Pre-Employment Tests For Software Quality Assurance Engineers
Top Skills and Abilities:
- Critical Thinking
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Written Expression
- Deductive Reasoning
Top 3 Tasks:
- Design test plans, scenarios, scripts, or procedures.
- Test system modifications to prepare for implementation.
- Develop testing programs that address areas such as database impacts, software scenarios, regression testing, negative testing, error or bug retests, or usability.
Overview
Software quality assurance engineers and testers are members of a larger software development team. Quality assurance engineers oversee quality assurance for the duration of the development process. Their responsibilities include software design, product integration, and code reviews. Software testers tend to have more specialized responsibilities: ensuring that the software works to proper specifications, checking for bugs, and running the software to appropriate specifications.
Requirements
Both testers and quality assurance engineers often require a bachelor's degree, usually in computer science or a related field. When hiring software quality assurance engineers and testers, employers target candidates with a solid educational background and experience in the field, but the most important traits required for this position are attention to detail, critical thinking, and problem-solving ability. Cognitive aptitude tests are one of the best ways to assess these qualities in applicants, and applicants with high scores on aptitude tests will be more likely to succeed in QA positions.
Assessments for Software Quality Assurance Engineers
Criteria Corp's customers administer the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) to evaluate applicants for these positions. The CCAT is a 15-minute test that features 50 questions. Candidates are given an overall score as well as subscores in verbal, math and spatial reasoning. Employers can use the suggested score ranges for software engineers as a guideline for interpreting the results. Additionally, employers often use the Employee Personality Profile (EPP), a personality assessment that provides insights into a person’s work style and how they are likely to interact with colleagues and management.
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Source: U.S. Department of Labor