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Switch from Manual QA to SDET
Move from writing test cases to engineering automation frameworks and land an SDET role with a real portfolio.
CREATED BY
P
Punit D. [PLACEHOLDER] ★ 5.0
Senior Product Designer at [BRAND] | 7+ years of experience
About this Path
Built for manual testers and QA analysts who understand product quality deeply but need to bridge into Software Development Engineer in Test roles. You will learn Python or Java test automation, API testing with Postman and RestAssured, UI automation with Playwright, CI integration, and performance testing with k6. By the end you will have a GitHub portfolio with three running test suites and the vocabulary to pass a technical SDET screen.
Path Overview
Intermediate LevelCertificate of CompletionAbout 45 hours to completeEnglish language19+ curated videosLearn online at your own pace5 modules with resourcesGamified & interactive
Path Curriculum
Manual QA to SDET: the skills gap and how to close it
Map your existing test design knowledge to code and identify priority learning areas.
Python for Testers: functions, classes, fixtures, and assertions
Write clean, readable Python focused on the constructs actually used in test code.
pytest from Zero: parametrize, fixtures, conftest, and markers
Structure a test suite with shared fixtures, environment markers, and parallel execution.
Page Object Model: separating test logic from UI selectors
Build a POM layer that survives UI changes without rewriting every test.
Postman Collections: environments, variables, and chained requests
Extract auth tokens from login responses and inject them into downstream requests.
Writing Assertions in Postman Tests and Newman CI Runner
Validate status codes, response schema, and timing thresholds in collection tests.
RestAssured for Java Teams: given-when-then DSL
Write fluent Java API tests with JSON path assertions and reusable request specs.
Contract Testing with Pact: consumer-driven API verification
Generate a Pact file from consumer tests and verify it against the real provider.
Playwright Architecture: browser contexts, pages, and workers
Understand how Playwright isolates test state and parallelizes across browsers.
Reliable Selectors: getByRole, getByTestId, and avoiding CSS fragility
Use accessibility-first locators that survive styling and markup refactors.
Fixtures, beforeEach, and Authenticated State Caching
Log in once, save storageState to a file, and reuse it across the entire suite.
Visual Regression Testing with Playwright Snapshots
Capture screenshots as baselines and fail CI when pixel diffs exceed threshold.
Running Playwright and pytest in GitHub Actions
Configure matrix jobs, upload HTML test reports as artifacts, and cache dependencies.
Parallel Test Execution and Sharding Strategies
Split a 500-test suite across four workers to cut runtime below five minutes.
Flaky Test Detection and Quarantine Workflow
Tag flaky tests with a marker, route them to a separate job, and track flakiness rate.
Test Coverage Reporting with pytest-cov and Codecov
Gate PRs on a minimum coverage threshold and track coverage trends over time.
k6 Load Testing: scripting scenarios and setting thresholds
Write a k6 script that ramps to 500 VUs and fails if p95 latency exceeds 500ms.
Interpreting k6 Results: percentiles, error rates, and bottlenecks
Read a k6 summary report and map latency spikes to backend service behavior.
Building Your SDET Portfolio: three test repos to publish
Ship a Playwright suite, an API test suite, and a k6 load script with README.
SDET Interview Prep: live coding, test design, and framework design rounds
Practice writing a test plan for a login page and designing a framework from scratch.
What you'll learn
- ✓Write maintainable test automation code in Python using pytest and the Page Object Model pattern for UI tests.
- ✓Design and execute API test suites using Postman Collections, Newman, and RestAssured covering happy paths and edge cases.
- ✓Build Playwright end-to-end tests with proper selectors, waits, and fixtures that run reliably in headless CI environments.
- ✓Integrate test suites into a GitHub Actions pipeline with parallel execution, HTML reports, and failure alerting.
- ✓Perform load and performance testing with k6, interpret latency percentiles, and report actionable threshold breaches.
- ✓Shift left by writing contract tests with Pact and contributing to pull request quality gates instead of end-of-sprint regression cycles.