Beyond the QA Interview Master Quality Assurance and Build a Solid Career (Ahmed El-Deeb)（Z-Library）
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Build a sustainable, future-proof career in Quality Assurance. Focusing on both broader strategies for building a long-lasting and fruitful career, as well as tactical interview preparation, this book is a comprehensive roadmap to developing the technical, functional, and soft skills that will help you stand out in the job market. The book takes a two-pronged approach to building your career in quality assurance and testing. It first helps you develop the foundational functional skills that large tech companies look for, and then guides you through step-by-step strategies to ace QA interviews. Combining real-world insights, structured skill-building, and a strategic approach to career growth, this ultimate guide for QA professionals will help you gain expertise in test planning, test automation, AI in testing, metrics, and quality reporting, making you a competitive candidate. The book begins with an introduction to the QA profession, followed by a clear plan on which skills to develop and how to develop them. It then goes into detail on how to tailor your skills to specific industries and position yourself as a highly relevant expert. The second part of the book delves deeper into the interview process itself, offering crucial tips on how to showcase your competencies and deal with challenges, such as areas where you may have less experience. It also provides valuable advice on what to do after the interview, regardless of whether you got the job or not. Using practical QA methodologies combined with career guidance and interview strategies, this book offers readers a holistic view, from mastering technical skills to navigating career advancements and succeeding in interviews. Who This Book Is For QA Engineers, Software Testers, Test Automation Engineers, QA Leads and QA Managers
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Beyond the QA Interview Master Quality Assurance and Build a Solid Career — Ahmed El-Deeb
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Beyond the QA Interview Master Quality Assurance and Build a Solid Career Ahmed El-Deeb
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Beyond the QA Interview: Master Quality Assurance and Build a Solid Career ISBN-13 (pbk): 979-8-8688-2165-3 ISBN-13 (electronic): 979-8-8688-2166-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-2166-0 Copyright © 2026 by Ahmed El-Deeb This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Managing Director, Apress Media LLC: Welmoed Spahr Acquisitions Editor: Anandadeep Roy Editorial Assistant: Jessica Vakili Cover designed by eStudioCalamar Cover image designed by istockphoto.com Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer Science+Business Media New York, 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax (201) 348-4505, e-mail orders-ny@springer-sbm.com, or visit www.springeronline.com. Apress Media, LLC is a Delaware LLC and the sole member (owner) is Springer Science + Business Media Finance Inc (SSBM Finance Inc). SSBM Finance Inc is a Delaware corporation. For information on translations, please e-mail booktranslations@springernature.com; for reprint, paperback, or audio rights, please e-mail bookpermissions@springernature.com. Apress titles may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Print and eBook Bulk Sales web page at http://www.apress.com/bulk-sales. Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the author in this book is available to readers on GitHub. For more detailed information, please visit https://www.apress.com/gp/services/ source-code. If disposing of this product, please recycle the paper Ahmed El-Deeb Berlin, Germany
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To my life partner, Heba. To the most important person in my life, Zeyad.
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xiii About the Author Ahmed El-Deeb is a Quality Assurance Manager at Amazon, leading the QA strategy, testing innovation, and ensuring process excellence for large-scale Fire TV products. With almost two decades of experience in software quality and test automation, he has driven quality initiatives at global tech giants like Amazon and Delivery Hero, specializing in automation strategies, test strategies, QA processes, AI-driven testing, and CI/CD pipelines. Beyond his industry leadership, Ahmed is an active thought leader in the QA community. He is a Software Industry Columnist at ACM SIGSOFT’s Software Engineering Notes, where he writes on contemporary software industry topics. He mentors engineers and writes regularly on his blog, “QA with Ahmed” (qawithahmed. com). He is in the final year of pursuing a master’s degree in artificial intelligence, expanding his expertise at the intersection of QA and AI. As both a practitioner and mentor, Ahmed brings a unique blend of strategic insight and real-life practicality. His mission is to empower QA professionals to grow beyond execution roles and become impactful, value-driven leaders in their organizations.
