Crafted and taught by FAANG+ Test Engineers, this course will help you crack your next Test Engineering Interview and uplevel your career. Learn everything you need to know about Test Engineering interviews at top tech companies and how to ace it.
Test Engineers!
Get interview-ready with lessons from FAANG+ engineers
Master core Test Engineering interview concepts
Sharpen your coding and behavioral interview skills
Students who chose to uplevel with IK got placed at
Pratik Agarwal
Software Development Engineer ll
Kishore Periassamy
Software Development Engineer
Anshul Bansal
Software Engineer
Suat Mercan
Senior Software Engineer
Vinayak Prabhu
System Development Engineer
Kelsi Lakey
Software Engineer
Shrey Shrivastava
Software Development Engineer ll
Aniruddha Tekade
Senior Software Engineer
13,500+
Tech professionals trained
$1.267M
Highest offer received by an IK alum
53%
Average salary hike received by alums
Best suited for
Current or former Test Engineers
Automation Test Engineers targeting SDET roles
QA Engineers/Testers trying to transition into SDET roles
Why choose this course?
Program designed by FAANG+ leads
Covering data structures, algorithms, interview-relevant topics, and career coaching
Individualized teaching and 1:1 help
Technical coaching, homework assistance, solutions discussion, and individual session
Mock interviews with Silicon Valley engineers
Live interview practice in real-life simulated environments with FAANG and top-tier interviewers
Personalized feedback
Constructive, structured, and actionable insights for improved interview performance
Career skills development
Resume building, LinkedIn profile optimization, personal branding, and live behavioral workshops
50% Money-Back Guarantee*
If you do well in our course but still don't land a domain-relevant job within the post-program support period, we'll refund 50% of the tuition you paid for the course.*
Our highly experienced instructors are active hiring managers and employees at FAANG+ companies and know exactly what it takes to ace tech and managerial interviews.
Fazal Allanabanda
Senior Test Lead
15+ years experience
Learn more
Ioan Moldovan
Test Manager
9+ years experience
Learn more
Omkar Deshpande
Head of Curriculum
15+ years experience
Learn more
Nick Camilleri
Head of Career Skills Devp. and Coaching
10+ years experience
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Suruchi Khandelwal
Senior Automation Engineer
9+ years experience
Learn more
A typical week at Interview Kickstart
This is how we structure and organize your interview prep with our high-quality, content-rich course. Our learners devote 10 to 12 hours per week to this course.
Thu
Get Foundational content
Get high-quality videos and course material for next week’s topic
Covers introduction to fundamentals, interview-relevant topics, and case studies
Assignment review session
Discussion-centric session where the instructor analysis your assignment's solution and gives feedback
Discussions over interview-oriented questions and key concepts involved
Sun
Attend Online live classes
Attend 4-hour sessions covering Test Engineering concepts via case studies and interview questions
Each class discusses questions, derived from actual interview questions, with the help of design frameworks and code walkthroughs
Mon-Wed
Practice problems & case studies
Practice the concepts taught in live sessions to solve assignment questions
In class, discuss case studies' solutions and practice designing framework
Live doubt-solving with FAANG+ SDETs (or QAEs)
Every day
1:1 access to instructors
Personalized coaching from FAANG+ SDETs (or QAEs)
Individualized and detailed attention to your questions
Common recursion- and backtracking-related coding interview problems
3
Trees
Dictionaries & Sets, Hash Tables
Modeling data as Binary Trees and Binary Search Tree and performing different operations over them
Tree Traversals and Constructions
BFS Coding Patterns
DFS Coding Patterns
Tree Construction from its traversals
Common trees-related coding interview problems
4
Graphs
Overview of Graphs
Problem definition of the 7 Bridges of Konigsberg and its connection with Graph theory
What is a graph, and when do you model a problem as a Graph?
