What Is a QA Tester? Skills, Requirements, and Jobs in 2025

A QA tester is an essential member of a website or software development team. Their job is to ensure that a new product, website, or application is performing as it should be before its release. 

A website crash can be chaotic. Software glitches can drive users away. As a quality assurance (QA) tester, you ensure websites and applications run smoothly. 

Discover the role of QA tester, the skills you need in this job, the salaries you can expect, and the steps you need to get into this line of work.

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Ready to learn quality assurance? Explore the University of Leeds's Foundations of Software Testing and Validation course. In just five hours, you'll understand the different types of software testing and apply techniques to design effective test cases.

What is a QA tester?

A QA tester is someone who works with software or a website to ensure it runs properly. They try to prevent faulty apps or other technology from getting to the customer. QA testers accomplish this by running a variety of manual and automated tests while the product is in development. The goal is to break the product or force it to malfunction. This empowers developers with the knowledge they need to make product adjustments before it goes to market.

What do QA testers do?

QA testing is an essential part of the software development life cycle. It ensures that an organisation's product is as high-quality as possible. The list below outlines a few ways QA testers contribute to the organisations they work for:

• QA saves time and increases efficiency: QA testing throughout the development process can help you identify issues early on. It can be much less complicated to fix bugs and other issues early in a product’s life cycle. It is also easier for developers to adjust code they have worked on recently.

• QA testers help protect brand reputation: QA testers use their skills to anticipate what might go wrong and prevent those things from happening. This saves a business from releasing a product that glitches, crashes when too many people use it at once, or otherwise provides a negative user experience (UX).

• QA testing makes it possible for products to grow safely: Scalability is important to QA testers. A key part of their role is to ensure that added features won't compromise security or UX. With effective testing, you'll have a product that you can launch now and scale later.

• QA is essential to product safety: QA testers not only ensure products meet user expectations but also government and industry guidelines too. They follow specific procedures to test, document, evaluate, and report their findings.

A day in the life of a QA tester

QA testing typically happens in cycles throughout the product’s development. Your job as a tester involves several responsibilities. First, whether you're doing manual or automated testing, you’ll need to know how to plan to test, develop and execute test cases, and evaluate and document test results. Along with reviewing procedures for tests and developing scripts, you’ll research new technologies, tools, and testing procedures. Working closely with the product and development team and other stakeholders in QA processes, you'll ensure a product is of excellent quality and low risk.   

How much do QA testers make?

The average total yearly wage for QA testers in the UK is £25,737 [1]. This number includes an average base salary of £24,856 per year combined with the median reported additional pay of £881 annually [1]. Additional pay may include commissions, profit sharing, or bonuses.

Alternate job titles and salaries for QA testers

Within the QA testing field, you can take on various job roles. Some, along with their average annual base salaries, include: 

• QA engineer: £38,797 [2]

• Test manager: £56,318 [3]

• Test engineer: £36,062 [4]

• Test analyst: £32,390 [5]

• Test automation engineer: £41,458 [6]

What is QA testing?

QA testing is an exciting career if you have a mix of technical skills, an interest in digital products, and the attention to detail that allows thorough analysis to spot any inconsistencies or errors. You’ll find seven types of QA testing:

1. Unit testing

The QA tester often starts with unit testing, where you test individual software functions or unique testable product parts. By breaking up the testing into small, manageable parts, you can better identify what needs to be fixed. After you test individual units, you can move on to component testing, which connects many units of code.

2. Integration testing

Next, you’ll have to check that the various code components work together. QA testing combines different units of code and tests them concurrently. Developers need to do more work if they don’t work when integrated.

3. System testing

Also known as end-to-end testing, this testing stage looks at functionality more holistically. System testing aims to mimic what users experience with the product in real life. 

4. Performance testing

A small team works with the software or website when in development. Yet, when the asset launches to the world, it may have to handle hundreds of users at once. Performance testing confirms that the code can keep up. It compares performance on different user systems and puts the application under pressure to identify any bottlenecks or other concerns.

5. Regression testing

In this stage, you check what happens to the product after you make changes. It’s making sure that fixing one problem doesn’t create new ones. 

6. User acceptance testing

Performed near the end of development, user acceptance testing (UAT) verifies the product or application does what its developers meant it to do, as expected.

7. Mobile testing

Acknowledging that many users are on mobile devices, this testing checks that the product or application can function on these devices. For example, mobile testing considers smaller screens, less memory, battery usage, and what happens if someone gets a call while in that app. 

