SDET / Automation Testing Roadmap — Step-by-step Learning Path
Automated testing frameworks, Selenium/Cypress and CI-integrated test suites
The SDET / Automation Testing roadmap
- Programming Fundamentals for Automation (Java) — beginner
- Java Syntax & Setup — beginner
- Variables & Data Types — beginner
- Control Flow — beginner
- Methods & Parameters — beginner
- OOP Basics (Classes & Objects) — beginner
- Collections (Lists, Maps, Sets) — beginner
- Exception Handling — beginner
- OOP for Test Automation — beginner
- Inheritance & Polymorphism — beginner
- Interfaces & Abstract Classes — beginner
- Encapsulation — beginner
- Design Patterns for Automation (Singleton, Factory, Builder) — beginner
- Dev Tools & Version Control — beginner
- IDE Setup (IntelliJ/Eclipse) — beginner
- Build Tools (Maven/Gradle) — beginner
- Git for Test Automation — beginner
- Git Branching & Collaboration Workflows — beginner
- Automation Testing Fundamentals — beginner
- Manual vs Automated Testing — beginner
- When to Automate (and When Not To) — beginner
- The Test Automation Pyramid — beginner
- Choosing an Automation Framework — beginner
- ROI of Test Automation — beginner
- Web UI Automation with Selenium — intermediate
- Selenium WebDriver Architecture — intermediate
- Locators (ID, CSS, XPath) — intermediate
- WebDriver Commands & Browser Interactions — intermediate
- Waits (Implicit, Explicit, Fluent) — intermediate
- Handling Dropdowns, Alerts & Frames — intermediate
- Handling Multiple Windows/Tabs — intermediate
- Selenium Grid for Parallel Execution — advanced
- Test Frameworks: TestNG/JUnit — intermediate
- TestNG/JUnit Fundamentals — intermediate
- Annotations & Test Lifecycle — intermediate
- Assertions — intermediate
- Parameterization & Data-Driven Testing — intermediate
- Test Suites & Grouping — intermediate
- Parallel Test Execution — advanced
- Automation Framework Design — advanced
- Page Object Model (POM) — advanced
- Page Factory — advanced
- Data-Driven Framework Design — advanced
- Keyword-Driven & Hybrid Frameworks — advanced
- Framework Architecture Best Practices — advanced
- Configuration Management (Properties Files) — advanced
- Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) — advanced
- Introduction to BDD — advanced
- Cucumber & Gherkin Syntax — advanced
- Step Definitions — advanced
- Cucumber Hooks & Tags — advanced
- Integrating Cucumber with Selenium/TestNG — advanced
- API Test Automation — advanced
- RestAssured Fundamentals — advanced
- Automating GET/POST/PUT/DELETE Requests — advanced
- Request/Response Validation & JSON Path — advanced
- Authentication in API Automation — advanced
- API Automation Framework Design — advanced
- Contract Testing Overview — advanced
- Database Test Automation — intermediate
- JDBC for Test Automation — intermediate
- Automating Data Validation Queries — intermediate
- Database Utility Classes in a Framework — intermediate
- Mobile Test Automation — advanced
- Appium Fundamentals — advanced
- Setting Up Appium for iOS/Android — advanced
- Mobile Locators & Gestures — advanced
- Mobile Automation Framework Considerations — advanced
- CI/CD for Test Automation — advanced
- Integrating Tests with Jenkins/GitHub Actions — advanced
- Running Automated Tests in a Pipeline — advanced
- Scheduling & Triggering Test Runs — advanced
- Docker for Test Automation Environments — advanced
- Reporting, Logging & Debugging — advanced
- Test Reporting Tools (Extent Reports, Allure) — advanced
- Logging with Log4j — advanced
- Screenshot & Video Capture on Failure — advanced
- Debugging Flaky Tests — advanced
- Cross-Browser, Cloud & Performance Testing — advanced
- Cross-Browser Testing Strategy — advanced
- Cloud Testing Platforms (BrowserStack, Sauce Labs) — advanced
- Parallel & Distributed Test Execution — advanced
- Headless Browser Testing — advanced
- Introduction to Performance Testing Tools (JMeter) — advanced
- Where Performance Testing Fits for an SDET — advanced
- SDET Best Practices & Career Readiness — advanced
- Code Review for Test Automation — advanced
- Test Automation Anti-Patterns — advanced
- Maintaining a Flaky-Test-Free Suite — advanced
- Building an Automation Portfolio (GitHub) — advanced
- Resume & Interview Prep for SDET Roles — advanced
- Case Studies & Capstone — advanced