Shadowing Practice: QA Automation Engineer Technical Interview questions and answers - Learn English Speaking with Video
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UA Automation Engineer Technical Interview Questions.
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That's what you guys have been asking about for a while in a previous YouTube video.
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So what I'm going to do is I'm going to answer
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10 the most popular technical UA Automation Engineer interview questions for you, so you will know how the person with a 12 years experience would get those done.
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But I'm going to answer it only for those folks who will hit that big fat thumb up button below right now,
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who will subscribe to our channel and also join our Instagram and Telegram communities.
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Links to each you can find right here.
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Now, let me quickly introduce myself and then we're gonna get started.
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My name is Sergei Kromchenko.
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I'm a Software QA Engineer Lead Manager and a Senior Engineer Manager of SDAP in the past, but these days I'm helping people like Q to become a QA Engineer from scratch
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or to improve your existing skills as a founder and a main mentor of Cognify.
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Now, let's get into it.
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Question number one.
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What are the best candidates for the test automation?
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Or, which test cases would you automate first?
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Well, you should always think about why are you automating things?
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Number one, because you want to get rid of a huge amount of manual job, right?
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You want to get rid of that chunk of the job.
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And how do you do that?
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You automate the most repetitive tests.
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Those tests that you run on a daily basis, every single day or as often as possible.
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And those are usually regression tests.
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So very first candidate is regression suite.
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Number two, you should always think about a business logic.
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What is the most important for your business?
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And number three, you guys should always think, what is the most challenging or difficult test to be automated?
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So you could take it and automate it so you wouldn't have to do it manually over and over again.
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Those would be the best candidates for a test automation.
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Question number two, what is a page object and how do you implement it?
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Well, first thing first, page object is a programming design pattern.
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It speaks for itself.
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Page object model.
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So we grab a page from the user interface that looks like this and we put it in terms of code.
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We pretty much translate it into code where we create all of the elements such as buttons,
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links, text fields, etc. And we put those in a class or object.
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And we create helper methods such as login, such as logout, such as register.
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So instead of you manually clicking navigate to login page, you clicking on the username, typing in your username, clicking on a password,
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typing in your password, you create one method or a function called login
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and you simply copy paste it in multiple places where you need to use it.
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So this is a page object model.
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That's why it's called page object because we're creating a copy, an object that looks like the page but in terms of code
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and we can later reuse it
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and how do you implement it well i kind of partially already described it you take your page
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that looks like this where all of the selectors
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or locators are visible and you would convert it to something
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that looks like this where it's pretty much a human readable language
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and by the way if you guys are interested in learning automation
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and in going through up to 84 rounds of interview preparation throughout three months
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and a half test automation course i'm actually hosting one at CodeMify.
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So, if you're interested, I'm going to leave a link right below this video.
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Let's continue.
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Question number three.
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And this one will mostly be related to Selenium WebDriver versus Cypress and Playwright.
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Because implicit and explicit weight is something
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that is already automatically taken off in most cases for playwright
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and a cypress but in the selenium
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or selenium based frameworks you will still need to worry about it implicit
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and explicit weights what are they implicit weight is a weight
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for the particular amount of time where we say hey wait for this locator
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or this selector for as long as that
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so what it's going to do web driver is going to be waiting for
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that element to appear on the page
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and constantly checking for it as soon as it appears on a page you will not look for it anymore
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so it's not a hard it's not a threat sleep in java
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or pause in cypress it's implicit weight explicit weight on the other hand will wait for very similar thing
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but you wait for that element to be either clickable or visible or at etc. for a different status of that element,
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not simply for it to appear on a DOM.
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How do you handle dynamic or constantly changing elements?
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That's a good question.
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Number one, you find a static one, you find a one that doesn't change.
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And you can build the path, you can use the X path, but I would recommend you to simply build a path from the parent or grandparent into child, whatever is unique.
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If, or I would say, it's not even if, it's in every single case where you have issues with selectors or elements.
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You should talk to your development team so software developers would add actionable elements
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or they would add static IDs for every single actionable item on the page.
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And what do you mean by that?
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Buttons, links, text fields, anything that you can click and will do something on a page is an actionable item.
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So every one of them should have some static, some test ID or whatever you want to call it, whatever want to call the attribute should have unique and static
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value or an attribute so you could use it in your test automation that's the first thing
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that you should always do when you join a company
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and you see that they do not have anything static
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and everything is dynamic level two answer to this question is
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you actually do the job you ask hey can i get access to the ui repo
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so i could start adding hooks or attributes for my test automation And if you can do so, or if they can teach you to do so,
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you're going to get a raise in the near future, trust me, if you decide to do so.
