Arjun Iyer’s Post

⚖️ Balancing product vs platform engineering as an SDET ⚡️ If you're an SDET like me, you've probably faced the challenge of balancing platform engineering work with product team responsibilities. It's a common struggle, but I've learned that both areas are crucial for our impact. In my latest blog post, I share strategies I've found helpful in approaching platform engineering tasks while staying committed to my product team's goals. I explore options like dedicating focused time for platform projects, collaborating with a community of like-minded peers, or even transitioning to a dedicated platform engineering role. https://lnkd.in/gxqd7Zpb If you've ever felt overwhelmed by this balancing act or curious about how to make a bigger impact as an SDET, I invite you to check out my post and share your thoughts. Let's learn from each other and navigate this challenge together! #SDET #PlatformEngineering #ProductTesting #EngineeringProductivity #CareerGrowth #QA

Thoughts on Being an SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) The role of an SDET is truly one of the most dynamic and rewarding careers in the tech world. It bridges the gap between development and testing, requiring a perfect blend of technical expertise and a problem-solving mindset. As an SDET, you are not just writing scripts or running tests — you are building quality into the software from the ground up. You get to work on: Developing robust automation frameworks. Ensuring seamless integration of new features. Testing at scale across diverse environments. Collaborating with developers to design and implement highly testable systems. What excites me the most about this role is its evolving nature. With technologies like AI in testing, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps integration, the SDET’s role is becoming even more strategic. It's no longer just about finding bugs; it's about preventing them and making the entire development process more efficient and resilient. To anyone considering this field: if you love coding, testing, and solving complex challenges, becoming an SDET is a career path worth exploring. You’ll not only ensure software quality but also drive innovation in how software is delivered. Feel free to connect with me if you'd like to discuss more about the exciting world of SDETs! 🚀 #SDET #SoftwareTesting #Automation #CareerGrowth

Having spent most of my career straddling the line between QE and Engineering management, effective test automation has proven to be one of the most frustrating systems to implement. Effective QE and test automation requires a skilled and knowledgeable SDET team and buy in from Leadership, Engineering and Product. On the rare occasion that you have those gifts, you may still need to contend with test environments that are notoriously flaky. The environments are so unstable that you often end up testing the environment rather than testing the product and putting in workarounds to make the tests pass! Some common problems include: 🔴 Underpowered machines 🔴 Library and OS versions that do not match Production 🔴 Lack of ownership of the machines under test. QE usually does not usually have the authority to update the environments and are at the mercy of DevOps or IT to wrangle them into shape. These teams have more important things to do and they will get to you when they get to you. Open a ticket. 🔴 Inability to delete test data, causing indexes and databases to grow larger than Production will ever need to support. This often causes pages to render slowly and tests to fail. 🔴 Development frameworks that produce code that is not easily testable. For example, there are no unique IDs or test tags to identify elements. Please, Developers, produce "testable code." It will go a long way in reducing tension. 🔴 Missing APIs that result in object creation and manipulation being more time consuming and error prone than they should be. Writing and maintaining an automated test library takes skill, effort, patience and perseverance. If you are going to take the plunge, please give the team the resources it needs to help them succeed. You never want to get into a state where people don't trust the tests or you end up letting code go to Production because "that stupid test is acting up again". This defeats the entire purpose of what we are all trying to accomplish. #softwaretesting #qaautomation

The Journey of an SDET: From Code to Quality 🚀 The path to becoming an SDET is a unique and rewarding blend of development and testing expertise. It’s a role where we not only code but also ensure the quality of that code with an automated approach. Here’s what makes the journey special: 1. Coding with Purpose 💻: As an SDET, writing code isn’t just about building software; it’s about building robust automation frameworks that can scale testing efforts. Each line of code is written with quality in mind, ensuring applications meet the highest standards. 2. Testing at Scale 🔍: Manual testing is important, but the real power lies in automation. We focus on creating automated test cases that run across multiple environments, ensuring early detection of defects and a faster release cycle. 3. Continuous Learning 📚: The tech landscape evolves quickly, and so do the tools and techniques in automation. From Selenium and Cypress to API testing and CI/CD integration, the learning never stops. Adapting to new frameworks and methodologies is key to staying ahead. 4. Collaboration & Communication 🤝: SDETs are in the unique position of working closely with both developers and testers. We bridge the gap between development and QA, ensuring that quality is a shared responsibility. This collaborative mindset is critical to building strong teams and delivering high-quality software. 5. The Impact of Automation ⚡: Automation isn’t just about making testing faster—it’s about making it smarter. We focus on reducing repetitive tasks, increasing coverage, and allowing teams to focus on the most critical parts of the application. The journey of an SDET is one of constant growth and impact. It’s a role that sits at the intersection of coding and quality, helping teams deliver better software, faster. Excited to be a part of this evolving field and looking forward to what’s next! 🚀 #SDET #Automation #QualityAssurance #SoftwareTesting #Coding #TechJourney

