How to Learn Automation Testing

To learn automation testing, you will need to consider the skills required for automation testing, such as testing frameworks, programming languages, and machine learning. It’s a good idea to assess your current skills and see how ready you are to begin working with automation testing. Then, you can choose a learning program that helps you fill the gaps between what you already know and what you’ll need to learn for automation testing. 

Preparing for a role as an automation tester can help you tap into a career field with a 17 percent job growth outlook over the next decade [1]. This growth is due, in part, to the importance of software testing in the software development life cycle. Testing can be an expensive and time-consuming process, but it’s crucial that companies get it right. Automated testing enhances software testing by allowing QA professionals to readily catch more errors, resulting in a higher-quality final product. More and more software development teams are realizing these benefits. The market size for automation testing was worth $22.2 billion in 2023 and could grow at a rate of 17 percent through 2032, part of a larger wave of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning implementation across nearly every industry [2]. 

Discover the skills you may need for a career in software testing, and explore three different pathways for how to learn automation testing. 

What is automation testing?

Automation testing is the process of using tools to automate product testing or testing projects for errors, user experience, and more. Testing is a vital part of any product development process, including software development, as it ensures that the product you’re developing works properly and will meet customer satisfaction. 

Traditional testing processes, while important, can require significant time and resources. Automating parts of the testing process with automation tools and machine learning scripts can aid developers in speeding up the process. In turn, this helps them complete more testing, which can result in a better (and faster) final product. 

Automation testing jobs

In an automation testing career, such as a test automation engineer or a quality assurance engineer, you will primarily be responsible for designing and implementing tools to automate processes. While these roles are commonly found in software development, they can also play a key role in industries such as manufacturing, food service, retail, logistics, and more.

On a software development team, an automation tester is part of the quality assurance team, helping to test software to correct bugs and errors, while considering the overall user experience. Your role on the team will be to create automated tests using programming languages or automation testing tools to build scripts that run tests on your product. As previously mentioned, employment opportunities for software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers are positive, with a projected job growth of 17 percent through 2033. This translates to approximately 140,100 job openings per year [1].

 Across various industries or applications, you will use similar tools to automate other forms of business or industrial processes. While the exact role you fill will depend on factors such as your level of responsibility, the size of your team, and the industry you work in, a few potential roles you may fill in this industry (along with average salary in the US) include: 

*All annual base salary data is sourced from Glassdoor as of May 2025 and does not include additional pay, such as commission and benefits.

• Automation tester: $84,520

• Test automation engineers: $106,887

• Quality assurance automation engineers: $92,916

• QA engineer: $81,242

• Performance test engineer: $111,801

• Mobile automation test engineer: $112,020

• Automation engineer: $94,945

• Automation architect: $124,615

What are the skills required for automation testing?

In general, learning automation testing means acquiring skills that include automation testing frameworks, machine learning, programming languages, and test planning. As with your job responsibilities, the exact skills you’ll need for an automation testing role will depend on the job you want to train for. Depending on the projects you work on, you may need more or less of these skills. For example, you will need at least a brief understanding of Java to design tests with the automated testing framework Katalon Studio. Meanwhile, the framework Cucumber uses a proprietary syntax called Gherkin that is much closer to human language than other high-level programming languages. As a result, you may not require any coding experience to use the program. 

Automation testing frameworks

To learn automation testing, you will need to understand how to work with automation testing frameworks such as Selenium, Katalon Studio, Appium, or Cucumber. With these tools, you can automate tasks by having the machine simulate user interactions, helping you gain insight into user experience or create tests you can repeat. Automation testing frameworks are an important part of test automation and are often compatible with different languages, allowing you the flexibility to choose tools that suit your skills. 

Machine learning 

Machine learning forms the foundation of automation technology, so it may be important to understand how machine learning works in order to understand automation testing principles. For most cases, you will write scripts for a machine learning model to follow, usually with the help of frameworks for automation testing such as Selenium, Cucumber, or Appium. 

