Free online courses and tutorials for Testers switching to Test Automation

One of the first steps (if not the first) on the path of moving to Test Automation job should be learning a programming language. Solid programming fundamentals are essential for building a successful career in Test Automation. Luckily, there’re lots of resources that can help you with that.

Below I have collected links to programming languages courses available for free (at least at the time of writing) for the most popular programming languages in Test Automation — Java, Python and JavaScript.

Java

According to TIOBE[1] in 2019 Java was the most popular programming language and it is certainly the most popular programming language when it comes to Test Automation[2][3]. It has a huge community and abundance of tools and libraries which should help to jump-start one’s career in Test Automation.

There’re many free Java courses online available:

• Java Programming Basics at Udacity
• Learn Java at Codecademy
• Java Tutorial for Complete Beginner at Udemy

Python

Python is often considered as one of the best first-to-learn programming languages. It has very concise-yet-descriptive syntax and lots of tools and libraries for Test Automation. Python enjoys big and dedicated community and has awesome documentation. On the other hand, it is not the most popular language among Test Automation Engineers [3]. However, according to TIOBE it is gaining in popularity and it may be more popular in the future.

Free Python courses available online:

• Free Interactive Python Tutorial at learnpython.org
• Introduction to Python Programming at Udemy
• Introduction to Python Programming

JavaScript

JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages nowadays. It is the language that is behind of all the responsive Web Applications and is the language of choice when it comes to front-end development. It also gaining popularity in back-end development. Even those developers who specialise in other languages will have to use JavaScript from time to time, which makes JavaScript a good choice.

Free JavaScript courses available online:

• Introduction to JavaScript at Codecademy
• learn-js.org interactive JavaScript tutorial
• learnjavascript.online

[1] https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/
[2] https://applitools.com/blog/language-software-test-automation/
[3] https://dzone.com/articles/which-programming-language-is-most-popular-for-ui

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