🎯 SDET Interview Guide

Prepare with Confidence. Perform with Clarity.

This guide is designed to help Software Development Engineers in Test (SDETs) prepare for interviews across product companies, consulting roles, and enterprise QA teams.

Whether you're applying for your first SDET role or aiming for a senior test automation position, this guide covers the essential topics and practical insights to showcase your skills effectively.

📌 Key Interview Focus Areas

🔹 1. Core Programming (Java / Python / JS)

• OOP concepts: inheritance, abstraction, interfaces, encapsulation

• Collections framework, data structures (List, Set, Map)

• String handling, exception handling

• Writing reusable methods and utility classes

• Recursion, loops, and control flow
  
  

🔹 2. Automation Framework Design

• Page Object Model (POM), Factory Pattern, Singleton

• Framework layers: test runners, configs, reporting

• Integration with TestNG, JUnit, Maven, Gradle

• BDD frameworks: Cucumber structure, Gherkin syntax

• Code structure and best practices
  
  

🔹 3. UI Automation

• Selenium WebDriver: locators, waits, actions, JavaScriptExecutor

• Playwright or Cypress (bonus)

• Handling dynamic elements, shadow DOM, iframes, file uploads

• Cross-browser and mobile testing strategies
  
  

🔹 4. API Testing

• REST concepts: methods, headers, status codes, JSON schema validation

• Tools: Postman, REST Assured, Karate

• API test automation design

• Auth: Bearer tokens, OAuth, API key validation
  
  

🔹 5. Mobile Testing

• Appium setup and architecture

• Locators and gestures

• Hybrid vs native app handling

• Grid/cloud-based mobile testing
  
  

🔹 6. Database Testing

• SQL queries: joins, aggregations, subqueries

• Data validations against UI/API results

• Connecting DB to test framework
  
  

🔹 7. CI/CD & DevOps Awareness

• Jenkins pipeline basics (Freestyle vs. Declarative)

• Git branching strategies

• Docker basics: containers, images, test environments

• Integration with test frameworks
  
  

💬 Common Behavioral & Scenario-Based Questions

• How do you debug flaky tests?

• Describe your approach to building a test framework from scratch.

• How do you prioritize test cases?

• How do you handle test data for large, dynamic applications?
  
  

📚 Bonus Tips

• Practice basic DSA (search/sort, arrays, string reversal) for coding rounds

• Be ready to whiteboard framework architecture or automation workflows

• Have project examples ready with clear impact and outcomes

• Keep GitHub or portfolio links updated with clean sample code
  
  

🧩 Resources

• Practical tools and templates to reinforce your preparation

• ✅ Sample Selenium Framework – GitHub

• ✅ BDD Framework for UI + Mobile + API – GitHub

• ✅ Mock Interview Questions (PDF) – Coming Soon