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xv About the Technical Reviewer Nehal Gamal is a Quality Assurance Lead at CloudzLab, where she oversees software quality assurance processes and leads initiatives to ensure the delivery of reliable, high-performing solutions. With nearly a decade of professional experience, she has built strong expertise in manual and automated testing, API and integration testing, and test strategy design. Prior to joining CloudzLab, Nehal spent several years at ITWorx, where she progressed from Testing Engineer to Lead Testing Engineer. During her tenure, she played a key role in large-scale projects for global clients in sectors such as agriculture, telecommunications, and government services, establishing a solid track record in improving quality standards and implementing best practices. Beginning her career as a software developer, Nehal combines a strong technical foundation with leadership skills that enable her to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams. She is passionate about advancing software quality, fostering innovation in testing methodologies, and mentoring teams to achieve excellence.
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xvii My journey in QA, which eventually enabled me to sit down and write this book, would not have been possible without the key people around me who provided learning, support, and space. I am deeply grateful to each one of them. It begins with Dr. Sherif Aly, my B.Sc. computer science professor at the American University in Cairo. He was the first to teach me software quality assurance. His depth of knowledge and structured approach not only prepared me to enter the market but, more importantly, made me fall in love with the field. In my first job, I still remember Hind Tomoum, the Service Quality Manager at ITWorx. I was a fresh graduate and junior QAE, while she was five levels ahead of me. Yet, she gave me incredible opportunities to work on special projects and even collaborate with her directly. This exposure allowed me to learn from the most experienced quality professionals in the company. I am also grateful to Bartek Gulik, Senior SDM at Amazon and my direct manager. His leadership maturity and recognition of the importance of the QA role gave me the freedom to do whatever it took to achieve both a high-quality bar and genuine job satisfaction. Many of the practices and insights I share in this book would not have been possible without the trust, space, and support his leadership provided. I am also thankful to all the ambitious QA engineers I have mentored throughout the years—and from whom I have equally learned. I am also deeply thankful to my wonderful team at Amazon, with whom I have experimented, iterated, and improved so much over the years. I am further grateful to the active QA voices who continue to elevate and refine our craft. In particular, I would like to thank Lisa Crispin for her generous encouragement and for reviewing selected early drafts despite her busy schedule. Finally, I would like to thank the Apress team for their belief in this book and their trust in me as a writer throughout the project. Their guidance and professional execution enabled me to stay focused on writing without compromise. Thank you all! Acknowledgments
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xix Introduction This is not a traditional QA book. It won’t teach you definitions or give you a recipe to pass an interview regardless of your experience. Unfortunately, most QA books focus on definitions and theory, yet the average QA professional rarely gets to apply any of that in real jobs. The number one problem in QA is role empowerment. Most QA professionals are not given the space to perform their role to its full potential, to the point that their academic knowledge cannot be applied. But the lack of empowerment is not purely because companies resent the role—it’s because many QA professionals themselves have allowed the role to be reduced to mere test execution: redundant, isolated, and always at the very end of the process after everything else is done. To break out of this bubble that strips QA of influence, professionals need to prepare themselves mentally. They must understand their role clearly and own their career development. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are aimed at exactly that. • Chapter 1 gives you confidence in the continued existence of the QA role—even though it has been criticized since the rise of Agile. It offers a bird’s-eye view of how the role evolved from the early 2000s to today. • Chapter 2 explains the different QA roles and the skill sets needed to excel in each. It also highlights transfer routes into other roles and how to gain them. You’ll also learn the key challenges the field faces today so you can play a part in solving them for your own career growth. • Chapter 3 takes you through building your own career roadmap—so you can intentionally design your path instead of drifting from one job to another. It also teaches you how to spot warning signs in your current role that signal capped growth or imminent stagnation and how to take ownership of your career trajectory.
