For QA engineers, learning is a never-ending journey. While you can always expand and refresh your theoretical knowledge, practicing it may become a hurdle. You need to be a part of a project, find a suitable (often pricy) testing course, or be familiar with adequate QA resources for studying. And these might not be accessible to everyone.
In this post, we have compiled a list of the best platforms where you can practice your software testing skills. From manual QA to bug-hunting websites – you can find the most relevant option that helps advance your expertise.
Manual Testing
Compendiumdevs offers a collection of dummy applications targeting various aspects of software. It has a selection of buggy games, test pages, REST API challenges, and more. Not all apps may be easy to grasp, but as the platform’s founders say – sometimes it’s better to figure it out on your own.
DemoQA has plenty of testing scenarios for you to tackle. Interact with various features, such as forms, widgets, alerts, etc., and practice multiple flows of e-commerce sites. The platform also provides a set of Selenium tests on its GitHub repository that can be used to practice web UI testing.
Webdriver University is a compilation of functionalities that you can have fun with. Datepicker, AJAX loader, hidden elements, and to-do list are only a few of the available options. Each page is interactive and straightforward, offering live feedback. So you can safely play around in a controlled space.
AcademyBugs presents a tutorial to guide you through its main procedures – incredibly useful for young specialists. Its demo application contains several bugs that can be reported and fixed. The bugs cover different aspects of software testing, including web UI testing and form submission.
You can also learn more about bug types with their interactive examples and navigate the challenge page. On the latter, you need to find 25 issues while exploring a fully-fledged e-commerce store.
Mobile Apps
SauceDemo provides a demo online shop that can be used to practice web UI testing. It is a good place to handle different scenarios, like adding items to the cart, checking out, and validating that products have been added.
The page centers on user journeys. So, it offers a few user variants that target distinct scenarios:
- Normal user.
- Locked out user.
- Problem user, where almost everything fails for legitimate reasons.
- And performance glitch user, where loading is just off.
My Demo App is an application available on GitHub, developed using React Native. The page provides access to the source code, and you can communicate with other engineers. The repository also contains information on how to set up the app for testing and how to run tests on your local device, iOS simulator or Android emulator, and a real device cloud.
Test Automation
Restful Booker is another test website where you put all your programming, tool, and automation knowledge into practice. The page is an API playground that comes pre-loaded with 10 records for you to work with and resets itself every 10 minutes back to that default state. The source code, documentation, and explanation videos are also available.
Selenium Easy offers a set of testing examples and exercises. They cover different aspects of software testing, including Grid, reports, page object modal frameworks, etc. The platform also provides an astonishing amount of tutorials covering TestNG, Maven, Appium, and others. Plus, you can engage in community discussions to advance your knowledge.
Automate the Planet’s Bellatrix platform provides projects with explanations on how to write tests and what methods to use. Each details the features of the framework with real-world examples. They contain detailed comments for each part. And after each chapter, you can try out the related exercises.
UltimateQA’s automation practice section contains sites where you can immerse yourself in the nitty-gritty of distinct software testing services. You are free to practice numerous scenarios on fake landing and pricing pages, filling out forms, automating an evolving application, etc. Just take your pick and dive in.
Luma is a Magento e-commerce store that you can traverse as long as you like to practice your test automation scripts. This resource is particularly valuable for web UI testing, learning how to craft robust locators, and verifying one element over another. And a test plan for Luma on Course Hero will help you better grasp the testing objectives and tasks.
Testing Challenges
The Ministry of Testing is a community of thousands of QA specialists united by striving for improvement. Apart from a myriad of courses, events, and podcasts, the platform occasionally hosts testing challenges and competitions in which you can participate and polish your skills. Keep track of their “Events” page to not miss out on their training tasks.
Test Design provides hands-on exercises grounded in actual test execution, offering ongoing feedback to enhance your practical understanding of test design. These exercises are crafted using challenging applications, enabling you to create tests, run code against them, and receive evaluations of their test design proficiency.
Bug Bounty
HackerOne has hundreds of bug bounty programs and hacking engagements. You can leverage the ethical hacking and security researcher community to advance your cybersecurity proficiency and even get a monetary reward. The platform also lets you view real-time results and learn from thousands of disclosed reports from the hacker community.
Bugcrowd offers a managed bug bounty program that helps you build your skills by finding hidden vulnerabilities that are beyond the reach of automated tools. And Bugcrowd University is a free, open-source educational content and training program available to the entire information security community.
Open-Source Projects
GitHub is the motherlode of learning opportunities. It hosts a variety of repositories that contain codes for software testing, such as Java code samples, for example:
- Java core.
- Spring ecosystem.
- Database and persistence layer framework.
- Microservices, etc.
It also provides a quick start guide that teaches GitHub essentials like repositories, branches, commits, and pull requests. And GitHub has a fantastic community where you can engage in discussions, collaborate, and contribute to open-source projects.
To Sum Up
Demo websites and practice platforms are invaluable for refining your testing skills. You can train in a controlled environment, cover diverse scenarios, develop your mastery, and even upgrade your portfolio. And with many interactive pages, you can have fun while learning. So choose the site you find curious and quench your thirst for knowledge.