hat are the type of certifications offered by ISTQB ?

ISTQB offers two hierarchies of certifications

1) ISTQB - Foundation Level

    Eligibility Criteria : None. Any one can take the exam.

2) ISTQB - Advanced Level

The Advanced Level Exam has 3 Sub - Levels

-Technical Test Analyst
-Test Analyst
-Test Manager 

A single syllabus exists for all the three sublevels. There is an separate paper for each sub-level and each Paper is of 180 Minutes Duration. Sub-Levels can be taken up in any order. An individual Certificate is granted on successful completion of each sub-level.

  Eligibility Criteria for Advanced Level:

  For Bachelor’s Degree (or higher) Holders in Computer Science or related fields

• Foundation Level Clearance
• 24 Months of Testing Experience in IT, Testing, Development,QA, Engineering or related fields (For any 2 sub-levels)
• Min. 36 Months of experience mandatory for Adv. Complete Certification(For all 3 sub-levels)

  

  For Non Bachelor’s Degree (or higher) Holders in Computer Science or related fields

• Foundation Level Clearance
• 60 Months of Testing Experience in IT, Testing, Development,QA,Engineering,or related fields

Why should I take the certification? Is there any market value to the certification?

This is a very controversial topic and can be debated till death.

But here are a few pointers which might assist you in your decision.

- Foremost nothing beats EXPERIENCE.  No certification can provide the exposure and learning you get while working on real time projects. PERIOD!

- If you are a fresher ,or are from a non-technical background and trying to get a job in the software industry ,certification will definitely HELP. Just think about it, as an employer I do not have any other parameters to adjudge your technical caliber, so certification is a good start point.

- If you are an experienced professional and looking for a job change ,a certification will definitely embellish your resume. More so, no matter how rich your experience may be, there will always be some new area of QA that you will learn while studying for the certification. But do not think that you will get a JOB just based on the certification.

Where can I take the examination? What are the Exam Dates ? What is the Exam Fees ?

It all above depends on the Country where you want to take the exam.Please go the link , where you will find the list of member sites of ISTQB.

So in case you want to take the exam in USA, go to the link American Software Testing Qualifications Board.Here you will find the information about Exam Dates, Fees , Registration details etc.                   

For the rest of the article, we will focus on ISTQB Foundation Level. Details about Advanced level will be added later.

What is the Exam Pattern ?

Foundation level exam consists of 40 questions (each having 4 options) which needs to answered in 60 minutes.

Where can I study from?

You can go though our Software Testing tutorials which are based on ISTQB foundation syllabus.  One common demand amongst our members is to explain testing concepts with help real-life scenarios. The lessons use practical case- studies to explain QA concepts.  To maximize your learning it is important that you do the exercises mentioned in the tutorials.