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xx Once you’re prepared mentally, Chapters 4 and 5 show you how to restore role empowerment—first by changing yourself, then by influencing your environment so you create space for your role to thrive. • Chapter 4 focuses on how to take your role to the next level. This isn’t about promotion—it’s about next-level value, visibility, and empowerment. The chapter explains three core pillars to achieve that. • Chapter 5 teaches you how to integrate yourself into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) so you’re visible and have the space to provide value. It walks you through what to do at each stage and how to work around common challenges. But empowerment is never permanent—you must continually earn it. That’s why Chapters 6–10 focus on key differential competencies you need in order to keep your seat at the table and bring lasting value to the team. These chapters are not about definitions or academic theory. They are real-world competencies drawn from today’s industry demands. Forget the noise around QA science—what you’ll find here are the practices that truly matter. I’ve packed them from pains I’ve seen firsthand in 15+ years of QA leadership. They’re built on the reasoning I’ve heard from people who resisted the QA role and on the strategies I designed and tested as a QA manager to silence that resistance. The goal isn’t to prove that QA matters—it’s to earn influence by correcting the false image QA professionals often project when they reduce their practice to test execution. These competencies will show you how QA can help build high-quality features alongside developers, not behind them. And all of this goes far beyond QA interviews. You don’t suddenly wake up and think about career development only when you’re out of a job or switching employers. By then, it’s usually too late—and this is exactly why many QA professionals struggle in interviews or fail to thrive on the job. The surest way to impress in interviews and succeed in today’s market is to invest in your career long before you need to prepare. What you bring to an interview is not one or two weeks of last-minute prep—it’s the weight of your entire career experience. That’s why the earlier chapters are designed to help you build a fruitful career. Finally, the book closes with a concise guide on how to represent that experience in interviews—focusing on the key points that leave a strong, lasting impression. InTroduCTIon
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1 © Ahmed El-Deeb 2026 A. El-Deeb, Beyond the QA Interview, https://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-2166-0_1 CHAPTER 1 Is QA Dying? “Developers will own the quality,” my CTO told me during a meeting where he was explaining the new company direction. “This means, in the immediate term, existing QA engineers will report to development managers,” he continued, while I was still deciphering the implications of his first statement. He went on to say they would no longer hire QA engineers. Accordingly, some teams would not have a dedicated testing professional; instead, testing would be handled entirely by developers. At the time, I was the Head of QA, managing both manual QA engineers and SDETs. Under the new changes, my role would shift to focus solely on automation engineering, with the goal of increasing automation coverage and eventually eliminating manual QA, because “it’s not scaling.” We discussed the implications of this shift, including who would take care of the QA practice itself—advising on test strategies, tools, and the plethora of specialized QA topics that development managers typically lack experience in. He replied that he would appoint a practice lead—someone experienced in QA but with no direct reports, no influence on team delivery, and no seat in management meetings. We also touched on the philosophical angle of this transition: Why should the QA role exist at all? It became clear that his mindset was this—whatever QA is doing, developers can (and should) incorporate into their delivery. That, in his view, is the path to ownership and scalability. Having a dedicated person “clicking around” was, in his words, neither valuable nor scalable. But was my CTO alone in this view of QA? We will explore both sides of the story— those who shared his viewpoint and the voices and real-world incidents that reflect a different understanding of QA’s value. However, this alone will not resolve the dilemma of which side is right. To do that, we will examine market hiring trends over the past 15 years. Hiring dynamics offer the most accurate lens through which we can detect patterns in how the industry treated QA. Once we’ve explored both viewpoints and understood these trends, we’ll be in a strong position to answer—confidently and thoroughly—whether QA is truly dying.
