How much Java should you know for a Selenium testing job?

odd-one-out[1]

Selenium tester hiding in the middle of Selenium developers

This is a bad question.

The following are testing jobs:

  • manual testing job
  • functional testing job
  • explorary testing job

 

Since when Selenium has anything in common with manual or functional testing?

Web automation with Selenium WebDriver is not a testing job.

 

Selenium tester does not explain anything about what the job is about.

It is misleading as well since no testing is involved.

When doing web automation with Selenium, you do not

  • create test cases
  • execute test cases
  • explore applications
  • report bugs for your testing
  • map test cases to requirements

 

Instead, you take a user story and implement automated tests for it using Java code and the Selenium WebDriver library.

I said library and not tool or application.

We will come back to the distinction between the library and application.

 

So, there is no such thing as a Selenium testing job.

Test automation with Selenium is a development job.

How much Java should you know for a Selenium development job?

First, you need to be a developer.

 

How much Java should a developer know to do a development job?

In-depth language knowledge (Java, C#, etc).

 

What other skills should the developer have?

Design patterns.

How to create a framework.

How to use an existing framework.

How to document code.

How to use a source control system (GIT, SVN).

How to review code.

How to integrate his code with other developers’ code.

How to use Maven to manage dependencies.

How to use Jenkins for continuous integration.

How to use JUNIT or TESTNG for unit testing.

 

How much Java should a developer know for a Selenium job?

All of the above.

 

But, but, I want to be a Selenium tester.

This cannot be right.

I want to be a tester that uses Selenium.

Tell me what to do.

 

Selenium WebDriver automation is for developers and testers who want to become developers.

Anyone else is just wasting his time with Selenium.

 

One more thing should be said about Selenium WebDriver.

Selenium WebDriver is not an automation tool.

It is not like QTP.
It does not have an IDE.
It does not allow record-and-playback.
It does not create an object repository.

It is instead an automation library.

You cannot use it as is.

You need a lot of other knowledge before you can use.
Programming knowledge.

 

This may be why people talk about Selenium testers.

If Selenium would be a tool, testers should be able to learn it.

They can learn QTP, they can learn SOAP UI.

They should be able to learn Selenium.

But Selenium is not a tool.

It is an automation library.

 


 

Want to become a Selenium developer instead of staying a tester?

I have the right book for you:

Improve Selenium Code with Automation Patterns: Page Object Model Page Factory Page Elements Base Page Loadable Component

 

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One Comment

  1. Great post! A well-written resource for anyone looking to boost their selenium automation through blog commenting. The tools mentioned will also go a long way in making the entire process much more efficient and effective.

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    Like

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