How to store a Graph in memory (Adjacency Lists, Adjacency Matrices, Adjacency Maps)
Graphs traversal: BFS and DFS, BFS Tree, DFS stack-based implementation
A general template to solve any problems modeled as Graphs
Graphs in Interviews
Common graphs-related coding interview problems
5
Dynamic Programming
Dynamic Programming Introduction
Modeling problems as recursive mathematical functions
Detecting overlapping subproblems
Top-down Memorization
Bottom-up Tabulation
Optimizing Bottom-up Tabulation
Common DP-related coding interview problems
Test Engineering Masterclass
6 weeks
6 live classes
1
Quality Engineering Foundations
Basics of Test Engineering and deep dive into advanced concepts
How to test the feature of password fields:Objective, case explanation, need for testing and testing processes involved
Amazon case study: The journey of building and end-to-end testing of a technical product:SDLC of the product, stakeholders' involvement during various levels of SDLC
How to classify tests into testing quadrants and testing pyramids and identify metrics for these tests
Shopping Cart: Functional testing of features like Add to Cart, Update Quantities, Remove Item, Checkout, etc.
Troubleshooting defects and bugs in a web application and identifying their impact on the overall functionality of the application
How would you test checking out of the shopping cart:
Validate shopping cart interface with inventory & catalogue ({:gap {:kind :userinput}} can select only items in stock for checkout)
Validate shopping cart interface with payment (successful payments result in order creation, failed payments return the user back to the cart)
Validate shopping cart interface with order management (order created after checkout + payment, order items match what was in the shopping cart, shipment address matches customer delivery address)
If we wish to add a new feature to the cart, “save for later,” how can we prove whether this feature would be worth creating or not?
“Hack” together a rudimentary implementation
Expose the feature to a subset of the user base
Observe the response to the new feature (retention, sales)
2
Performance Testing
Brainstorming interview questions: Basics of performance testing, common problems faced, bottlenecks, common mistakes, etc.
Understanding user expectations and identifying user pain points while engaging with an application and performing appropriate performance tests to ensure a smooth user experience
Example problem: How can we ensure that Amazon is working smoothly during a sales event?
How will you conduct end-to-end Performance Testing for the transaction system for an e-commerce application during a sale?
Performance Testing Workflow: Requirements, tool, test plan and design, use-cases and test-cases, test execution using Little’s Law, test analysis and report
How can we create a Performance Test Strategy template for the above-mentioned example?
Objectives, architectural diagram, scope, metrics, entry and exit criteria, risks
How to use profile output to build better evidence stories for test failures
Process, benefits, profilers functioning, steps for developing performance profile, and performance profiling applications
Demonstration: Undergoing performance testing for microservices using Jmeter
Scope of test automation: Is it possible to perform 100% automation?
Identifying essential automation testing topics/questions for interviews
Using Google Chrome as an example, identify elements where automation can be brought in. What are some of the areas where automation shall be avoided and why?
What is the need for cross-browser testing and in what situations would you want to perform it?
How can we automate the “Compose email” feature in Gmail?
Demonstrate the processes, tools needed for this automation, and the automation framework
Identify the different components in this framework and the advantages of using this framework
How would you automate a basic login in an application?
Designing and implementing a framework from scratch to automate the testing of a Registration Page
CI/CD: Basics, role, challenges, edge cases:
How can we do Test Automation in a CI/CD pipeline - demonstration using GitHub
How to perform automation testing using Selenium: Selenium basics, intent, setup, etc.
5
Test Automation Design Patterns
Design patterns: Basics, need, essential elements, types, advantages, etc.
Important design pattern concepts for interviews
How to build fast, efficient, and scalable test automation frameworks for multiple features at the same time?
While designing an automation framework for testing the login page, how will you simplify the structure of objects and classes, ensuring that the framework is fast, scalable, and efficient?
Web browser automation testing: Scope, use case, design and specifications, libraries used, and demo
How to add logging functionality without making a lot of changes to test automation solution using Webdriver
How to isolate complex and repetitive construction code in an object and how it benefits Testing
How will you design an automation framework for an application where you have to test multiple payment methods?
6
Cloud Testing
Basics of Cloud Testing and its importance
Different types of cloud service models
If we were to build a service for a government agency, what kind of cloud would we use and why?
How can we use the different types of cloud service models to approach this problem and identify the best among them?
How can we make sure that a website has a similar load time across the globe?
Introduction to the CAP theorem
Importance of logging, monitoring, and alerting in Cloud Testing
How will you ensure that an application deployed on the cloud is running smoothly?
How to identify and debug cloud system issues?
How to approach testing in cloud?
Understanding Cloud Testing Strategy: Components, tools, solutions, test data, etc.
What is Hybrid Integration Testing: Cloud migration and its common business needs
UpLevel will be your all-in-one learning platform to get you FAANG-ready, with 10,000+ interview questions, timed tests, videos, mock interviews suite, and more.
