🗓️ 7-Day Manual QA Prep Plan

// STUDY

• Testing types and where each fits: smoke, sanity, regression, exploratory, UAT — and why interviewers test your vocabulary precisely, not just that you know the words
• SDLC models: Waterfall, V-model, Agile — where testing sits in each, what 'shift left' means in practice, and how test planning changes with each model
• The defect lifecycle: new → open → assigned → fixed → retest → closed; when to reopen and why escalation paths matter for communication with developers
• Test case anatomy: objective, preconditions, steps, expected result, actual result, severity — and why each field earns its place when a developer challenges your findings

// PRACTISE

• Read the Manual QA role page and list the 3 topic areas where your current answers feel least confident — these become your re-study targets on Days 6–7
• For a login screen, name 5 testing types that apply (e.g. smoke, regression, exploratory) and write one sentence explaining what each type would verify — practise precision
• Write 3 practice bug reports for imagined defects: each must have a crisp title, a correct severity vs priority split, and steps to reproduce that a developer could follow without asking a follow-up question

// STUDY

• Equivalence partitioning: dividing valid and invalid input classes for a field, deriving the minimum representative test set — practise with worked examples, not just definitions
• Boundary-value analysis: testing at, just below, and just above partition boundaries — understanding why off-by-one bugs hide precisely there
• Decision tables: modelling multi-condition business rules as a truth table — when they beat a list of test cases, and how to build one for a discount or permissions rule
• Exploratory testing: writing a time-boxed session charter, applying SFDIPOT heuristics to guide exploration, and structuring a 5-minute debrief that communicates findings clearly

// PRACTISE

• Take a registration form with 4 fields (email, password, phone number, date of birth): apply equivalence partitioning and boundary-value analysis to derive a minimal high-coverage test set — write it out as structured test cases, not a checklist
• Write a decision table for a discount rule: '10% off if order value > £50 and the customer is a loyalty member; free shipping if order value > £100, regardless of membership' — list every unique rule combination
• Run a 25-minute exploratory session on any public web app using a written charter before you start; debrief in 5 minutes and log your top 3 findings as structured bug reports with title, severity, priority, and steps

// STUDY

• JIRA: defect workflow states, JQL filtering basics for locating open bugs by severity or assignee, Zephyr test cycles and how to report test progress to a stakeholder who asks for a status update
• SQL basics for QA: SELECT with WHERE, JOIN across two tables, GROUP BY with COUNT — practise the queries interviewers set to verify test data after a data migration or a write-heavy feature
• Behavioural questions: a developer disputes your bug, a deadline cuts regression scope, a feature ships without sign-off — practise structured STAR answers before the interview, not during it
• Re-read the 2 question banks that correspond to your weakest topics identified on Day 1

// PRACTISE

• Answer 10 questions aloud from the manual testing, test design, and scenario question banks — time yourself at 90 seconds per answer and note every question where you paused
• Identify your 5 weakest answers and write a worked example for each, grounding it in a real or realistic project situation rather than an abstract definition
• Ask a colleague or friend to run a 30-minute mock: given a simple feature brief, produce structured test cases and one bug report, then debrief your exploratory approach — replicate interview conditions without notes