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2 They All Said QA Is Dying My CTO was not alone in carrying this viewpoint. In 2014, Microsoft announced the retirement of the SDET role and merged QA responsibilities into the developer role, aiming to make developers accountable for the quality of their own code. Similarly, Wells Fargo, the prominent financial institution, made significant layoffs that eliminated dedicated QA roles and distributed those responsibilities to SDETs and developers. In the gaming industry, the famous Electronic Arts (EA) laid off the entire QA team responsible for testing Apex Legends in 2023, again replacing QA with developer-led testing and automation. Other companies like Indeed followed suit by eliminating dedicated QA positions and assigning all testing duties to developers. This industry-wide trend resulted in a contraction of the QA role as many companies started to adopt the same strategy. Between 2021 and 2023, the hiring landscape changed drastically. There was a notable decline in QA job openings, accompanied by an increased demand for programming and automation skills. The impact was not only numerical—it reshaped the collective psychology of QA professionals. Voices from the QA community began expressing concern over job security and whether the role was heading toward extinction. On platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit, and Stack Exchange, professionals debated whether they should pivot to other roles and discussed what skills would be needed to stay relevant. Some voiced anxiety and uncertainty about the future of QA as a sustainable career path. This fear was fueled by personal stories: some professionals shared experiences of being laid off; others recounted being undervalued or overlooked at work. A third group shared their struggles in finding new QA opportunities. At the same time, a counter-narrative emerged. According to some, QA was not dying but evolving. These voices claimed that QA professionals simply needed to adapt—by learning automation, embracing quality coaching, and helping teams implement the idea that quality is everyone’s responsibility. This split in the community, combined with observable shifts in company strategies and team structures, has fed into an overall sentiment that QA is dying. At the end of the day, emotions are louder than facts. That’s why it’s important to examine the dynamics of the current situation more deeply. Indeed, the perception isn’t baseless—there are real factors fueling it, and the decisions of companies that moved away from QA roles are part of a broader, ongoing story. Chapter 1 Is Qa DyIng?
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3 Were They Wrong? The full story can only be understood by examining what happened after the transition to developer-led testing without a dedicated QA role. Following Microsoft’s 2014 strategy to eliminate dedicated QA responsibilities, the company eventually realized that this shift wasn’t universally sustainable. In certain divisions—particularly those developing complex systems—developers struggled to balance coding with in-depth testing. Over the years, Microsoft has gradually returned to hiring QA professionals for some teams. Today, the company regularly lists QA-related roles across specific divisions. Gergely Orosz, author of the top Substack newsletter The Pragmatic Engineer, surveyed 47 professionals across different tech companies to explore how QA is approached. One respondent, a software engineer at Indeed, reflected on the company’s elimination of the QA role in 2023, stating that “the overall quality of tests has nosedived.” This suggests a clear gap created by offloading all QA responsibilities onto development teams and laying off QA. Indeed’s own actions reflect this realization. In the second half of 2024, the company reintroduced roles like “QA Automation Engineer” on its hiring page—for platform teams. EA experienced similar challenges. After shutting down its 50-person QA hub in the UK and laying off around 300 testers in Baton Rouge, the company faced a noticeable backlash in quality. Steam’s concurrent player count for Apex Legends dropped by approximately 70% in 2024. The QA community on Reddit even created a mega-thread logging over 200 bugs. Gaming press outlets ran headlines like “Players Started Having More Bugs.” By early 2025, EA began hiring remote contract QA professionals again and reestablished a small on-site QA team in Vancouver. One particularly illustrative example, though not involving layoffs, was Figma’s 2024 rollout of its “Make Designs” AI feature. The feature was launched without a full QA test pass and had to be rolled back within 48 hours. Figma’s CEO publicly acknowledged the mistake, saying, “It is my fault for not insisting on a better QA process... The feature will be disabled... and we will re-enable it when we have completed a full QA pass.” This incident underscores the value of dedicated QA in preventing critical production issues. Beyond these incidents, several industry leaders have voiced strong opinions on the limitations of merging QA into the developer role. Alan Page, VP of Engineering Services at Unity and a former Test Architect at Microsoft, shared his perspective in an interview with Semaphore: “Complex software will still require dedicated testers.” He emphasized that while developers should own correct implementation, dedicated QA teams are Chapter 1 Is Qa DyIng?
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AI Reading Assistant
Whole-book reading guide from stratified index samples; jump to passages in the text
AI guide
【One-Line Pitch】
A two-part career manual for QA professionals who want to stop drifting between jobs and start deliberately building expertise—then prove it in the interview room. Best for testers, automation engineers, and QA leads who already have some hands-on experience but need a strategy for the next level.
【Book Arc】
- **Opening (~0%–10%)**: Frames the "Is QA dying?" debate with real industry evidence—companies that cut QA and later rehired, plus hiring data showing the role shifting toward automation, scripting, and CI/CD rather than disappearing.