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How do you organize your test cases to ensure good coverage and easy maintenance?
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Well, you could use some of the design patterns.
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For example, page object model.
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It will keep your tests well organized, structured, and somewhat scalable different programming patterns that you can use for your code,
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but this is one of the most popular ones in the world.
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Still, as of now, there are quite a few new ones coming in the world of JS, TS and quickly spreading into different frameworks and languages,
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but regardless, page object model is the most popular one.
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So, you will keep all of the tasks in a feature-like base or in a module-based structure,
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and you will keep your tests maintainable as you will keep all of the locators
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and helper methods in the particular pages that are easy to understand for the new people that join your company.
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And how do you keep a good track of what is automated, what's not?
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Well, you should always think of the traceability matrix.
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That's the place where you kinda can know what's already automated or not.
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And also, there are quite a few reporters that can also show you which areas are automated and which are simply not.
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And by the way, if you guys having doubts if you should join a QA bootcamp or not, I did start a QA introduction week.
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It's a whole week of the internship in a role of QA where you will go through a bootcamp, do the job for a US-based startup and try it if you actually like it or not.
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If you're interested, I'm going to leave a link right below this video.
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Let's continue.
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How do you integrate task automation into CICD pipeline?
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Well, that's kind of an interesting question, because you could use Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, AWS CI, or whatever they call it, regardless.
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The question sounds like, how do you integrate it into CI?
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Which means, CI is already there.
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Which means, most likely, the question is about, by the way, you guys should double-check it.
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Are they talking about integrating test automation into devs pipeline, or creating your own pipeline for QA team needs?
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If you're talking about QA team needs, as simple as GitHub Actions, for example, by the way, link to which you can find right here, where I'm actually setting it up from scratch.
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So in GitHub Actions, you simply create a YAML file and you specify what runs, when it runs, after which triggers, and how many threads do you run.
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As simple as that, you can see it on that video.
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If we're talking about devs pipeline that already exists and you have to integrate it into their pipeline, That's a senior as that question in my opinion.
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Well, because I did it as the senior as that.
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Usually, QA automation engineers would not be as involved, but when you're stepping into this game, you're pretty much getting upgraded to a senior position.
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In majority of cases, some companies will be mid-level, but anyways, if you want it to be integrated into devs pipeline, number one, you have to talk to devs, see who created it, who maintains it,
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most likely they're gonna have to do that
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or even devops team sometimes as i did it in the past you could also do it as an as
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that automation engineer or senior as
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that the way i was you would have to chit chat
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with the with the dev team understand their workflow have a
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meeting with them to understand how you can integrate it where
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exactly it will fit where exactly reports will be showing
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and who will be checking those reports are those reports going to be checked automatically to continue ci cd process
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or is it going to be a manual step to check all of the test automation results
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and only then click button to release your software to your environment
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or staging or even fraud it depends on your company setup
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but definitely you should talk to your developing team before start doing
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that that's a somewhat challenging one for newbies how do you handle authentication
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and session management in your test automation well the very basic
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way to handle authentication is simply create a user in interface
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login helper method right you add your login helper method to every single test
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and you wait for half of your life
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because now you're you all of your thousand tests taking i
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don't know five thousand more seconds than before not very scalable not very efficient in my opinion
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but it works for the beginners then you decide like you look into it
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and you're like well it's not efficient i'm wasting
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so much time can i improve it somehow you definitely can by utilizing apis you can simply shoot an API request, get a response, get a token,
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and then open up the page and inject it into local storage.
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And then your page will be loaded as you're already logged in.
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That's kind of the better option, but there's also another better option.
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In Playwright, there is something called browser context.
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Different frameworks have it implemented differently.
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I think Playwright does the best job in it, where you can handle browser context, which means you log in only once,
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you get that token stored in a local storage, everything that you need is stored in a browser, and you pretty much copy the browser context from one page, you paste it in another page,
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you refresh it, and everything is already loaded.
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You don't have to even send a request and get a response.
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Even though API is a very fast way and a very efficient way,
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browser context is even a better way to handle your authentication and a session management.
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The next two are going to be quite challenging for newbies.
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This one sounds like flaky tests.
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How do you deal with them?
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How do you troubleshoot them?
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And how do you debug them?
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Walk me through step by step.
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This is, I would say, mid to senior level question where I would ask a lot of questions first.
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Number one, you have to analyze what is happening.
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Why is the test flaky?
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And where is it flaky?
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In the CI or neural local?
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Is it flaky in the headless mode or in the headed mode?
