If you're an SDET or QA Automation Engineer still manually running tests or waiting for DevOps teams to set up your testing environments, you're opportunities on the table. DevOps skills have shifted from "nice to have" to essential for modern QA. So... 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀? DevOps is a methodology that combines software development and IT operations to build and deliver software faster and more reliably. DevOps Engineers manage the infrastructure, tools, and automation that make continuous delivery possible. Their responsibilities include: • Managing servers and cloud infrastructure • Building CI/CD pipelines for automated deployments • Implementing monitoring and logging solutions • Ensuring system stability and reliability • Enabling seamless collaboration between development and operations teams 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗽: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗤𝗔 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗚𝗼 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱 Test Automation and DevOps are part of the same infrastructure. Both roles require knowledge of: ✅ CI/CD Pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) ✅ Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) ✅ Cloud Platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) ✅ Linux/Command Line Operations ✅ Version Control (Git) ✅ Databases (SQL, NoSQL) The difference is DevOps Engineers focus on production deployments. Test Automation Engineers focus on quality gates. But the technical foundation is nearly identical. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 Learning DevOps isn't just about technical growth. It's about career advancement and compensation. 💰 Higher Salaries: ▶ DevOps skills are among the highest paid in tech. SDETs and QA Automation Engineers with DevOps expertise often get paid significantly higher salaries than those without. 🚀 More Job Opportunities: ▶ Job descriptions increasingly require "SDET with DevOps experience" or "QA Engineer with CI/CD knowledge." Companies want engineers who can own the entire testing pipeline. 🏆 Greater Independence: ▶ Stop waiting for DevOps teams to configure environments or fix pipeline issues. Manage your own infrastructure and move faster.

There are several strategies for delivering code to a server, commonly referred to as deployments. In this guide, I’ll focus on one of the oldest and most straightforward approaches: Recreate Deployment. You will learn how it works and, more importantly, what it means for QA engineers and Test Automation. ──────────────────────────────── 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭? ➤ The old version (lets call it V1) is taken completely offline ➤ The new version (V2) is deployed and started ➤ Application is completely unavailable during this switch, its called downtime ➤ This type of deployment is commonly used in dev/test environments or apps that can handle brief outages ──────────────────────────────── 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈𝐭 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ✦ Problem #1: Tests Fail During Deployment Automated tests will fail if they run during deployment because the application is down. You'll see connection errors, timeouts 502 HTTP code, or "service unavailable" messages. Solution: Schedule your test runs AFTER deployments complete. Coordinate with DevOps on deployment windows. ✦ Problem #2: Timing Issues in CI/CD Pipelines If a CI/CD pipeline triggers tests immediately after deployment, they might start before the new version is fully ready. Solution: Add a health check or wait period in your pipeline. ➤ Wait 30-60 seconds after deployment ➤ Ping a health endpoint until it responds ➤ Only then start your test suite 𝐏.𝐒. 🚩 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝟑-𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 “𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐐𝐀 → 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓” 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩, 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢-𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐝-𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬. Click Here to Start: https://www.skool.com/qa-automation-career-hub/classroom/078530b1

In Part 1, I discussed database types and why QAs need to learn how to do the READ operations. Now let's dive into the actual SQL commands you'll use daily. [`User` Table] ────────────── ID │ Name │ Email ────────────── 1 │ john │ john@test.com 2 │ mary | mary@test.com 3 │ bob │ bob@test.com ────────────── ──────────────────────────────── ▶ 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐲 #𝟏: 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 `𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓` - 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 ······································································································································ SELECT * FROM Users; ······································································································································ What it does: Returns ALL columns and ALL rows from the Users table. QA Example: After registering multiple users, you want to see all newly created accounts in the database. ──────────────────────────────── ▶ 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐲 #𝟐: `𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄` - 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 ····································································································································· SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Email = 'bob@test.com'; ······································································································································ What it does: Returns all data in the row for the user with that specific email address: ────────────── 𝟑 │ 𝐛𝐨𝐛 │ 𝐛𝐨𝐛@𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭.𝐜𝐨𝐦 ────────────── QA Example: Test user registration and verify that exact account was created with correct details. ──────────────────────────────── 𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐬: ⟡ Start with `𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓 *` to see all data, then add `𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄` to narrow it down ⟡ Always test your queries on a test database first, never production 𝐏.𝐒. 🚩 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝟑-𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 “𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐐𝐀 → 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓” 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩, 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢-𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐝-𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬.

I received several DMs asking the same question: "Should I learn SQL or NoSQL first?" Here's the straightforward answer... ──────────────────────────────── As a beginner who is learning Databases, SQL databases are your best bet. Here's why: ➤ SQL has universal standards that work across different databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, etc.) ➤ SQL databases are extremely popular. The chances of using SQL at work are incredibly high Simply put: learn SQL first, and you'll be prepared for most real-world job scenarios. ──────────────────────────────── In case you did not know the difference: 𝐒𝐐𝐋 𝐯𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐒𝐐𝐋: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 Think of databases as organized storage systems for data. There are two main types: 𝐒𝐐𝐋 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 - This is essentially a super-powered Excel spreadsheet that stores data in tables with rows and columns. Each piece of information has its specific type (number, text, etc) and place. Everything follows a strict structure. 𝐍𝐨𝐒𝐐𝐋 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 - Think of this as storage for JSON-like files. Data is stored like individual files or nested folders where each entry can have different fields and structures. One user might have 5 pieces of information, another might have 10. Both work fine. It's flexible and doesn't force everything into the same format. ──────────────────────────────── Another important focus is: start with learning READ operations In most testing scenarios, whether manual or automated tests interact with an application through its interface, you need to verify that the 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝. For example: ➤ User registers on a website → You check the database to confirm their account was created ➤ User updates their profile → You verify the changes were stored correctly ➤ User deletes an item → You confirm it's actually removed from the database SQL READ operations allows you to peek behind the scenes and validate what really happened in the system. 𝐏.𝐒. 🚩 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝟑-𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 “𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐐𝐀 → 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓” 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩, 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢-𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐝-𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬.

Wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day filled with good food, good company, and moments that remind us what truly matters. I’m grateful for this community — for the conversations we build together, the ideas we exchange, and the support we give one another. Whether you're spending today with family, friends, or enjoying some well-deserved quiet time, I hope your day is full of warmth and gratitude. Here’s to growth, connection, and all the opportunities ahead. Happy Thanksgiving! 🙏