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Liudas
Liudas

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What’s really going on? Senior QA today != Senior QA

This is what “Senior QA” often means today:

  • 5+ years of experience
  • Knows Playwright / Cypress
  • Can write a happy‑path test
  • Can say “this is a bug”
  • Knows how to send request with Postman

And what they can’t do:

  • Think in systems
  • Read architecture
  • Work with browser internals
  • Opening DevTools and finding a cookie? Maybe 1 out of 10 seniors ​- Understand state, session, auth, cookies, storage
  • Separate testing from automated clicking That’s not a senior. That’s a UI test operator with experience.

How do I know? During interview I am giving simple web app and asking to tell me a High-level Test plan, what I am getting? High‑Level Test Plan = Only Functionality, and this is a Red flag #1.

No one is mentioning:

  • auth / session
  • cookies / storage
  • security
  • rate limiting
  • error handling
  • data integrity
  • observability
  • chaos / failure modes
  • testability

They’re not thinking about the product. They’re doing feature checks. And yes — AI will replace this kind of QA. Fast. Short and uncomfortable. ✅

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