- **Early (~10%–25%)**: Maps the QA profession itself: functional, technical, and specialist role families, adjacent career exits (development, product, program/agile roles), and the field's structural problems—weak talent scrutiny, automation hype, missing QA leadership, poor metrics.
- **Early–Middle (~25%–40%)**: Turns inward to career ownership: build a roadmap independent of any single employer, track progress, avoid hollow promotions, and read the warning signs of stagnation before they harden.
- **Middle (~40%–55%)**: Introduces the "three pillars of next-level QA" in an AI-saturated market—being vocal about value, thinking like an analyst rather than a button-clicker, and measuring impact with KPIs leadership actually respects.
- **Late (~55%–85%)**: Shifts to competency building: test planning and prioritization, defect investigation and developer collaboration, systems thinking, feature and release testing processes, shift-left, and process design.
- **Ending (~85%–100%)**: Moves into interview execution—presenting competencies, handling gaps in experience honestly, and what to do after the interview whether or not you get the offer. (Excerpts do not cover the closing chapters in detail.)
【Key Takeaways】
- **QA isn't dying; it's being redefined** (Opening): The book uses Microsoft, Indeed, EA, and Figma examples to argue that removing dedicated QA often degrades quality, while hiring data shows demand returning—but only for candidates with automation and scripting skills.
- **Career ≠ employment** (Early): Treat jobs as vehicles toward a self-defined 1/3/5/10-year plan. Loyalty belongs to your growth, not your employer, and a roadmap survives job changes.
- **Know the role families before choosing a path** (Early): Functional, technical, and specialist QA tracks demand different skills; specialists win through deep domain immersion, while generalists risk staying interchangeable.
- **Automation is strategy, not a checkbox** (Early–Middle): Brittle, flaky scripts and inflated coverage numbers come from automating without prioritization, stable environments, or maintenance planning.
- **The three pillars: voice, thinking, results** (Middle): Speak up with value early, reason like an analyst (risk, structure, root cause), and measure your impact—because if you don't define your value, someone else will define it narrowly for you.
- **Data is your leverage** (Middle): A QA lead showing that 60% of escaped bugs traced to unclear requirements changed a team's process; tailor evidence to what your decision-makers actually care about.
- **Process competencies are learnable and concrete** (Late): Mini test plans, traceability, exploratory charters, latency benchmarks, and regression discipline turn vague "testing" into repeatable practice.
- **Interviews reward prepared storytelling** (Ending): Showcase competencies with structure, address experience gaps directly, and treat post-interview follow-up as part of the process regardless of outcome.
【Reading Tips】
- Read Part 1 (career strategy) slowly and actually write your roadmap; the book repeatedly asks you to define objectives, not just absorb advice.
- Skim the industry-anecdote sections if you already follow QA hiring trends—extract the skill signals (Selenium, Python/Java, CI/CD, API testing) and move on.
- Deep-read the competency and process chapters; they are the most tactical material and double as interview answer material.
- Use the interview chapters as a checklist before real interviews, especially the guidance on handling areas where you lack experience.
- Keep a running list of your own metrics and wins as you read—the book's core argument is that unmeasured QA gets undervalued.
【Coverage Limits】
This guide is based on stratified excerpts covering roughly the first half of the book plus chapter outlines; the detailed interview tactics and post-interview chapters are only partially represented.
Passage locations
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ineers, QA Leads and QA Managers Beyond the QA Interview Master Quality Assurance and Build a Solid Career — Ahmed El-Deeb Table of Contents About the Author...
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Excerpt 2
hile QA hiring is rebounding, the role itself has changed. Employers are looking for technically capable QA professionals. Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond,...
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Excerpt 3
mate every test case. But automation doesn’t work that way. Test automation requires strategic planning. What should be automated? How do we ensure stability...
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your future in this AI-led era? 31 © Ahmed El-Deeb 2026 A. El-Deeb, Beyond the QA Interview, https://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-2166-0_4 Chapter 4 the three...
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