
Tosca tester
One of the best ways to present yourself in the field of software testing and IT in general is to have a certificate that proves your competence as an IT tester. The certificate not only adds value to our tester resume, but also shows that we are proficient in the best practices and technologies used in the field. It gives us an advantage in the job market over people who don’t have this certification.
Certification provides tremendous benefits in the information technology industry. There is a huge number of certifications for each IT area, for example Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) – a certification for people who are interested in networking, Certified Data Professional (CDP) – a certification for data professionals, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) – a certification for people who are interested in project management. The certificate that is important for most testers is the ISTQB certificate.
You can read about the characteristics of ISTQB in the article ISTQB: Certification and Courses
The International Software Testing Qualifications Board offers different levels of software quality assurance certification. The ISTQB Certified Tester is one of the offered standardized qualifications and is available for basic, advanced and expert level accreditation.
The ISTQB Foundation Level is the first level of accreditation you can achieve by passing the exam. It covers the basics needed to become a certified software tester, including an understanding of both the theoretical and practical knowledge.
The exam is a multiple-choice test consisting of chapters divided according to difficulty (K1, K2, K3). There are 40 questions for 40 points in total. The ISTQB pass percentage is 65%, which means that a minimum of 26 questions must be answered correctly to qualify. The time for the exam is 60 minutes, but if you take the exam in another language than in your native language, you will have 25% more time than those who take the exam in their native language.
The Foundation Level Certificate is valid for life, so there is no need to retake the exam at any time in the future.
There are 6 chapters in the test:
Understand the topics and ideas covered in the ISTQB foundation syllabus by reading and studying them thoroughly. The ISTQB Foundation Level Exam contains a number of test terms that you need to be familiar with. Go through the ISTQB glossary of terms in the curriculum and understand the meaning of each term. Also make sure you use the correct terminology when answering the ISTQB exam questions.
A few days before the exam, I found this table that helped me make the most of the time I had left. I concentrated on the chapters with the most questions and ended up doing the most work in those two chapters. Of course, learning every chapter is the best and safest option, but using this guide will allow you to focus on some chapters more than others.
Speaking of time frames, the intensive preparation for the certification took me personally a little over 2 weeks before the final exam. I devoted about 5 to 6 hours a day to my studies, and that’s counting weekends. Before that I had only minimal knowledge of theory and minimal practical experience. I had passed one UDEMY course before, but I didn’t remember much of it.
Syllabus is the foundation of everything you need to know for the ISTQB Foundation Level Exam. It consists of general objectives, a glossary of terms, learning objectives for each area, key concepts, references to resources (literature, standards, etc.). The syllabus is available on the ISTQB official site.
However, the syllabus is not an exhaustive source of knowledge about software testing. Rather, it provides a comprehensive understanding of testing concepts and techniques for all kinds of projects, including agile. The syllabus discusses different types of software development life cycles and methods without going into too much detail.
This resource is very helpful for unclear or unfamiliar terms. There are 570 alphabetically sorted terms with definitions, synonyms, references and versions. There is a Glossary app that you can download to your device, or you can use the web version of the ISTQB dictionary. You can use the basic search options or use the advanced search to set filter criteria and change display options.
The practical part of the exam is not explained in the syllabus. That’s why I also read Foundations of Software Testing, co-authored by Rex Black, Dorothy Graham and Erik P. W. M. Veenendaal, which focuses more on topics such as test design techniques. But the book is not limited to that. All topics are presented in great detail. If some chapters of the syllabus are difficult to understand, Rex Black and the authors explain them really well in this book. The book is written in English.
In addition to the syllabus and Rex Black’s book, I also took an ISTQB course on Udemy, which was roughly 5 hours of audio lectures. As I mentioned before, this was the first part of the preparation I did before diving into intensive study. I recommend you do the same, as it creates a good foundation for understanding the topics when you start studying them in depth.
I regret that I didn’t attend an accredited course as well. It would have been much easier for me to study in a group because there were things that came up that I just didn’t understand. Since no one around me was doing the exam at the time, I had no one to discuss these things with. It would be a big plus if I had a whole group of QA testers to discuss various certification-related topics with, especially practical tasks. It is much harder to understand explanations from a book than when they are explained in simple terms by a real expert in the field or someone who understands them.
There are 4 sample tests with answers that are similar to the real exam. I recommend everyone to go through all of them at least 2-3 days before certification. These sample exam questions can be found here.
The ISTQB Foundation Level Exam is a challenging but achievable exam.
When to apply for an exam or certification depends on your individual goals and current situation. If the goal is to get a job quickly, the sooner the exam is taken, the better. However, if the aim is to gain knowledge and experience first, it may be more advantageous to take the test after you have acquired the necessary expertise.
Passing an exam and obtaining a certificate can be useful as it confirms an individual’s knowledge and skills in a particular field and can give them an advantage in the job market.
If you speak German and are an IT tester or IT automation tester but you don’t have an ISTQB certificate yet, you can get one free of charge as part of our employee benefits! Find out more in the article ISTQB as a benefit. Browse our latest job offers.