Job-Ready Software Engineering / 05

Testing that gives teams confidence

35 minutes · Developers and QA professionals

Testing is a decision activity

Test what could hurt users

Start with risk

What can go wrong?
Who is affected?
How likely is it?
How expensive is the failure?
How quickly must we know?

Different tests answer different questions

Unit — small rule
Integration — components together
API — contract
UI — user flow
Exploratory — what we did not predict

The test pyramid is a trade-off

Many focused checks
Fewer integration checks
A small number of end-to-end journeys

Write a strong test case

Clear precondition
One behavior
Concrete input
Observable result
Useful name

Demo: test the application flow

Happy path
Missing required field
Invalid date
Duplicate submission
Unauthorized user

Pause: build a risk matrix

Three failure modes
Impact of each
Best test type
Automation candidate

Your artifact

Scope
Risks
Test cases
Test levels
Release recommendation

Next step

Make the artifact.

Publish your work, then continue to the next lesson.