Hi. Apology in advance about this basic level questions. Just wants to make sure that I am on a correct path.
I live in Australia and new to the formal software testing field. I have done lot of testing in the past but mostly using the testing environment and updating the findings in the excel spreadsheet.
I wish to learn the required skills to grow further in the testing domain. I have no knowledge of any programming language but wish to learn one. Someone has advised to learn basic SQL as it helps in software testing to query data and then to learn a programming language.
I would like to know if this would be a correct pathway. If this is correct, what would be the best and easiest language for a tester to learn. As mentioned earlier, I don’t have any programming knowledge.
Good day @nav.agni30 ,
No need to apologize at all - we all start somewhere, and it’s great that you’re looking to level up your testing skills! 
I’ve worked with quite a few testers who were in your shoes, and honestly, your current approach with testing environments and Excel tracking is totally valid. But yeah, learning SQL and a programming language will definitely open up more opportunities for you.
I suggest you learn Java as a programming language; it is very useful. Once you complete it, if you find it tough, then switch to Python. However, in my opinion, start with Java first.
Additionally, try to read more programming articles and learn basic to advanced SQL queries to secure a job in the current market.
One main thing: my dream destination is Australia. We will meet once I come.
Stay connected!
Happy testing 
Ramanan
Hi Ramanan
Thanks for your response. It’s really gives a great insight.
With regard to programming language, different research gives different outcome. Some of the responses says that Python is good for beginners (as it is a high level language) and some of the responses says Java. I am slightly confused about the same.
With you all the best for your work towards your dream destination and hope to see you soon here.
Regards
Nav
I would suggest going through this article as it contains all the necessary resources from testing to automation.
Also as far as career path is concerned, there are many sub-domains inside the main testing domain like functional testing, automation testing, database testing, API Testing, ETL testing, and security testing. Depending on your choice you can look for resources on YouTube, there are a lot of free resources available, apart from YouTube you can find the relevant resources on Udemy also but they are a bit costly.
Even when it comes to automation testing it again has its sub-domains like UI Automation of web pages which is the most popular or API Automation using Rest Assured Framework or Mobile Application Automation.
For automation go through every programming language like Java, Javascript, Python or .NET and choose the one that suits you best, however, from beginner’s point of view, python is a good option. Once you select the programming language then go through basics like Data type, variables, functions, conditional statements, loops, etc., and then proceed with OOPS. After completing all these concepts you can start Automation basics concepts.
And once you are familiar with how webpages are automated, you can proceed with frameworks and choose any framework that suits you best. Meanwhile you can keep practicing programming side by side to make you programming skill stronger. As it will help when in future you start learning DSA.
However in best case scenario it will take at least 2-3 months.
Apart from all these there are lot of AI Based testing tools in the market you can explore them also.
Hi Ujjwal
Thanks for your response.
The information you provided is really helpful. Can you please confirm what is DSA. Additionally, when you say frameworks, do you mean automation tools like Selenium, Cypress, Pytest etc.
Regards
Nav
DSA stands for data structures and algorithms, and high-profile product companies ask for proficiency in this, however, before starting with DSA familiarity with any of the programming languages and their basic concepts is essential.
And when it comes to frameworks, so basically selenium and Cypress are automation tools however using these tools we design our frameworks in Selenium which is a cucumber framework for Java and behave for Python and both are based on BDD, in Cypress there are many different frameworks the most popular is mocha.
So frameworks vary according to the tool and programming language we choose. For e.g. if you choose python with selenium for UI Automation you will find other frameworks like Robot, etc.
SQL will for sure help and not only with programming.
No, I don’t see Java being used anywhere anymore (in Belgium, all go JS/TS with Cypress & Playwright). He has to check out vacancies and what goes on in his area about what to learn. Advising him to learn Java when there would be no Java opportunities would be a bad thing.
There are many options but you’ll have to do a scan first through vacancies and posts in your area or maybe within your company. Based on that note you’ll see things like “require Cypress or Playwright with JavaScript or Typescript” or “Selenium with Java or PHP” or “Robotframework with Python”
Find where you “want” to work and pick up the most common things and then learn THAT language. Don’t blindly pick Java or JavaScript because somebody tells you too.
If you would now learn Java in Belgium, they would be like “ok good, but can you do JavaScript with Playwright”? because this in the “hype” in Belgium. You’re going to have to look what the hype is about where you are at the moment and pick into that.
Welcome to the community!
We’ve been building our Software Testing Essentials Certificate (STEC) which is worth a look at, even if is to look at the table of contents to get a feel for things you could be learning.
You need to try some out, and see what works for you. Many of the fundamental concepts are shared among many different programming languages. So learning any one, even the basics, will help you learn others.
In my experience many real world projects end up eventually using a mix of different programming languages, so don’t get stuck choosing one, just make a start and see how you enjoy it.
You don’t need to years of time and buy courses to get started, and many languages have some kind of getting started guise and a first tutorial in their own documentation. And then many free resources exist, like free code camp, https://www.freecodecamp.org/