Mock interviews suite
On-demand timed tests
In-browser online judge
10,000 interview questions
100,000 hours of video explanations
Class schedules & activity alerts
Real-time progress update
11 programming languages
Get upto 15 mock interviews withhiring managers
What makes our mock Interviews the best:
Hiring managers from Tier-1 companies like Google & Apple
Interview with the best. No one will prepare you better!
Domain-specific Interviews
Practice for your target domain - Test Engineering
Detailed personalized feedback
Identify and work on your improvement areas
Transparent, non-anonymous interviews
Get the most realistic experience possible
More about mock interviews
Career impact
Our engineers land high-paying and rewarding offers from the biggest tech companies, including Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Netflix.
Suat Mercan
Senior Software Engineer
Placed at:
IK’s back-end engineering program helped me learn helpful nuances in programming and understandthe fundamentals of system design. The instructors from FAANG companies were inspiring. The mock interviews are also very helpful to get exposed to interviewing experience.
Chun Wu
Senior Software Engineer
Placed at:
I joined iK after stumbling across it while reviewing some other interview prep materials after doing poorly in an interview at Linkedin. I knew that doing well in these interviews would require dedication and investment of my time - but with so many resources online I didn't have structure. This is what the IK platform provided me.
Shrey Shrivastava
Software development Engineer ll
Placed at:
The Interview Kickstart course is very structured and informative. They teach you about DS and algo fundamentals very thoroughly and also prepare you for the software engineering interview. I really like the live classes by FAANG engineers, and the homework and tests definitely help you toprepare for a real interview. If you have been looking for a bootcamp that prepares you for software engineering interviews, I would say this is definitely the right place to do it.
Sridhar Gandham
Senior Software Engineer
Placed at:
My experience at IK was extremely positive. I was preparing for FAANG companies using the standard techniques that you find on the internet. When I started preparing, there was no structure to the madness. For example, a simple quicksort can be implemented in multiple ways. So solving a medium problem would take me about 30 minutes. The biggest benefit that I got from IK was a clear, structured way of solving problems. After IK, I could solve medium problems in 10 minutes!
Akriti Bhatt
Software Engineer
Placed at:
Interview Kickstart is a great platform to perfect your basics and get a deep understanding of algorithms. These sessions helped me crack Google and several other companies.
Having struggled for a while to understand what I was doing wrong in interviews and how to behave during an interview, I took the help of 1-1 interview sessions with the mentors and the guidance provided by them helped me understand the problem with my approach.
How to enroll for the Test Engineering Interview Course?
Learn more about Interview Kickstart and the Test Engineering interview course by joining the free webinar hosted by Ryan Valles, co-founder of Interview Kickstart.
A Free Guide to Kickstart Your Test Engineering Career at FAANG+ Companies
From the interview process and career path to interview questions and salary details — learn everything you need to know about Test Engineering careers at top tech companies.
The interview process at FAANG+ and other Tier-1 companies for Test Engineering interviews varies for each company. However, the general structure for the software testing interview process is as follows:
Initial screening: Generally includes a coding round and a discussion of your past projects. These rounds also test your understanding and communication skills.
On-site (3-4 rounds): 1-2 general coding rounds, 1 domain round, and a behavioral round. More details about the interview rounds
What to Expect at Test Engineering Interviews?
1
Initial technical screening
Expect a coding round and a discussion of your past projects. The coding questions are typically at an easy/medium level on Leetcode.
2
On-site (3-4 rounds)
1-2 general coding rounds: Generally includes two coding rounds, where the questions usually involve Arrays, Linked Lists, Sorting and Searching, Recursion, Trees, and Graphs. The difficulty level is generally easy/medium, but you should be ready for an occasional tough problem.
1 domain round: This round revolves around the Test Engineering fundamentals. You may be asked to write test cases for a program or create a test plan for an application. It can also have questions on Test Engineering fundamentals like Automation Frameworks, API testing, performance testing, Agile testing, etc.
Behavioral round: Tests cultural fit and your collaboration, leadership, and communication skills.
Test Engineering Interview Questions
Interview questions are quite different for different types of Test Engineers, but they aim at the same goal: to ensure that the software application runs consistently and reliably with the least possible bugs. Take a look at these interview questions to gauge your software testing interview preparation.
