Why I Became a QA Engineer — And Why I Still Love It

Like many in tech, I started on the development side — but something about quality engineering intrigued me. I wasn’t interested in just building features. I wanted to understand how things broke, why they broke, and how to build systems that didn’t.

QA is Not a Course — It’s a Craft

Unlike development, QA isn’t something that universities really teach. It’s a skill you absorb — by observing systems break, by understanding real-world user behaviour, and by asking - “What else could go wrong here?”

So I made the shift. I became a manual QA engineer — and that hands-on experience taught me more than any textbook ever could. The depth of analysis, the ability to think in multiple dimensions — it completely changed how I looked at product quality. I had the opportunity to learn from some of the best minds in the industry — people who approached testing as both a science and an art.

The Multi-Dimensional Mindset of QA

What truly hooked me was the mindset. A good QA engineer doesn’t just follow a checklist — they approach the app from every possible angle.

I started using a data-driven approach:

• Analyzing production patterns,

• Identifying real-world user behaviours,

• Designing tests that mimicked them.

This gave me a whole new lens — QA wasn’t just about validation; it was about insight.

From Manual to Automation — And the Real Challenges

One of the biggest challenges I faced during testing was validating UX compatibility across multiple browsers and devices.

To solve this, I started building a browser compatibility tool as a side project — a framework that analyzed how a page rendered across different environments.

The idea was simple: QA engineers would validate the application in just one browser. The tool would then detect functional issues and subtle UX differences across other browsers and devices by comparing rendering patterns.

This project not only solved a real pain point but also sparked my passion for building automation frameworks.

Naturally, I transitioned into automation. My first experiments were with Test Driven Development (TDD) — an attempt to bring automation in sprint. But it wasn’t easy.

In-sprint automation came with its own challenges —

• UX would often change midway through development, breaking flows we’d already automated.

• The automation scripts had a hard dependency on locators, and even subtle UI changes made them unstable.

• Data-driven tests were flaky due to inconsistent or evolving test data.

• Adding to this were delays in API readiness, lack of test hooks, and the constant pressure of sprint timelines — making early automation feel like building on shifting ground.

Those early lessons taught me that building robust automation isn't just about writing scripts — it's about designing for change, scale, and stability.

That became even more apparent in my next challenge — building one of the most complex frameworks I’ve worked on, for a video streaming platform. We had to test video rendering across devices, browsers, and varying network conditions. With over 5000 tests, stability quickly became our biggest bottleneck.

I’ve had countless sleepless nights chasing down flaky tests. Flaky because of dynamic data, because of retries, because of subtle changes in environments.

The Frustration That Sparked Something Bigger

Across different teams and tools, I kept running into the same problems. We tried open-source and commercial tools alike — but none could consistently deliver stable, scalable automation at the speed we needed.

That frustration planted the seed for something bigger.

We didn’t start with a product idea. We started with the pain — and a desire to solve it.

And while this article isn’t meant to promote what we built, I’d be remiss not to mention that those experiences led us to start DevAssure - AI Test Agent .

In Retrospect

QA isn't a fallback career. It’s a choice. It’s a craft that demands precision, empathy, and creativity.

And for me, it's been one of the most fulfilling decisions of my professional life.

If you’re in QA, automation, or just curious about building better systems — I’d love to hear your story too. What brought you here?