Shadowing Practice: QA Automation Interview Questions and Answers - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.

245 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

No BS.

Seven QA AI automation engineer questions that our graduates got recently when they were getting job offers.

And to be exact, there were two people who got $125 ,000 and $115 ,000 job offer.

I took their interview questions, I mixed them up, and I'm going to give you seven most interesting ones from the second round of the interview

so you would know how would I, a person with more of the decade of experience in the world of QA engineering management

and a senior engineering management of SDATS would answer those questions.

And by the way, guys, if you do not know who I am, let me quickly introduce myself.

My name is Sergei, and I'm a software QA engineer, lead manager, and a senior engineering manager of SDATS in the past.

But these days, I'm helping people like you to become a QA engineer from scratch or to improve your existing skills.

All right, on this good note, hit the like button below, and let's get started.

As a new team member who's joining our company, what strategies will you use to become a subject matter expert in this

or that particular area you're going to be working on?

This is a great question, and I would describe three steps how you would go about it, or how would I go about it.

Number one is you will always go through an official onboarding process, which usually lasts from a couple of hours to a couple of days, sometimes up to one week.

That was my record.

But usually it's about a day max.

And you will go through the official onboarding process.

You'll see a bunch of videos, presentations.

The company will show you a lot of things about a product, explaining the best way possible.

The day thing is the best way.

And you will kind of understand an idea first.

Second of all, you will actually have a bunch of documentation, or at least you should ask for a bunch of documentation to read about a product on its own

while you're also playing with it.

So you would better understand that area.

And step number three is my favorite one because when you have gone through onboarding, when you went through all of the documentation, all the requirements, you played with the app,

you still have a lot of questions.

Who are you going to ask?

So the step number three is to schedule one -on -ones with the current subject matter experts of

that area you want to you're going to be working on

and ask them all of the questions that you have

and not only you should simply maybe even before you ask

so many questions you should ask them to give you a demo to show you the app

if they were not the people who showed you that previously

because they will have their own opinion

so you can ask them for a short walk through

and then you can ask all the follow -up questions and after

that you can literally become subject matter expert within a matter

of a couple of months after you actually work on that product area for a little more.

But since you've gone through onboarding requirements and you've talked to subject matter experts, now you know everything you possibly need to know before you get started.

What part of your day -to -day work do you enjoy the most?

This is kind of a tricky question because if you answer it with a certain angle,

they will understand quite more than you actually are talking about.

And let me talk about psychology behind this question.

So whenever you describe something you really enjoy, on one side, you're passionate about it.

You're saying, hey, I like putting the headphones on, listening to music and coding nonstop, solving problems.

This shows that you are an introvert.

You're an amazing future dev.

You're a great software development engineer in test or key animation engineer, but you're not very collaborative person.

You like to work on your own which is awesome

but on the other hand when you say

that i like talking to people i like communicating i like having meetings you're clearly showing

that you're a good team player

that you like to talk to people you might be a good project manager

or possibly product manager

but you're not necessarily a very technical person who can get into the coding mode and code for a while non -stop.

You might not be a deep technical expert.

That's what you will show.

So whenever you answer this question, try to be very diplomatic and don't lean towards one or the other way.

Try to be somewhere on the middle, but say, hey, I like a lot of things.

I like talking to people.

I like coding as well.

In the most diplomatic way, you say, I wouldn't necessarily separate one or the other part of my job as I like what I'm doing.

I like improving the quality of the product

and it takes quite a few different steps or processes to get there

which includes communicating with the team uh going through uh meetings deciding what

and when to test and also putting my headphones on

and writing a lot of code whenever it's needed so by answering that way you show that you're a universal soldier

or a swiss army knife that you can do quite a lot of things

but this is the best answer in my opinion

if you want to stick to and only do coding

and this is what you love if you don't want to be the swiss knife

that can be that will have the highest chance of getting this job offer

if they need somebody who can do a lot of things

because on the other hand

if they're looking for somebody purely technical who will put the headphones on and only work on a test automation framework framework,

architecture, et cetera, if they have not talked about anything related to communication or other team members in their job description,

you might be the best candidate if you are the most technical one.

Now, my favorite question.

Tell me about something that is really important, but is not on your resume that will make you stand out.

