engineer
• Senior QA Engineer
• Automation Engineer
• QA lead
• QA manager
• Product owner / Business Analyst
• You can also move to:
• DevOps
• Performance Testing
• Security Testing

11, Salary Expectations ( Freshers ) in USA 

90K to 100k as Entry Level QA Engineer

salary Increases with skills and experience

12, Common mistakes Freshers should avoid

Ignoring basics:

• Jumping directly into automation
• Not practicing real testing
• Poor Bug reporting
• Week communication skills

13, Final advice for freshers

• Start with manual testing
• Focus on strong fundamentals
• Practice daily
• Test real applications
• Keep learning new tools
• Be patient and consistent

QA Engineering is a great starting career in IT, especially for freshers without coding background

Conclusion

Becoming a QA engineer as a fresher is completely achievable with the right learning approach, Start with basics, practice manual testing, understand real -world applications, and slowly build technical skills, with dedication and consistency, you can build a successful and long lasting career in Quality Assurance 

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This is guide explains what a QA Engineer does, skills required, tools to learn, career path, and step by step instructions to help you become QA Engineer from scratch How to Become a QA Engineer