Projects: Module 01 — Introduction to QA and Testing¶

Projects for this module focus on establishing testing fundamentals: setting up environments, writing first tests, and applying the testing pyramid.

Project 1: Test Suite for a Utility Library (Beginner)¶

Difficulty: Beginner Time Estimate: 3–4 hours Skills Practiced: pytest setup, basic assertions, edge case thinking, test naming

Description: Create a utility library with 3–5 simple functions (string manipulation, math operations, or date formatting), then write a complete test suite for it. Focus on coverage quality, not quantity — test the behavior thoroughly, including edge cases and error paths.

Requirements: - At least 4 functions with meaningful behavior - At least 4 tests per function (happy path, edge cases, error cases) - Passing pytest --cov report showing ≥ 85% line coverage - Test names that clearly describe the behavior being tested (not test_function_1)

Starter functions to consider: - count_vowels(text: str) -> int - is_palindrome(text: str) -> bool - clamp(value, min_val, max_val) -> float - truncate_text(text: str, max_len: int, suffix: str = "...") -> str

Success Criteria: - All tests pass - Coverage ≥ 85% - At least one test uses pytest.raises for an error case - Test file is organized with clear section comments or test classes

Project 2: Testing Pyramid Analysis (Beginner–Intermediate)¶

Difficulty: Beginner–Intermediate Time Estimate: 2–3 hours Skills Practiced: Testing pyramid reasoning, test design, written communication

Description: Choose a real-world feature from an application you use (or a fictional one you design). Write a testing strategy document that applies the testing pyramid: identify what unit tests, integration tests, and E2E tests you would write for this feature.

Requirements: - Feature description (1–2 paragraphs) - Unit tests: list at least 5 specific tests with test names and what they verify - Integration tests: list at least 2 specific tests with what dependencies they involve - E2E tests: list at most 2 user journey tests - Brief rationale for why each test belongs in its pyramid tier

Example feature: A user authentication system (register, login, logout, forgot password)

Success Criteria: - Unit tests test isolated functions/methods (no database, no HTTP) - Integration tests involve at least one real dependency (database, HTTP, file) - E2E tests describe a complete user journey - Rationale is clearly argued, not just asserted

Project 3: Refactor a Broken Test Suite (Intermediate)¶

Difficulty: Intermediate Time Estimate: 3–5 hours Skills Practiced: Identifying test quality issues, FIRST principles, test isolation

Description: Take the broken test suite from Exercise 6 (or create your own set of 10+ poorly written tests) and refactor it to follow best practices. Document each problem you fixed and which FIRST principle it violated.

Requirements: - Original test file with documented problems (in comments) - Refactored test file with clean, isolated, descriptive tests - A NOTES.md entry listing each problem, the principle violated, and how you fixed it

Success Criteria: - No shared mutable state between tests - No real network calls in unit tests (use mocks) - No time.sleep() calls - All tests have meaningful assertions - All tests have descriptive names