Top 3 screening questions for graduate SDET interview

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I’ll be conducting some graduate interviews for an SDET role and need to come up with 3 screening questions. I’m new to this and struggling slightly as they’re graduates and may not have the expected level of knowledge. Any suggestions?

One thing I wanted to ask was their understanding of the difference between SDET and manual testing. Maybe also ask why they want to get into testing? I should explain as well, we are recruiting a graduate software developer alongside the SDET role, so I am keen to differentiate why they chose this role over the other, especially as testing isn’t something that is heavily covered at uni.

All help appreciated, thank you!

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It can be tricky with Graduates as they will not have that vocational experience to draw from. You can however refer to their course and ask questions about that. What did they enjoy? What challenges did they have to overcome? Did they do group work and if so, what role did they have in the team? What project did they do that they are proud of? You can get a pretty good idea of how interested someone is in development and testing by how they answer those questions. Though I would also mention that for many people this will be their first interview and they may be extreamly nervous, so try and take that into account when assessing them.

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You can asses them by giving them several scenarios and see how they provide you a solution, like for team bonding skills and adaptability, ask basic software development and testing related questions the basic they learn during their undegrad, and ask queries related to their interest in this role, why they choose to be a qa that answer will help you to understand the passion and determination they have for this role

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What do you/the team/the company want to obtain from the future SDET colleague?
Find something important for the work that is to be done(maybe a thing that can’t be taught or is difficult to develop internally).
Different places have different needs.

Give us a few hints of what that might be and maybe we can figure out something relevant.

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**Big edit here, I worded the start completely wrong, if it was an interview my bad start at a response would have seen me kicked out straight away. I’ll leave the rest though as I believe its of value.

Originally SDET’s, its an old role I first worked with around 2004 were software developers in test, they were toolsmiths often more technical with better coding skills that the average tester at the time and the build tools that aided the testers in their testing, that was not limited to automation scripts but tools of all sorts, test data generators, test environment set up and tools that helped testers do things more efficiently.

Over time unfortunately for many its drifted more towards just automation scripting. If that’s what you are looking for you need to assess good coding skills, good coding practices, lean use of code, reusability, ease of maintenance of scripts, easily understandable for the next person etc so in many cases you interview them as you would a developer but you also want to include some level of interest focus on the testing side. I would also look for architect level skills in an SDET, designing frameworks etc but as a graduate it would just be some level of thinking around this.

If you feel the need to make the comparison between that role and a full testing role then it often comes down to the risks they will cover and how they will cover that risk.

SDET’s generally now cover known risks and often in particular the single risk of regression, the basics of testing that either pass or fail, this was not the original intention but it has drifted this way so that is a good question to consider internally first, is that the role you are recruiting for or do you want the broader toolsmith type role?

Testers often on the other hand focus on the much broader consideration of all product risks to quality, rather than just the known risks they have a strong consideration of the unknown risks and these are not pass or fail situations, it often has more emphasis on skills like discovery, investigation and experiments.

When you go to these extremes in the roles the comparison tends to not be a good one as they have very different missions and value sets.

Most graduates are not going to get that difference so I’d drop the idea of even mentioning the tester role when looking for SDET skills. Focus on the SDET skills which are developer skills and interview them as such, the basic pass and fail scenario’s are important, if they can get that the tester role is much broader then even better but I would not focus on that for graduates as its complex but it is important for them to understand they are there to support both developers and testers.

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Here are some questions to consider:

Tell me about an app that you really enjoy. How do you think the people behind the app have made it so good? What sort of things do you think they do to ensure it stays good?

What sort of things have you heard about the world of testing?

How do you like to learn about the features of a product? What approaches do you typically take?

Good luck with the interviews.

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone, all your comments make sense.

I guess from my perspective, my main interest is knowing they actually care about the testing side of things. The expectation will be for them to help create automation frameworks, create and maintain scripts. Help with development tasks where needed, but also help with any other testing tasks that are required, as I am the only tester currently.

I should explain as well, we are recruiting a graduate software developer alongside the SDET role, hence my interest in differentiating why they chose this role over the other. I just need 3 initial screening questions to gauge their interest in testing, as this isn’t something that is heavily covered at uni.

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In my earlier comment I had forgotten how tough it was to do those early interviews, my own manager had thrown me into them partially as a learning exercise for me but also because they did not have anyone else.

I was not trained in interviewing at the time and to be honest a lot of my interviews were hit and miss. Later I was trained and it opened up a lot more value when doing interviews and I recommend finding a mentor on interviewing if you can.

