Back to Career Roadmaps
SDET
Engineering depth: you build the tools and the harness, not only the tests.
Starting level: Automation Engineer with 2+ yearsTarget role: Software Development Engineer in TestJourney: 6–9 months
Core skills
- Data structures, algorithms and clean code
- Design patterns applied to test tooling
- Building and publishing internal libraries
- Test environment and container orchestration
- Unit and integration testing of production code
Recommended technologies
- Java/TypeScript/Python
- Docker & Docker Compose
- Kubernetes basics
- Jenkins/GitHub Actions
- Mocking frameworks
- Observability tooling
Practice labs
- Containerise the application and run the suite against it locally
- Write a reusable reporting or data-generation library
- Add unit tests to an untested module of a real codebase
Projects
- A test platform: parallel execution, environment provisioning, dashboards, alerting
Interview preparation
- Coding rounds at DSA-easy to medium level
- System design of a test framework for a given product
- Trade-off discussions: unit versus integration versus end-to-end
Suggested next step
- Senior SDET or Quality Architect
Walk this roadmap with a mentor
Book a free demo class and get a plan built around your current level.