I'm getting goosebumps on my skin right now because I've done

so many things in my life that I did not put in my resume

that I can talk about

but whenever you as a new newborn qa engineer who just finished the boot camp

or you just had your or you just finished the university

or college or you finish your first internship

or you didn't even have it yet whenever you want to

answer this question you need to have something juicy to talk

about i can give a couple of my examples usually i discuss creating test automation infrastructure for my team

that has been saving $230 ,000 on an annual basis for one of the companies I work for,

which is quite crazy for majority of people because usually don't do that kind of stuff because it's sort of the DevOps, I would say, stuff.

It's in between QA and DevOps, like QA ops.

But whenever you talk about it, if you haven't done something like that, you should think about something you're mostly proud of.

Something like creating test automation from scratch, test automation framework from scratch, or splitting your test automation framework into separate ones to make them more scalable.

But if you don't have anything like that, here are the couple of options for you.

Actually, these are the most modern ones because nowadays, whenever you talk about automation and scalability, it's all awesome, but we have AI, AI, AI, AI everywhere.

And there are two directions that you can actually go from here.

I would say even three.

The first one is a classic one.

You can say

100

that you did create test automation framework from scratch for the previous company you worked for even

101

if you did not make sure to create one

102

if you work for somebody but you didn't do

103

that make sure to create framework from scratch make sure to get ready for all the possible scalability questions

104

that they will have for you

105

and you can answer them you can say hey i've utilized playwright playwright playwright cli etc etc playwright agents

106

and also i build my own agents that's the thing number

107

one it's more of traditional QA with a little bit of flavor of AI.

108

The second answer is, you can say I've built an agentic QA flow in my company, where now product manager or product analyst,

109

whatever, creates a ticket or requirement.

110

That ticket is automatically picked by my AI, one of my agents or agentic workflow,

111

and it creates test cases for that particular jury ticket

112

or whatever project management system you use then it passes on to the next agent

113

which picks it up

114

and it creates automates all of those test cases based on the manual test cases previous agent has created

115

and then this agent creates the pull request

116

and then the other agent who is an architect agent picks it up

117

and checks all the pull requests gives comments

118

and now it goes back to previous agent this agent reviews

119

all the comments fixes it goes back to the pull request again review after it has been approved

120

and now it's getting the link is getting sent back to the jira ticket you're getting tagged

121

and also you're getting a slack message notification from another agent of yours

122

which specifies that hey this ticket has been fully automated with the help of playwright

123

and blah blah blah blah blah here's a link for the pull request

124

that has already been approved please check it out

125

and merge it in if possible so this is a quite an insane agentic workflow

126

if you've never done it in your life, no problem at all.

127

It is one of the options that you can potentially do.

128

If you're interested in learning how to implement it all from scratch, I have a separate course about it.

129

The link for it is right here or right below this video.

130

And the second thing, actually the third thing you can talk about whenever they ask you about something that you've done, but that is not on your resume.

131

You can say that if your company does it, we're implementing AI chatbot or bot or any other features to our platform

132

and i am the person who is testing ai nobody else has done it in my company in the past

133

and i've gone through the course now i'm doing all the

134

prompt evaluations i'm doing red teaming i'm verifying accuracy performance

135

and the cost i'm trying to find out how to do the cost reduction

136

and all that is also possible if you guys have done it

137

if you have not done it no worries once again i'm going to leave a link right here

138

or right below this video as i run ai testing courses every two months in case you are interested

139

so these are the three ways that how i would answer this question if you receive 500

140

server adder how do you go about it how do you

141

debug it well usually whenever you see 500 api status code

142

that means that the server has no idea what to do with the api

143

that it just has received

144

so like i don't know what's up you figured it out

145

i have no idea what to do with this usually you would go to server logs

146

and if you're working for a classic qa engineer and

147

if you don't know what server logs are or

148

if you don't have access simply ask your team they can

149

give you access to server logs they ask you why i

150

say hey whenever i receive 500s i need to debug them somehow

151

so i would like to see what can i do about

152

it you might get an answer you might get an objection saying this this

153

or that you don't need that and it could be fine

154

but in 95 of the cases you should get access to api server logs

155

so you could see them because whenever server replies 500 in the server logs, if developers did a great job, which is a possibility sometimes,

156

you will see a clear mass error message saying, hey, you got 500 because of this, this, this, and that.

157

For example, the email was more than 18 characters.

158

And I remember that from Verizon that I used to work for, which is quite crazy for such a company.

159

But anyways, your email address was longer than 18 characters in the server logs.

160

But on the front end, I got 500.