When starting out though one of the lessons I got was to consider what you are good at and take some of approaches you are already skilled in into the interview.

As testers we are a bit lucky on that front compared to other roles, we in effect interview products every day, take session based testing for example. I will investigate a specific risk utilising these tools in order to find information of value to the team.

You know what you want to find out, ultimately are they a good match for the role but also at a more detailed level you want to understand why they would opt for one role over the other.

Take your testing skills in the same way as you would ask a product questions to make an informed decision and consider if your same testing skills can be applied to the interview process.

By putting your testing hat on as an interviewer it may help you come up with some good starting questions and be prepared to for your next question to vary depending on the response to the leading question. This may help you establish a good set of questions even without a lot of interview experience.

One key difference is this is a two way situation, they are also interviewing you, they want to know if its the right team, company and role for them also so applying your testing skills in an interview will only get you so far, its your human skills and empathy that can help with the two way element and that often makes it more of a discussion than an interview.

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I’m wondering if you want or need to differentiate that an SDET role can be different than QA engineer or QA automation engineer.

The former is a software developer that specializes in test (such as test automation, tooling, frameworks), while the latter does QA testing and writes test automation scripts but they may not be familar or as experienced with building test tooling and frameworks from scratch unlike the former. The latter automates the test cases, while the former builds and maintains the overall test infrastructure.

Sometimes you have a blend/gray area between the two, for overlap of responsibilities and skills/experience. But generally that’s how they’re differentiated at more technical companies like FAANG.

I mention this as it may be good to ask to see what kind of candidate you are actually getting vs what type of candidate you want (between the two).

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What I’m missing here is: where does that screening fit in entire hiring process? Would the candidate speak with someone else from company before or after? With whom?

Also - since the difference between these roles might be unclear to candidates, are you preparing for hiring people outside of role they applied for? Like someone applied for role A but you will offer them role B, because they are more/less advanced? Are you able to put some comment in job posting specifying they should (not) apply to both roles? Would you know before the screening if someone applied for both?

I have not done screenings myself, but I did interview candidates after they passed screening, and I saw notes from screening interviews. Usually they were pretty basic questions about work experience, if they know the company, why they picked this specific role etc. They were very direct, no tricks or anything of this sort. I would probably not go deep into SDET / QA differences - you can cover that during live interview, if you really care. Just give candidates space to make a good impression, and follow up on anything that catches your curiosity in their answer. Since they are straight from uni, I might ask them how they think the job will look like, and explain to them what you are looking for - so they don’t feel they are wasting their time with something they are not interested in.

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Hey,

After conducting a few interviews with graduate SDET candidates, I’ve noticed some common themes and areas of interest that I wanted to share with you all. These questions really helped me get a sense of the candidates’ capabilities and experiences.

  1. Problem-Solving Skills: One thing that stood out to me in these interviews was the importance of problem-solving skills. I asked candidates to share a particularly challenging bug they’ve encountered, and it was fascinating to hear how they approached solving it. I found that those who were able to articulate their troubleshooting process and demonstrate resilience in the face of complex issues really impressed me.

  2. Testing Knowledge: Testing and automation knowledge were also key areas of focus. I asked candidates to explain the different types of testing they’re familiar with and provide examples of when they’ve applied these techniques. It was enlightening to hear about their experiences with unit testing, functional testing, integration testing, and end-to-end testing, and how they’ve used automation to improve testing efficiency and reliability.

  3. Automation Testing Skills: Coding and automation skills were paramount. I delved into candidates’ experiences with implementing test automation and the programming languages and frameworks they’ve used. Those who could articulate their approach to building reliable automated tests and discuss strategies for maintaining code quality really stood out to me.

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Here’s my take

Since they are graduates

Have a look at their profile and ask one question from that

Next what excites them and why did they apply for this position? From these answers you can gauge who is and who’s not genuine. It’s easy to spot the fake ones based on their answers.

Third may be play a game or give an application and test with them and see how they report their finding s in terms of bugs or are they giving suggestions or care for user experience. Although graduates these days freshman folks have a good amount of knowledge on this.

May be pair test if needed. Make them feel comfortable to express themselves freely.

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Just have a normal conversation, asking about their experience, what they know, and what they’ve tried. What is the purpose of asking about the difference between SDETs and manual testers? If you want to keep it really short with 3 “critical” questions, then ask about technical aspects that are important for the roles you’re hiring for. If you’re interested in their motivations, plans, ideas, mindsets, etc then have a conversation with them, rather than using a format of 3 screening questions. What actual conclusions do you hope to draw from asking about the things you described?