I joined Rootcode as an Intern - Quality Assurance last year. In this article, I hope to cover my overall internship experience so far at Rootcode which will include details about my training and development, team and mentoring sessions, new things I learned, and more.

For their interview process, there were four structured phases. The first one contained a list of general and technical questions I had to answer in a given time. The second interview was an offline paper, where I had to compile a set of test cases for a traveling app. I was instructed to create as many test cases as possible for the given scenario in three hours. I managed to write approximately 30 test cases within the time allocated, and in the third interview, I demonstrated and explained the said test cases.

After these three stages, I was shortlisted for the final interview, where I had a casual chat with the CEO and COO of the company. After this final interview was done, I received the good news that I was longing to hear - that I’ve got selected to do an internship at Rootcode!

As someone with zero exposure to the corporate culture, I was super excited about this opportunity. On my first day of work at Rootcode Labs, I was assigned a work buddy, so I know whom to talk to if I run into an issue.

The first few days at Rootcode.

One of my fellow QA colleagues gave me a knowledge transfer session regarding ongoing projects and QA processes and standards we follow at Rootcode. I also received another knowledge transfer session from one of our Business Analysts for our project. Throughout the first few weeks of the project's testing, I frequently contacted these two whenever I had questions, such as clarifying the requirements on the tickets and how to do proper testing likewise.

I was recommended and guided to take a self-learning approach to using certain software tools. Some applications, such as Visual Code studio, MySQL workbench, and Postman, were recommended to me during this time. When I was working on tasks that I was assigned to, there were certain things that I couldn’t find answers to. In such cases, when I requested help, everyone was more than willing to help. After a few weeks and a proper evaluation, I was allocated to work on other main projects and teams.

Further, we have Knowledge Transfer sessions for Web and Mobile automation from our fellow colleagues. I believe these sessions are valuable to set the foundation right. Additionally, our QA team leads plan automation programs for us to improve our skills.

Training and Development.

The training and development I received through hands-on project experience helped me put my skills to practical use. I sought guidance and help from my seniors and supervisors whenever necessary. During my training period, I was submitted to a review process and touched base with my supervisor, which was a great opportunity for me to identify and rectify my weaknesses while improving my strengths.

I got a complete idea of how the quality assurance stage of a project works, not only by going through tutorials but by testing my skills on actual projects. Even though I am a QA engineer intern, I’m not limited to learning just QA practices. We are encouraged to learn and gain insights about other practices like software engineering, project management, and business analysis. Hence, why I say that it was an overall 360-degree experience for me where I learned not only one but many things.

What are the new things you learn at Rootcode?

I am learning new things each day at Rootcode related to the QA practices. I have already learned and applied what I know using technologies and software such as Test Link which is a tool to write test cases, using it developing test cases became considerably simpler. We were able to filter test cases by version, keywords, and test case ID. Multiple users can now be assigned to test cases easily.

BrowserStack is used for browser compatibility testing. As QAs, we are required to test our project on multiple browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, etc. Additionally, in a variety of device types. BrowserStack has simplified this process because we can check all of these while logged in, saving time.

I was also introduced to Mindmup; a system for creating mind maps, and was given KT’S along with a few small tasks to familiarize ourselves with the system. Our Google workspace account stores the Mindmaps so that we can always access them. Likewise, I learned a lot of new things at Rootcode.

So far, I have been allocated to work with the team that is building a complex learning software. I am able to practice a perfect QA process for this project with the help of my team members and I’m proud to say that I got opportunities to meet and greet the representatives of the client organization as well, from time to time.

Overall, this project and the team made me grow a lot and I personally loved going through the learning curve while being supported by experienced people in the team.

Wrapping up

At Rootcode, the mantra is “no one will treat you as an intern unless you treat yourself as one” We know and have seen interns who have grown into great positions, and some are even leading some teams at a young age. From day one, my team was there for me as a strong backbone to keep the momentum going. They were very supportive and friendly. Discussing with people within the team/organization helped me look at things from different aspects and to find answers. Challenging problems have also helped me improve my QA practices and to learn how to ensure better performance and scalability in software products.

Let me leave you with this note. At Rootcode, I’ve met some of the hardest working, super talented people who are also some of the kindest people under one roof. I must say the experience of me as an intern was life-changing and extremely rewarding.