How to become a QA tester

To work as a QA tester, consider completing a degree in computer science or similar You can also become a QA tester without a degree by meeting other employer qualifications, like industry certifications or hands-on experience.

Recommended degrees for QA testers

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of London

• Bachelor of Information Technology from Illinois Tech

• Master of Information Technology from Illinois Tech

• Master of Science in Information Systems from Northeastern

QA tester certificates and certifications

Even if you already have a degree, pursuing professional certificates and certifications for QA testers can help you expand your knowledge and help you prepare for more advanced job opportunities. The list below identifies credentials in various industries, areas of expertise, and experience levels.

For beginner QA testers (little to no experience with coding or testing):

• Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate

• University of Virginia Continuous Delivery & DevOps

• ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)

• ISTQB Agile Tester

For intermediate QA testers (those with some coding experience or a relevant degree):

• University of Minnesota Software Testing and Automation Specialization

• Certified Associate in Software Testing (CAST)

• ISTQB:

  • Agile Technical Tester

  • Agile Test Leadership at Scale

  • Test Analyst

  • Test Automation Engineering

  • Certified Tester Advanced Level Test Management (CTAL-TM)

  • Technical Test Analyst

• ISTQB specialisms:

  • Test Automation Strategy

  • AI Testing

  • Game Testing

  • Performance Testing

  • Automotive Software Tester

  • Usability Testing

  • Acceptance Testing

  • Gambling Industry Tester

  • Mobile Application Testing

  • Security Tester

  • Model-Based Tester

For advanced QA testers (those with a degree and a few years of experience):

• GAQM Certified Manager of Software Testing (CMST)

• GAQM Certified Test Engineer (CSTE)

• ISTQB:

  • Assessing Test Processes

  • Implementing Test Process Improvement

QA tester job requirements

QA testers are often analytical thinkers who can think flexibly and creatively. Your job is to discover errors and find bugs and glitches, so critical thinking is crucial. You’ll also need solid written and verbal communication skills so that you can efficiently track, troubleshoot, and report defects and errors. You’ll find four main software testing models QA testers should be familiar with.

Software testing models for QA testers to know

The four main software testing models include:

• Waterfall: In the Waterfall model, the classic Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) model, you complete one phase before the next. This life cycle begins with a feasibility study. Requirement analysis and specification determination follow. Then, there’s design, coding, and unit testing, followed by integration and system testing. This model ends with maintenance.

• Iterative Development: A variation on the SDLC, the Iterative Development model, takes a more cyclical approach. The planning and requirement, analysis and design, implementation, testing, and evaluation stages repeat over and over in an incremental fashion. This helps improve the next iteration faster.

• Agile: Agile is a team-focused approach to QA that prioritises customer value. This concept typically leverages the incremental, iterative approach. Everyone works in short sprints to adapt to changes in software development and collaborates to figure out the best strategies to meet the project goals.

• Extreme Programming: As a QA tester, you may work in an Extreme Programming environment. An iteration of Agile, this approach also stresses customer satisfaction. Instead of being driven by a deadline or predetermined stages in a model, this QA testing model identifies ways to solve problems as efficiently as possible to get software to the user sooner. Testing starts as early as possible in an Extreme Programming model.

Prepare to become a QA tester with Coursera

The role of a quality assurance tester comes in many forms, depending on your level, industry, and specialist areas. With applications, websites, and products always needing quality control, you’ll find a range of opportunities available.

If you’re interested in the QA tester career path, you can build the essential skills on Coursera. Consider enrolling in an online introductory course like the Software Product Management Specialisation. If you're ready for more advanced concepts, hone your skills with a Software Development Lifecycle Specialisation. 

specialization

Software Product Management

Create Better Software using Agile Practices. Master Agile development and effective interactions to drive the making of great software products

4.7

(8,969 ratings)

86,875 already enrolled

Beginner level

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Average time: 1 month(s)

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Skills you'll build:

Agile Software Development, User Story, Software Requirements, Use Case, Lean Software Development, Scrum (Software Development), Software Development Process, Software Metric, Software Project Management, Software Metrics, Software Product Management, Software Development, Agile Management, Program Evaluation And Review Technique (PERT)

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Software Development Lifecycle

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Average time: 2 month(s)

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Lean Software Development, Kanban, Agile Software Development, Software Development Process, Scrum (Software Development), Software Development Kit (SDK), Software Testing, Software Architecture, Application Security, Software Design, Software Quality