1
Senior Test Engineer Interview Questions on Coding
Want to assess how ready you are for your Test Engineering interview? Take a jab at these software testing interview questions on tech coding asked in tech Interviews:
For a given array of size N containing distinct integer numbers, write a code to sort the array in the wave fashion.
From a given array containing integer values, write a code to find the maximum subarray of non-negative numbers.
For a given String S, write a code to find the minimum number of elements or characters that need to be inserted to convert it into a palindrome.
For a given String S, write a program to find the length of the longest Substring with distinct values.
For a given String S, write a code to remove successive duplicate characters recursively.
For two strings, A and B, write a program to figure out if B can be obtained by rotating A in at least two places.
Write a code to reverse a Linked List from position X to position Y.
For a given Linked List, write a code to return the node value where the cycle in question begins.
For a given binary tree T, write a code to print the bottom view of the tree from left to right.
You're given the root of a binary tree T. Write a program to find out if it is a Binary Search Tree or not.
Domain-specific Test Engineering Interview Questions
As a Test Engineer, the importance of mastering your domain can’t be overstated. See if you can answer these domain-specific Test Engineering interview questions:
How do Test Pyramid strategies help in Automation Testing?
When is a build staging environment ready? What tests are covered in the staging environment?
How can we make exponential testing more structured?
How do you build a Test Plan for a Database?
What is the difference between and significance of verification and validation?
What is the importance of Smoke/Sanity Testing in the build process?
How would you incorporate end-2-end requirements/product features in test planning?
Navigating through Test Case management tools, how would you ensure traceable test results history?
What is the importance of the Requirement Traceability Matrix? Implement "compose email" functionality in a mail application.
What are some essential factors to consider while creating a test strategy for the Payment method for an E-commerce website?
Test Engineering Interview Questions on Behavioral Skills
Let us now look at some behavioral questions asked in Test Engineering interviews:
Tell me something about yourself as a Test Engineer that’s not in your resume.
Why this role and why our company?
How do you handle multitasking?
What qualities does a skilled software tester have?
What motivates you on tough days?
Talk about the most challenging instance of your career as a Test Engineer. How did you handle it?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Where do you see yourself in three-five years?
What are you looking for in your next role?
Test Engineering Career Path
It’s crucial to know what’s expected of you in a role, not just before you take it up but before you decide how to prepare for it. Let's look at the career path of a Test Engineer and the responsibilities associated with the role.
Understanding the requirements from an acceptance/customer perspective.
Understanding how the product is developed in terms of coding language, databases, etc.
Planning a strategy to automate maximum test scenarios as possible.
Creating and using robust and high–quality test automation solutions for functional, regression, and performance testing.
Developing automation code for the application to control the execution of tests, compare their outcomes, and report functions that would otherwise require manual testing activity.
Building different test scenarios and acceptance tests and ensuring maximum test coverage.
Working with deployment teams and resolving any level issues of the system.
Participating in the design discussions and providing effective feedback in code reviews.
The responsibilities for Software Test Engineers that need 2-4 years of experience or more expand with level and may include:
2
Roles and Responsibilities of an Experienced Test Engineer
Automating tests and creating test automation requirements to some extent.
Planning end to end test strategy involving - test automation, results, dashboards, alerts, and test environment
Focusing on EngProd (engineering productivity aspect of Test Engineering), not just on creating test automation solutions
Taking testing to the next level, influencing the testing culture, and making testing part of engineering practices (engineering productivity)
Building a test culture so development teams can contribute to better testing.
Strategizing and building long-term testing and EngProd scaling solutions.
3
Career Roadmap for Test Engineers
In a FAANG+ company, the career progression for the Test Engineering role is:
SDET-1: Junior level SDET, expected to write test automation scripts
SDET-2: Experienced SDET, expected to also develop reusable tools and test automation frameworks
Sr/Staff SDET – Senior-level SDET, expected to also
Review code
Participate in design discussions and make suggestions to have appropriate changes in design
Participate in the overall testing strategy of the product
Participate in CI/CD delivery models, create execution pipelines, etc.