161

I was like, what the hell is going none by front end i mean i opened google dev tools

162

and i saw that that was 500 it was just undefined error on the in the ui

163

which is quite crazy but anyways step number one you would always check your server logs

164

if you did not find anything in the server logs you would try to reproduce it again

165

and you would deeply take a look at your server request

166

or your api request what what data are you sending are

167

there some undefined what fields are required you would go through each field and

168

if those fields are not required you remove all of the

169

optional fields right away pretty much you're splitting your your api request you're trying to remove everything unnecessary to see

170

if that is causing your issue if

171

that was not the case you look at the true false values

172

and change those you look at the string versus a number

173

if you have a number change it to a string maybe

174

server does not recognize actual numbers it needs strings even

175

if it's a square footage and you're testing real estate website still try a string

176

so play with those values and see if

177

that will change something usually 500 means that the wrong data was sent

178

or i have no idea what to do with this particular piece of data

179

if you want to see more videos like this you gotta hit the like button below

180

and to subscribe to your channel you would not miss out on the next cool videos like this one

181

and also if you forgot to drink water make sure to drink a lot, make sure to hydrate your brain because you are using

182

that thing inside of your head quite significantly whenever you are learning new educational, useful and amazing materials that I came up with.

183

Alright, hit the like button below and let's continue.

184

Was there a time when you contributed to something that nobody asked you to do, but at the end you had a positive outcome?

185

This is a good question because on one side it shows that you are proactive or reactive.

186

If nobody asks you to do something, but you still do something, it shows that you're a proactive person.

187

And honestly speaking, I can give you 99 % of a chance that you're not a proactive person, because majority of the times people are lazy by default.

188

And people will never do things unless they get paid for it or unless they get asked for it.

189

But I did quite a few times in my life.

190

And here's one of the greatest examples that you guys could possibly use for your answers as well.

191

But don't tell anyone.

192

I was working for a company as a synergy automation engineer and there was a problem with the flaky tests.

193

We had approximately 500 tests and whenever they would run in parallel, randomly some tests would fail, one test will fail, then the other the next time,

194

the other test will fail and this one will pass.

195

Nobody knew what was going on.

196

I took an ownership without telling anyone what it was about

197

and I found out

198

that a lot of people were using the same data they

199

created manually i would say unexperienced way of doing things where people would manually create data

200

and put it into a database and then they would use

201

that data for their tests

202

and then somebody else comes into a company they also use the same data

203

so two tests are editing same data whichever tests runs first will edit

204

that data and the second one will try to find it it doesn't exist

205

because already different so that's why you will see flakiness based on a data dependency

206

so i took it and i simply i took all those tests i created api generator methods

207

which would generate data

208

which would create data on the fly before each test runs in the before each hook

209

or in before hook whatever fits better for particular test

210

and then boom no more flaky tests that was an easy solution

211

that i implemented and of course afterwards i got promoted and I had to teach an entire company, every single QA engineer in my company,

212

how to do that, so we would have no more flaky tests in my.. company

213

if you guys have done that if you have done something separate something different

214

but something interesting let me know in a comment below i

215

honestly want to hear your stories what was the cool thing

216

that nobody asked you to do

217

but you actually did do you have a favorite failure

218

that you would like to share where something positive came out of it this is a good question

219

because this shows you that you're learning from general speaking failures

220

or mistakes not only yours or not

221

and honestly speaking about this one i would describe the same story

222

that i was talking about recently there were a lot of flaky tests in a company i worked for

223

because we started seeing a lot of flaky tests i hopped into it i

224

and i've built something

225

that the company never seen before isolated all the tests into their own bubbles as you could say

226

or in a professional language i made all the tests independent i removed data dependencies

227

that they all had and because of

228

that we were able to scale from 500 tests into 1000 tests

229

and instead of it running for 40 minutes it runs within 20 minutes

230

or even less right in this moment have you ever done any type of performance testing

231

and what tools do you use well if you do not have on your resume you You should clearly say, hey, I have not done it yet, if you're okay with that.

232

And generally speaking, you should not lie.

233

But if you can see in a job description or in a company you're going for, in a position you're going for, they have, I don't know, requirement for performance testing.

234

I would recommend you to review K6 tool, which is one of the most modern tools

235

and the super easy one to get a hand on and to get experience with.

