QA Engineer resume example
By Bhagirath Sheela, founder of JobCatch ·
QA engineers protect releases. Employers read the resume for the testing you do (manual, automation, API, performance), the products and release cycles you have tested, and evidence that your work caught problems before users did.
What recruiters look for
- Test design: test cases, test plans, regression suites
- Manual and automation testing, and the tools for each
- API testing, bug tracking and working in Agile teams
- Results: defects caught, escaped bugs reduced, release confidence
Section order
With experience
- Summary
- Skills
- Experience
- Certifications
- Education
As a fresher
- Summary
- Skills
- Education
- Projects
- Internships
- Certifications
Summary examples
Fresher
QA engineer with an ISTQB Foundation certificate and an internship testing a banking app: wrote 300 test cases and reported 85 defects.
Experienced
QA engineer with four years testing e-commerce web and mobile apps. Own the regression suite for checkout, and cut bugs that reach production by 60%.
Skills, spelled the way postings spell them
An applicant tracking system matches the words in the job posting, and it does not reliably treat two spellings as one skill. The left column is the form most postings use; the right, other spellings people type. Use the posting's own spelling for each application, and list only what you can discuss in an interview.
| Skill | Also written as |
|---|---|
| Manual testing | Manual QA |
| Test case design | Test cases, Test plans |
| Automation testing | Test automation, QA automation |
| Selenium | Selenium WebDriver |
| API testing (Postman) | Postman, API testing |
| JIRA | Atlassian Jira |
| SQL | Structured Query Language |
| Agile methodology | Agile, Scrum, Kanban |
| Java | Core Java, Java SE |
| Playwright | — |
Also worth listing if you have them: Regression testing, Bug reporting.
Bullet examples
Each bullet says what you did and what changed because of it. Change the numbers to your own; a recruiter will ask about every one.
- Own the checkout regression suite of 900 test cases across web, Android and iOS.
- Cut bugs reaching production by 60% by adding API tests and risk-based regression.
- Automated 300 regression cases with Selenium and Java, saving two days of testing per release.
- Tested payment-gateway integrations for five providers, including failure and refund paths.
- Wrote the bug-report template the team adopted, cutting back-and-forth with developers.
For freshers: projects and internships
- Internship: wrote 300 test cases for a banking app and reported 85 defects, 12 of them critical.
- Tested a public demo e-commerce site and published the test plan and bug reports as a portfolio.
- Passed ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level.
Mistakes to avoid
- Only manual testing in a market that asks for automation. Show at least some scripting.
- Counting test cases without results. Say what your testing caught or prevented.
- Vague tool lists. Name the tools and what you tested with each.
What an ATS reads from this sample
An applicant tracking system turns the PDF into plain text before anyone reads it. This is that text for the sample above, extracted by the same code as "What the ATS reads" in the app. Everything is in reading order, under the right heading, with the name and email intact — which is what a single-column template is for.
Preeti Sharma QA Engineer [email protected] • +91 98765 43210 • Jaipur, Rajasthan • linkedin.com/in/preetisharma Summary QA engineer with four years testing e-commerce web and mobile apps. Own the regression suite for checkout, and cut bugs that reach production by 60%. Skills Manual testing Test case design Automation testing Selenium API testing (Postman) JIRA SQL Agile methodology Java Playwright Regression testing Bug reporting Experience QA Engineer, Shopverse Commerce May 2022 – Present Jaipur Own the checkout regression suite of 900 test cases across web, Android and iOS. Cut bugs reaching production by 60% by adding API tests and risk-based regression. Automated 300 regression cases with Selenium and Java, saving two days of testing per release. Software Test Engineer, Coreline IT Services Aug 2020 – Apr 2022 Jaipur Tested payment-gateway integrations for five providers, including failure and refund paths. Wrote the bug-report template the team adopted, cutting back-and-forth with developers. Certifications ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level, 2020 Projects Bug-report template Template adopted by the team that cut clarification threads with developers. Education B.Tech, Information Technology 2016 – 2020 Rajasthan Technical University · 7.6 CGPA Languages English · Hindi
Interview questions to prepare
The app's interview prep for this sample and a plain QA Engineer posting. It works from the resume and the posting only, and tells you how to prepare, never what to say.
Questions every interview has
- Tell me about yourself. Two minutes: what you do now (QA Engineer at Shopverse Commerce), one result you are proud of, and why this role is next.
- Why do you want this job? Read their website and one recent piece of news before the call. Name something specific.
- Why are you leaving your current job? Say what you are moving towards. Do not criticise your employer.
- What is your notice period, and what salary are you expecting? Decide your number before the interview, so you are not deciding it on the call.
About the skills the job asks for
- Tell me about a time you used Selenium. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used Manual testing. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used Automation testing. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used API testing (Postman). Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used Test case design. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used JIRA. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
About what the resume claims
- You wrote: "Own the checkout regression suite of 900 test cases across web, Android and iOS." Expect three follow-ups: how exactly, what was your own part, and how you know it worked.
- You wrote: "Cut bugs reaching production by 60% by adding API tests and risk-based regression." Expect three follow-ups: how exactly, what was your own part, and how you know it worked.
- You wrote: "Automated 300 regression cases with Selenium and Java, saving two days of testing per release." Expect three follow-ups: how exactly, what was your own part, and how you know it worked.
Questions to ask them
- What would a good first three months in this role look like?
- Who would I work with most closely?
- What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear back?
Templates that suit this role
All of these are single-column and read cleanly by an applicant tracking system. Classic is free, with no watermark.
Questions
Is manual testing enough to get a QA job?
It can get you a first job, but most postings now ask for some automation. Learn Selenium or Playwright and API testing with Postman to widen your options.
Is ISTQB certification useful?
Yes, especially for freshers and services companies, where it is often listed. Experienced testers are judged more on their work.
Next: the QA Engineer cover letter the app drafts from this resume, and how to show API testing (Postman), SQL, Java on a resume.
More qa resume examples: Automation Test Engineer