Test Architect/Solutions Engineer – designs/architects an overall framework for multiple projects, frames test specifications, and can also act as a delivery manager
Test Engineering Salary at FAANG+ companies at various levels
Let us look at the Software Tester salary at FAANG+ companies and how they change with the levels:
Test Engineering salary at FAANG+ Companies
Average compensation by level
Level Name
Total Annual Compensation (QA)
Total Annual Compensation (SDET)
Experience Range
Manual Testers/ SDET 1
< 140K
120K - 170K
0 - 4 years
Test Engineer (QAE2)/SDET 2
110K - 170K
140K - 200k
4 - 8 years
Senior Test Engineer/SDET 3
130K - 210K
160K - 240K
Above 8 years
Principal SDET
> 180K
> 200K
Above 8 years
Facebook Test Engineering Salary
A Facebook Test Engineering can earn a total annual salary (Base+Stock+Bonus) anywhere between $137k (IC3) to $376k (IC6), depending on the level of the Technical Program Manager.
For an IC6 with a $376k total salary, the split looks like $212k as the base, $119k as stocks, and $44k as a bonus.
Technical Program Managers at Apple, Netflix, and Google tend to have a higher Technical Program Manager salary than Facebook.
Test Engineering at Facebook
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
IC3
$137K
$107K
$21K
$11K
IC4
$204K
$212K
$37K
$18K
IC5
$289K
$212K
$72K
$32K
IC6
$376K
$212K
$119K
$18K
Amazon Test Engineering Salary
An Amazon Test Engineering can earn a total annual salary anywhere between $136k (L4) to $398k (L7), depending on the job level.
For a level 7 with a $398k per annum salary, the split is around $182k as the base, $198k as stocks, and $ 36k as a bonus.
Compared to Facebook, Amazon Test Engineering may earn a slightly higher salary and tend to have heavier stock options.
Test Engineering at Amazon
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
L4
$136K
$104K
$26K
$9K
L5
$187K
$137K
$34K
$18K
L6
$256K
$159K
$78K
$22K
L7
$398K
$182K
$198K
$36K
Apple Test Engineering Salary
An Apple Test Engineering can earn a total annual salary anywhere between $213k (ICT3) to $390k (ICT5), depending on the level of the Technical Program Manager.
For an ICT5 with a $390k per annum salary, the split is around $210k as the base, $147k as stocks, and $ 33k as a bonus.
For an ICT5 with a $390k per annum salary, the split is around $210k as the base, $147k as stocks, and $ 33k as a bonus.
Apple’s lowest Test Engineering salary tends to be higher than the lowest Technical Program Manager salary at other FAANG companies.
Test Engineering at Apple
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
ICT3
$213K
$151K
$43K
$19K
ICT4
$276K
$179K
$74K
$24K
ICT5
$390K
$210K
$147K
$33K
Netflix Test Engineering Salary
Unlike other FAANG companies, there’s only one level on the ladder for software engineer career progression at Netflix called the senior software engineer level. This is because Netflix strictly hires experienced professionals.
The median package for a senior software engineer is $305k, where $275k is the base salary, $14k is in stocks, and $16k is in bonuses.
The base Test Engineering salary at Netflix tends to be the highest among all FAANG companies, while their total salary is in line with the FAANG standards.
The base Test Engineering salary at Netflix tends to be the highest among all FAANG companies, while their total salary is in line with the FAANG standards.
Test Engineering at Netflix
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
Sr. SW. Engineer
$305K
$275K
$14K
$13K
Test Engineering Manager Salary
A Google Test Engineering can earn a total annual salary anywhere between $173k (L3) to $389k (L6), depending on the level of the Technical Program Manager.
For an L6 with a $389k per annum salary, the split is around $200k as the base, $139k as stocks, and $ 50k as a bonus.
The lowest Test Engineering salary at Google tends to be higher than the lowest Technical Program Manager salary at Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.
The highest Test Engineering salary at Google aligns with the highest Technical Program Manager salary in FAANG companies.
Test Engineering at Google
Average compensation by level
Level name
Total
Base
Stock (/yr)
Bonus
L3
$173K
$121K
$38K
$17K
L4
$230K
$143K
$62K
$25K
L5
$297K
$170K
$94K
$32K
L6
$389K
$200K
$139K
$50K
Salary Details of Test Engineering at Other Tier-1 Companies
Knowing the Technical Program Manager's salary details for other tier-1 companies can help you evaluate your options better. We’ve curated the salaries associated with each of these companies at different levels: