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

As a quality assurance (QA) tester, you ensure websites and applications run smoothly. You have probably experienced firsthand the frustration of flawed technology. A website crash can be chaotic. Software glitches can drive users away. Working as a QA tester, you can help prevent these problems before end users experience them. 

Explore the role of a QA tester and how much you could expect to earn below.

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What is a QA tester?

A QA tester 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 manual and automated tests while the product is developing. The goal is to try and break the product or force it to malfunction. This gives you the knowledge 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 development can help you identify issues early on. Fixing bugs and other issues early in a product’s life cycle can be much less complicated than later on. It is also easier for developers to adjust code they have worked on recently.

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

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

• QA is essential to product safety: QA testers ensure products meet user expectations and government and industry guidelines. You will follow specific procedures to test, document, evaluate, and report your findings.

A day in the life of a QA tester

You’ll likely undergo QA testing cycles throughout the product’s development. Your job as a tester will also involve numerous other 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 test procedures and developing scripts, you’ll research new technologies, tools, and testing methods. 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.   

Job outlook for QA testers

With all industries developing products and providing services online, the global demand for professionals with QA testing skills will continue to be strong. Three areas within QA testing seem to be growing stronger in relation to the new technology developing in the field: performance testing, security testing, and test automation.

How much do QA testers make?

The average base yearly wage for QA testers in India is ₹4,20,000. You might also make more with additional cash compensation averaging ₹20,000 [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 expected annual base salaries, include: 

• QA engineer: ₹5,52,778 [2]

• Test manager: ₹18,08,792 [3]

• Test engineer: ₹5,00,250 [4]

• Test analyst: ₹6,50,000 [5]

• Test automation engineer: ₹7,97,678 [6]

What is QA testing?

You can divide the field of QA testing into seven types. Each addresses different aspects of software quality:

1. Unit testing

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

2. Integration testing

Next, you must 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. 

4. Performance testing

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

5. Regression testing

In this stage, you check what happens to the product after making 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 mobile, this testing checks that the product or application can function. For example, mobile testing considers smaller screens, less memory, battery usage, and what happens if someone gets a call in that app. 

How to become a QA tester

To learn the skills you need to become a QA tester and to demonstrate your competencies to your future employer, you should consider earning a bachelor’s degree. QA testers typically study computer science, business, computer applications, or information technology. You can also learn the skills you’ll need to be successful with a diploma or postgraduate certificate in a similar field.

Pursue recommended degrees and graduate certificates. 

You can explore many skills you’ll need in this field in online courses. Three potential courses to consider for QA testing skills include: 

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

• Master of Computer and Information Technology from the University of Pennsylvania

• Graduate Certificate of Global Business Practice by Macquarie University

Explore additional QA tester qualifications.

Even if you already have a degree, pursuing additional qualifications can help you expand your knowledge and prepare you for more advanced job opportunities. You can use the list below to identify certifications in your desired industry, area of expertise, and experience level.

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

• Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate

• Continuous Delivery & DevOps by the University of Virginia

• The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) offers several related certifications, including Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL), Test Analyst, Test Manager, AI Testing, Game Testing, Agile Tester, Strategic Test Management, and more.

For advanced QA testers (those with a four-year degree or a two-year degree and a few years of experience:

• Certified Associate in Software Testing (CAST) for a foundational understanding of QA testing

• Certified Software Tester (CSTE) to establish your competence in QA practices and principles

• Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) to show you bug database software and version control and different client and server architectures

• Certified Manager of Software Testing (CMST) demonstrates a professional level of competence in software testing 

QA tester job requirements

QA testers are often analytical thinkers who can think flexibly and creatively. Your job is discovering errors and finding bugs and glitches, so critical thinking is crucial. You’ll also need solid written and verbal communication skills to efficiently track, troubleshoot, and report defects and errors. 

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, one phase is completed before the next. This life cycle begins with a feasibility study. Requirement analysis and specification determination follow. It includes design, coding, unit testing, 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. You repeat the planning and requirement, analysis and design, implementation, testing, and evaluation stages incrementally, which may help 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 the software to the user sooner. Testing starts as early as possible in this model.

Prepare to become a QA tester with Coursera

QA testing is a career on the rise, and you can learn the skills you need to begin with a bachelor’s degree programme or certifications at other levels. 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. Or, if you're ready for more advanced concepts, hone your skills with a Software Development Lifecycle Specialisation.