236

And if you guys are interested, I mean, you can simply Google it or

237

if you want to leave a comment right below this video say k6 performance testing course

238

and i'll upload a video of mine

239

so you guys could see how exactly i would do it

240

but generally speaking it's super easy to do i've never done

241

in my life i mean only for my own projects i

242

never did it professionally for any companies i worked for

243

because i was always concentrating on different things

244

and we had separate team uh or devs would take care of performance testing but once again if you're interested, you can simply leave a comment right below this video.

245

Now, get some water, get some workout, and I'll see you on the next video.

Download App

Everything you need to speak fluently

AI PronunciationScore every sentence

IPA PracticeMaster every sound

VocabularyBuild your word bank

Vocab GameLearn while playing

Scan QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

📺 Same Channel

QA Automation Engineer Technical Interview questions and answers

Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students

QA Engineer Interview Questions - Tell me about yourself

Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students

✨ Recommend Video

75 sentences

QUALITY CONTROL Interview Questions & Answers! (Inspector, Manager + Assessor Interview Questions!

Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students

210 sentences

Ace every UX/UI design interview like THIS

Interview EnglishWorking Adults

674 sentences

FULL Data Science Mock Interview | SQL, Statistics, Business

Interview EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

214 sentences

Phlebotomy Job Interview Questions and Answers! Get hired!

Interview EnglishWorking Adults

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 245 sentences and 3341 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:20. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% 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

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

server /ˈsɝvɚ/ (noun) — A program that provides services to other programs or devices, either in the same computer or over a computer network.
automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The act or process of converting the controlling of a machine or device to a more automatic system, such as computer or electronic controls.
log /lɔɡ/ (noun) — The trunk of a dead tree, cleared of branches.
framework /ˈfɹeɪm.wɜːk/ (noun) — A support structure comprising joined parts or conglomerated particles and intervening open spaces of similar or larger size.
scratch /skɹæt͡ʃ/ (verb) — To rub a surface with a sharp object, especially by a living creature to remove itching with nails, claws, etc.
string /stɹɪŋ/ (noun) — A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together.
requirement /ɹɪˈkwaɪɹmənt/ (noun) — A necessity or prerequisite; something required or obligatory. Its adpositions are generally of in relation to who or what has given it, on in relation to whom…
resume /ˈɹɛz.ə.meɪ/ (verb) — To start (something) again that has been stopped or paused from the point at which it was stopped or paused; continue, carry on.
onboard /ɒnˈbɔːd/ (adjective) — Carried or used on or in a vehicle or vessel.
implement /ˈɪmpləmənt/ (verb) — To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out.
documentation /ˌdɑkjəmɛnˈteɪʃən/ (noun) — A documentary.
headphones /ˈhɛdfoʊnz/ (noun) — A pair of cushioned speakers worn over or in the ears so only the wearer can hear the sound.
necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ (adverb) — Inevitably; of necessity.
knife /ˈnaɪ̯f/ (noun) — A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge…
hook /hʊk/ (noun) — A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

go through (verb) — To travel from one end of something to the other.
talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
work on (verb) — To apply mental or physical effort to (something) in order to shape, form, improve, investigate, solve it, etc.
do with (verb) — Only used in to do with
go about (verb) — To busy oneself with.
look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
play with (verb) — To fiddle with; make small adjustments to, for example to something mechanical in order to improve its performance.
ask for (verb) — To request; to order.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 68 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, documentation /ˌdɑkjəmɛnˈteɪʃən/, ownership /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, reduction /ɹɪˈdʌk.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, documentation /ˌdɑkjəmɛnˈteɪʃən/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, diplomatic /ˌdɪpləˈmætɪk/

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 server, automation, log.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have gone · you've gone · have not talked
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who got · people who showed · own which is
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	has been approved · been approved · was just undefined

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: QA Automation Interview Questions and Answers - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Download App

QA Automation Engineer Technical Interview questions and answers

QA Engineer Interview Questions - Tell me about yourself

Recruiter Secrets: Why You Get Rejected in the Middle of the Night

Answering behavioral interview questions is shockingly uncomplicated

15 Common Health and Safety Interview Questions and Answers - Safety Training

Top 20 Data Analyst Interview Questions And Answers for 2026

How to Become a Sales Engineer | Without Any Experience

Operations Manager Interview Questions & Winning Answers (Complete Guide)

QUALITY CONTROL Interview Questions & Answers! (Inspector, Manager + Assessor Interview Questions!

Top 10 Linux Job Interview Questions

Ace every UX/UI design interview like THIS

FULL Data Science Mock Interview | SQL, Statistics, Business

Phlebotomy Job Interview Questions and Answers! Get hired!

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?