← Back to Kit Home3-Month Learning Roadmap for Junior Testers
A practical, week-by-week plan. About 30–60 minutes per day is enough.
💡 How to use this plan: Don't just read — practice. Every week has a "Practice" task. Real practice beats 10 hours of videos.
Month 1 — Foundations of Manual Testing
Goal: Understand testing theory, write your first test cases and bug reports.
Week 1 — What is testing?
- Learn: What is software testing, why we test, QA vs QC, SDLC, STLC.
- Resources:
- Guru99 — Software Testing tutorial: https://www.guru99.com/software-testing.html
- Read
guides/testing-basics.md in this kit.
- Practice: Pick an app you use daily (e.g. a shopping app). Write down 10 things you would test in it.
Week 2 — Test design basics
- Learn: Test cases, test scenarios, positive vs negative testing, boundary values, equivalence partitioning.
- Resources:
- Guru99 — Test Case tutorial: https://www.guru99.com/test-case.html
- Practice: Write 10 test cases for a login page using
templates/test-case-template.md.
Week 3 — Bug reports
- Learn: Bug life cycle, severity vs priority, how to write clear reports.
- Resources:
- Read
guides/bug-reporting.md in this kit.
- Practice: Find 3 real bugs in any open website or app. Write full bug reports using the template.
Week 4 — Types and levels of testing
- Learn: Functional vs non-functional testing, regression, smoke, sanity, UAT, exploratory testing.
- Resources:
- Guru99 — Types of testing: https://www.guru99.com/types-of-software-testing.html
- Practice: Do a 30-minute exploratory testing session on a demo site (e.g. https://www.saucedemo.com). Write down every bug you find.
Month 2 — Deeper Skills
Goal: Test APIs, use the browser dev tools, understand databases, prepare for ISTQB.
Week 5 — Browser DevTools
- Learn: Open DevTools (F12), read the Console, check Network requests, inspect HTML elements.
- Resources:
- Chrome DevTools docs: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/
- Practice: On any website, find one failing request in the Network tab and one error in the Console.
Week 6 — API testing basics
- Learn: What is an API, HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), status codes (200, 400, 401, 404, 500).
- Resources:
- freeCodeCamp — APIs for beginners (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=freecodecamp+api+for+beginners
- Practice: Install Postman (free). Send GET and POST requests to a free test API like https://reqres.in or https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com.
Week 7 — SQL basics for testers
- Learn: SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY, simple JOINs. Testers use SQL to check that data was saved correctly.
- Resources:
- freeCodeCamp SQL course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-sql-in-60-minutes/
- SQLBolt (interactive): https://sqlbolt.com/
- Practice: Finish the first 6 lessons on SQLBolt.
Week 8 — ISTQB Foundation (start)
- Learn: ISTQB Foundation Level syllabus — the standard certificate for testers. Many companies ask for it.
- Resources:
- Official syllabus (free PDF): https://www.istqb.org/certifications/certified-tester-foundation-level
- Free mock exams: search "ISTQB foundation mock exam free".
- Practice: Read chapters 1–2 of the syllabus. Do one mock exam and note your weak topics.
Month 3 — Automation & Career
Goal: First steps in automation, Agile basics, CV and interview prep.
Week 9 — Agile and working in a team
- Learn: Scrum basics — sprint, standup, backlog, user story, acceptance criteria.
- Resources:
- Atlassian Agile guide: https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum
- Practice: Take 3 features from an app you know and write them as user stories with acceptance criteria ("As a user, I can...").
Week 10 — Intro to test automation
- Learn: What to automate (and what not), how automation tools work.
- Resources:
- Read
automation/starter-scripts.md in this kit.
- Practice: Install Node.js, run the Playwright example from
automation/starter-scripts.md against https://www.saucedemo.com.
Week 11 — More automation practice
- Learn: Locators (CSS, XPath), assertions, Page Object idea (just the concept for now).
- Resources:
- Playwright docs: https://playwright.dev/docs/intro
- Ministry of Testing — free courses and articles: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/
- Practice: Automate 3 flows: login, add to cart, logout on a demo site.
Week 12 — CV, portfolio, and next steps
- Learn: How to show your skills. A small portfolio helps a lot.
- Practice:
- Create a public GitHub account.
- Upload your test cases, bug reports, and automation scripts.
- Update your CV: add "Practical project: tested saucedemo.com — wrote 25 test cases, reported 8 bugs, automated 3 flows with Playwright".
- (Optional) Book the ISTQB Foundation exam.
Free resources — master list
| Resource |
What it's for |
Link |
| Guru99 |
Free tutorials on all testing topics |
https://www.guru99.com/software-testing.html |
| Ministry of Testing |
Community, articles, courses |
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/ |
| freeCodeCamp |
Free courses (SQL, APIs, JavaScript) |
https://www.freecodecamp.org/ |
| ISTQB |
Official syllabus and glossary |
https://www.istqb.org/ |
| Playwright docs |
Automation learning |
https://playwright.dev/ |
| Postman Learning Center |
API testing |
https://learning.postman.com/ |
| SQLBolt |
Interactive SQL lessons |
https://sqlbolt.com/ |
| Sauce Demo |
Practice website with a shop flow |
https://www.saucedemo.com |
| The Internet (Herokuapp) |
Practice pages for automation |
https://the-internet.herokuapp.com/ |
Tips that make a big difference
- Practice on real apps. Theory without practice is forgotten in a week.
- Keep a learning notebook. Write down every new term and idea.
- Join a community. Ministry of Testing Slack, Reddit r/QualityAssurance, local QA meetups.
- Learn to read requirements carefully. Most bugs are born in unclear requirements.
- Don't rush automation. Strong manual testing skills make automation much easier later.
- English practice = testing practice. Most documentation is in English — reading it daily is training too.
You've got this! 🚀