🌟 SDET is Not Just About Testing It's About Engineering Quality! 🌟  In my journey, I’ve realized one important thing:  🚫 If your role as an SDET is limited to automating tests and finding bugs, you're missing out on the bigger picture.  As an SDET, you're not just a tester. You're a Quality Architect who ensures that quality is integrated into every step of the development process. It’s about being proactive, building systems, and solving problems before they even occur. Here’s how you can truly make an impact as an SDET:  ✅ Enhancing User Experience: An application should not only work but also feel magical for the end user. ✨🪄  ✅ Customer-Focused Testing: Dive deep into what matters to customers and align your tests with real-world usage. Focus on what truly counts! 💡👀  ✅ Collaboration Champion: Work side by side with developers, product managers, and business teams to ensure everyone is aligned toward the same goal. 🥷🤝🎯  ✅ Helping Business Teams See the Big Picture: Provide clear, actionable feedback to business teams, empowering them to make informed decisions. 💬🔍📊  ✅ Empowering Developers: Build tools, frameworks, and automation systems that help developers spot issues before they even grab their morning coffee. ☕⚡🔧  ✅ Backend, APIs, and Database Excellence: While the UI is important, we focus on the backend, APIs, and performance, ensuring everything runs like a finely tuned machine. 🧙♂️⚙️💻  ✅ Release Gatekeeper: Every release must undergo a thorough check to ensure PRs, environments, and database migrations are all in place. You're the guardian of quality! 🚪✔️🔒  ✅ CI/CD Superhero: Set up and maintain CI/CD pipelines, write top-notch automation scripts, and help streamline the development process. ⚙️🦸♂️💨  ✅ Proactive Problem Solver: Don’t wait for issues to pop up anticipate them and address them before they affect the release. 🕵️♂️🔮🚀  ✅ Master of Tools and Frameworks: Design and evolve automation frameworks that grow with the project, ensuring the testing infrastructure stays ahead of the curve. 🛠️🏗️📈  Being an SDET is much more than automating tests. It’s about engineering quality at every layer of the development process. It’s about driving innovation, solving problems early, and collaborating to deliver outstanding products.  👉 If you're an SDET, don’t just automate tests, take full ownership of the quality lifecycle. Let’s make quality a culture, not just a task! 🚀💪🔥  #SDET #QualityEngineering #AutomationTesting #TestingLife #QualityMatters #SoftwareDevelopment #AutomationTools #EngineeringExcellence #CI_CD #APITesting #BackendTesting #Collaboration #ProactiveTesting #SoftwareQuality #TechInnovation #TestingCommunity #DevOps #TechLeadership #QualityCulture #BugHunting

The Unsung Hero of Automation: Why XPath is Every SDET's Superpower Imagine this: You're automating tests for a web application with a deeply nested, dynamic UI. Locating that elusive button or field feels like finding a needle in a haystack. What’s your go-to tool in such moments? For me, it’s XPath—the unsung hero of test automation. Whether you’re writing scripts for Selenium, Appium, or scaling tests in a CI/CD pipeline, XPath is the magic wand that gets the job done. Here’s why mastering XPath can set you apart as an SDET, especially if you’re eyeing roles at leading tech giants like Amazon, Google, or Meta: 🎯 Precision and Control With XPath, you don’t just locate elements—you dominate the DOM. Dynamic attributes? Nested elements? No problem. Relative XPath lets you navigate even the trickiest of structures. 🤖 Adaptability Across Platforms From web apps to mobile apps, XPath remains your constant companion, seamlessly fitting into frameworks like Selenium and Appium. It’s a skill that’s as versatile as it is powerful. ⚡ Resilience in Automation UI changes? XPath is your shield. By crafting smart, dynamic XPaths, you can build test scripts that survive even the most turbulent UI updates. 🚀 The FAANG Edge Companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Google thrive on precision, efficiency, and scalability. Demonstrating your XPath expertise signals that you’re ready to tackle automation challenges at scale—exactly what these companies value in their SDET hires. 💡 My Top XPath Tips: 1️⃣ Always choose relative XPath for better stability (//tag[@attribute='value']). 2️⃣ Use functions like contains() and starts-with() to handle dynamic attributes. 3️⃣ Master axes like following-sibling and ancestor to navigate relationships in the DOM. As an SDET, your ability to harness the power of XPath is not just a skill—it’s a competitive advantage in the automation world. What’s your go-to strategy for crafting XPath expressions? Let’s spark a conversation in the comments! 👇 #XPath #SDET #TestAutomation #FAANGCareers #SoftwareTesting #CareerTips #AutomationEngineering