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Is it flaky when you run all the tests, only single file, or only single test?
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When you answer all of those questions, you will very likely understand, I would say in the 70% of the cases,
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you will likely understand why are those tests flaky and why are they failing?
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If you did not, you should always look to into user interface.
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I had quite a lot of flaky tests in my life and I can give you some of the examples.
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User interface.
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Whenever you have a certain side of the screen or whenever you start using scroll method of WebDriver.io or WebDriver any frameworks,
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you will show a scroller bar on the right side and that scroller bar might be covering one of the buttons.
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It did happen to me like seven or eight years ago.
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The other case is
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when an extra parameter passed into form data before sending API requests is causing to create two objects instead of one.
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That's kind of insane but check your code, make sure there is nothing extra.
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So flaky tests will honestly depend on quite a lot of things.
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And the last and the worst case in my life that I had in flaky tests,
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I couldn't find out why are some users failing randomly to log in until I have actually wrote a loop
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and ran it 100 times until I found out that every 20th,
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30th, 50th time it fails but it's a flaky backend for the login.
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So it took me a while to figure that out, but even the backend can be flaky.
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So guys, before you start digging into your code and to find out why is your test flaky,
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make sure it's not a user interface or actually backend that is flaky.
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This girl got it and that helped her to get a job offer.
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I did torture her for two weeks.
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I told her you have to automate CRUD, which is POST, PUT, GET, and DELETE.
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She did automate it.
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She spent two freaking entire weeks.
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And guess what happened afterwards?
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Well, she went for an interview in Europe and she got exactly same challenge.
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And she've sold it in only two hours because she did suffer for two weeks.
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She did say she hates me, but then she said she loved me because that helped her to get her job offer and to get 40% raised.
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Make sure to watch her story because she did share a lot of secrets how to get a job.
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And how can you guys also get a job?
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Now, I want to thank you for your time
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and I want to ask you guys to tell me
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which were the most interesting interview questions that you did receive throughout your career.
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Thank you and I'll see you next time.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “QA Automation Engineer Technical Interview questions and answers”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: test, page, automation, flaky. This video has 195 sentences and 2642 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:55. The speaker talks fast, about 190 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| automation noun | /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/ | The act or process of converting the controlling of a machine or device to a more automatic system, such as computer or electronic controls. |
| flaky adjective | /ˈfleɪki/ | Consisting of flakes or of small, loose masses; lying, or cleaving off, in flakes or layers; flakelike. |
| automate verb | /ˈɔ.təˌmeɪt/ | To replace or enhance human labor with machines. |
| integrate verb | /ˈɪn.tɪ.ɡɹeɪt/ | To include as a constituent part or functionality. |
| pipeline noun | /ˈpaɪpˌlaɪn/ | A conduit made of pipes used to convey water, gas or petroleum, etc. |
| browser noun | /ˈbɹaʊ.zəɹ/ | One who or which browses. |
| static adjective | /ˈstæt.ɪk/ | Unchanging; that cannot or does not change. |
| helper noun | /ˈhɛlpɚ/ | One who helps; an aide; assistant; auxiliary. |
| implicit adjective | /ɪmˈplɪsɪt/ | Suggested indirectly, without being directly expressed; Implied. |
| playwright noun | /ˈpleɪˌɹaɪt/ | A writer and creator of theatrical plays. |
| dev noun | A monster, dragon, serpent, or giant. | |
| actionable adjective | /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/ | Able to be acted on; able to be used as the basis for taking action. |
| authentication noun | /ɔːˌθɛntɪˈkeɪʃn̩/ | Something which validates or confirms the authenticity of something; or the process of doing so. |
| cypress noun | /ˈsaɪ.pɹəs/ | An evergreen coniferous tree with flattened shoots bearing small scale-like leaves, whose dark foliage is sometimes associated with mourning, in family… |
| locator noun | /ˈloʊkeɪtɚ/ | One who, or that which, locates. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| open up verb | To open. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What is the most important for your business?
- How do you handle dynamic or constantly changing elements?
- How do you deal with them?
- How do you troubleshoot them?
- Thank you and I'll see you next time.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be automated · is automated · are automated |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | context, which means · CRUD, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 33 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: authentication /ɔːˌθɛntɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, actionable /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/, authentication /ɔːˌθɛntɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, regression /ɹiːˈɡɹɛʃ.ən/, troubleshoot /ˈtɹʌbl̩ˌʃuːt/
- Long words — get the stress right: automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, actionable /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/, authentication /ɔːˌθɛntɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, selenium /sɪˈliːni.əm/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like automation, flaky, automate.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.