Why Learning Java for QA Automation in 2025 is a Terrible Idea…

Matviy Cherniavski

Jul '25 (edited) • Workshop Wednesday

Have you ever googled something like: "𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒒𝒂 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏"...

And you got a nice shiny top result… "𝑱𝒂𝒗𝒂 + 𝑺𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒖𝒎 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆"

🔴 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐭.

Starting with Java is the worst possible choice for beginners in 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓.

And if you're currently struggling through tutorials, wondering why everything feels so complicated...

It's not you. It's the language choice.

📌 Here's my humble opinion about Java…

𝐉𝐚𝐯𝐚 𝐢𝐬… 𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱, 𝐭𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐬𝐞, 𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭.

⚠️ So why is it so popular?

𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐢𝐭 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫, 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓-𝐢𝐬𝐡.

It was one of the few options for enterprise software, and at that time, most Tech companies were making it.

Also, there was this weird obsession with trying to have "𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤" for automation and development.

Hence, the Java "fake popularity" is essentially a legacy leftover.

But thankfully, the industry figured out that forcing the same language everywhere is... NOT the most brilliant move...

💡 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐛, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐣𝐨𝐛.

If you see any job openings with Java, it's likely 100% legacy software, and I'm pretty sure they are moving or planning to move to a modern language like Python or JavaScript.

𝐒𝐨, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐐𝐀 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐙𝐄𝐑𝐎 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐉𝐚𝐯𝐚 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰.

🔍 Look at it yourself, this is 𝐉𝐚𝐯𝐚:

────────────────────────┐

𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 {

⠁⠁𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚌 𝚟𝚘𝚒𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗(𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐[] 𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚜) {

⠁⠁⠁⠁𝚂𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖.𝚘𝚞𝚝.𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚕𝚗("Hello World!");

⠁⠁}

}

────────────────────────┘

🔍 𝐏𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧 example:

────────────────────────┐

𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚝("Hello World!")

────────────────────────┘

*Both code snippets do the same thing... print the "𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅!" message.

Now imagine you're in a coding interview solving a task…

🐍 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧:

Your code is clean, short, error-free, readable (it's like English), and easy to explain.

☕ 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐉𝐚𝐯𝐚:

You're typing 47 lines of code to do something simple like printing text, and you're wondering whether it's "public static void" or "static public void" or whatever else ridiculous requirement Java forces you to memorize to do simple things…

Also, that's how you 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰.

And this isn't just in interviews.

Real automation projects have thousands of lines of code…

Well, with Java, thousands of lines of code …

Which would you prefer? Simple and easy approach or difficult and hard (Java)?

So, while you're spending months learning Java syntax and fighting with verbose code, other beginners are learning languages like Python and already building test automation that gets them hired 🙌.

𝐒𝐨, 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧?

That's covered in detail inside the Workshop roadmap (check the "𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦" tab).

The short version:

Focus on languages and tools that get you hired fastest in 2025, not what was popular 20 years ago.

𝐏.𝐒.Drop a comment and share your thoughts - based on the code snippets, would you pick Java or Python, and say why!

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Why Learning Java for QA Automation in 2025 is a Terrible Idea…