Programming languages

As an automation tester, you need to understand enough programming to write test scripts, which instruct the machine how to execute the tests you create. Some automation tools can make it easier to create automated tests with less experience in programming. Moreover, you may need to know more than one language, depending on the type of development project you’re working on and what kind of tests you’ll need to run. Python, Java, JavaScript, and TypeScript are all examples of programming languages well-suited for automation testing. 

Test planning

Test planning is another skill you will need for automation testing. It’s important to know what you need to test for and how much testing you need to do. Test planning can help you to consider the process in its entirety, ensuring that you include every test necessary while bolstering early detection of any missing elements. 

How long will it take to learn automation testing?

The amount of time it will take to learn automation testing is going to depend on what you already know, how comfortable you are with automation testing software, and what your learning goals are. For example, learning automation testing may take longer if you’re using tools that require new programming languages, compared to those that use familiar languages or require less coding experience. Some automation testing tools simplify the process, requiring less training or prior knowledge of testing principles. You can start learning targeted topics within automation testing in as little as a few hours or days with self-guided courses online. To prepare for a career as an automation tester, you may need a combination of formal education, certifications, and experience in similar roles. A certification may take between six to eight months to complete, while a bachelor’s degree takes four years on average. 

How to learn automation testing

To start a career in automation testing, you can explore options such as courses, certification programs, and degree programs to learn the skills you’ll need. Many automation test engineers hold a bachelor’s degree in a field related to computer science, such as computer and information science or computer engineering. Across the field, 48 percent of job postings for automation test engineers ask for professionals with a bachelor's degree, while 12 percent ask for a candidate with a master’s degree. In 6 percent of job postings, the highest level of education candidates need to have is a high school diploma, and an additional 32 percent do not list education requirements at all [3].

Whether you’re a student preparing for a career as an automation tester or a professional looking to pivot and develop new skills, you can find courses, certification programs, and degree programs to address your learning needs. 

Courses for automation testing

If you have relevant knowledge or experience and want to develop specific skills or if you prefer a shorter learning commitment, courses in automation testing could be a great option. Such courses can help you address specific skill gaps while making you a stronger candidate for job opportunities. They offer a flexible, self-paced learning approach that aligns with your career goals and lifestyle. A few examples of courses you could take to help you learn automation testing skills include: 

• Introduction to Selenium

• Selenium Python Automation Testing and Frameworks Specialization

• Generative AI Automation Specialization

Automation testing certification

Earning a certification is another way to develop your automation testing skills. It also helps you demonstrate to potential employers that you possess the necessary training for a testing role. Certification programs often cover the core skills you need to start working as an automation testing engineer. These include planning tests, writing scripts for automation frameworks and tools, integrating testing into the software development life cycle and continuous improvement/continuous delivery framework, and implementing automation into your overall testing process. Such programs often cover a wider number of topics than a course or course series, and a certification program culminates with an exam. Passing the exam serves as a demonstration of your competency in the topics included in your certification. A few certifications to explore are: 

• Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate

• IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional Certificate

• IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Professional Certificate 

Traditional degree programs

You can also prepare for a career in automation testing with a traditional degree program. Automation testers commonly earn a degree in fields such as computer science and computer engineering, which can help you learn a broader set of skills. For instance, a degree could enable you to work in many different career areas beyond quality assurance and automation testing. You can start earning a degree online with programs like: 

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (University of London)

• Online Bachelor of Information Technology (Illinois Institute of Technology) 

• Master of Science in Computer Science (University of Colorado Boulder)

Learn automation testing online on Coursera

You can learn automation testing with courses, certification programs, or formal degrees, depending on your learning goals or your current knowledge and experience. To start learning today, explore programs on Coursera to help you develop software testing skills and prepare for an entry-level role in software development. For example, you could explore the IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Professional Certificate for the chance to employ tools for automation, continuous integration (CI), and continuous deployment (CD). This includes Chef, Puppet, GitHub Actions, Tekton, and Travis, as well as creating applications using the Python language.