A manager states, "I knew I was right when I decided to hire more manual testers: the number of bugs is decreasing, therefore the quality is better". Is this assertion accurate, or merely an instance of confirmation bias? And what does "accurate" mean? It's easy to verify that the number of bugs is decreasing. However, the claim that "the quality is better" is significantly more complex. It's quite possible that the testers began identifying more bugs after the development phase, leading developers to depend more on testers and, consequently, to write even poorer code. Berlin folks, I invite you to our Quality Engineering meetup where I will delve into the impact of cognitive biases on decision-making in Quality Assurance and propose strategies to counteract these biases. P.S. Please share the post if you can :) https://lnkd.in/eXuw4VRD #qualityengineering

Don't Let These Test Automation Mistakes Sabotage Your Success! Learn How to Fix Them Today! 🤖🦾 #TestAutomation #QualityAssurance #SoftwareTesting #QA #AutomationTesting #TechTips #DevOps #Coding #SoftwareDevelopment #ContinuousIntegration

Closing it on a Weekend! Thrilled to share that I’ve recently stepped into the role of SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test). This week has been a journey of learning and growth in software development. Here are some key insights I've gained: - Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC): Understanding the importance of structured processes in SDLC and the thorough planning and execution in STLC has been enlightening. These frameworks ensure that our products meet high standards of quality and reliability. - AGILE METHODOLOGY: Adopting Agile principles such as iterative development and continuous improvement has encouraged a more collaborative and adaptive work environment. Daily stand-ups and sprint retrospectives have become invaluable tools for refining our processes and enhancing team productivity. - CI/CD: With tools like Jenkins, we automate these steps, ensuring that every code change is tested and integrated into the main codebase quickly and reliably. This not only speeds up our development cycle but also improves the quality of our software by catching issues early. - JENKINS: Getting hands-on with Jenkins, open-source software that provides an automation server that helps to automate tasks within the process of software development process, primarily through continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). It does the build, test, and deployment process, the combination of changes from different developers to the single repository and delivering them to the production in an error-free as well as in more efficient way. #SoftwareDevelopment #CI #CD #Jenkins #Agile #SDLC #STLC #SDET #SoftwareTesting #QualityAssurance

Hi Aspiring Lead SDET's / SDET's / Principal SDET's 🌟 To Crack SDET Coding Interviews at Top Product-Based Companies 🌟 Are you preparing for SDET roles at companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Arcesium, DE Shaw, or Amazon? Here's a curated list of coding interview patterns and approaches you MUST practice to excel in SDET, Lead SDET, and Principal SDET rounds! 🚀 📚 Key Topics and Patterns to Master: 1️⃣ String Manipulation Longest Palindromic Substring Anagram Problems String Compression and Decompression 2️⃣ Array-Based Problems Two Pointer Technique (e.g., Pair Sum, Trapping Rain Water) Sliding Window (e.g., Longest Subarray with K Distinct Elements) Merge Intervals 3️⃣ Dynamic Programming (DP) Subset Sum and Combination Sum Longest Increasing Subsequence Matrix DP (e.g., Minimum Path Sum) 4️⃣ Recursion and Backtracking Permutations and Combinations N-Queens Problem Word Search 5️⃣ HashMaps & HashSets Find All Occurrences Group Anagrams Detect Cycles (Floyd's Cycle Detection Algorithm) 6️⃣ Stack and Queue Sort a Stack Without Extra Space Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation Sliding Window Maximum 7️⃣ Tree and Graph Algorithms Binary Tree Level Order Traversal Lowest Common Ancestor Graph Traversals (DFS, BFS) 8️⃣ API Automation & Framework Knowledge (for SDET roles) Hands-on with Rest Assured, Karate, or Postman Mocking API responses and handling timeouts Writing end-to-end test cases 🎯 How to Approach the Preparation: ✔ Understand Problem-Solving Patterns: Focus on the logic behind each solution instead of memorizing code. ✔ Practice Mock Interviews: Simulate real interview environments with peers or online platforms. ✔ Master Your Tools: If you're targeting SDET roles, ensure you're skilled in tools like Selenium, Rest Assured, or Playwright. ✔ Upskill in DSA: Regular practice of Data Structures & Algorithms is crucial. 🚀 Join the Journey Let’s conquer these interviews together! Comment below or connect with me to share your coding journey, challenges, and breakthroughs. I'll continue sharing free resources and tips to help you achieve your dream job. 💪 👩💻 Let’s inspire and grow together! #SDET #QA #Automation #Testing #DSA #Coding