Expert status in any field can be a hard thing to define. That can be especially true in the field of software testing. Here is one perspective based on studying the profiles of over 200 experts in software and related fields, in addition to another 20 experts in software testing.

McKinsey & Company predicts massive changes across industries due to "a perfect storm of hardware and software" such as AI, IoT, and virtual reality. This exponential growth in software means there needs to be an exponential growth in testing and software quality efforts.

It’s not just a matter of hiring more software testers. Companies must find those with emerging skills to test technologies for which there may be no established body of knowledge for software testing.

So where do you find employees with those skills? Hire them? Or reskill your existing workforce?

Did you know that we, ASTQB, create our own ISTQB exams? Our exams are designed for those who work in the U.S. or for U.S. companies – or may want to in the future. 

Why is this important? A U.S. hiring manager told us that he will always choose the candidate who took ASTQB's ISTQB exam, all else being equal. When you have the ASTQB version, he told us, it demonstrates you have better English-language communication skills for their software quality environment. 

Of course, because our ISTQB exams are uniquely created, so are our sample exams!

You may refer to them by other names: sample papers, downloads, questions, answers or dumps. Regardless of what you call them, if you are planning to take the ASTQB version of the ISTQB exams, you definitely want to study using our free sample exams. That's because ASTQB's sample exams are specially designed to match the style, quality and language usage of our full exams.

So download our free ISTQB sample exams on our Resources page – then click on the "Sample Exams" tab. And of course, be sure to register for your ISTQB exam through ASTQB or our new, official exam provider, AT*SQA, so you can appear on our List of U.S. Testers.

Worried about taking the ISTQB Advanced exam? ASTQB gives you peace of mind!

We are so confident of the quality of our exams and our Accredited Training Provider courses that we’ll let you retake your ISTQB Advanced Level exam for free if you meet the following criteria:

• You passed our version of the ISTQB Foundation Level (CTFL) exam;
• You took a training course from an ASTQB Accredited Training Provider for the ISTQB Advanced Level certification; and
• You took, and unfortunately failed, our exam for that ISTQB Advanced Level certification between November 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019.

This is an ASTQB-exclusive offer. Act now, as this offer is scheduled to end December 31, 2019.

Do you think someone with the title “Software Tester” is the only person who gets certified in software testing? Not even close!

We queried our database for just some of the unique titles of those taking ISTQB software testing certification exams through ASTQB. Certainly, “Software Tester” was popular, as was "QA Analyst.” But the diversity of titles was very interesting. We have posted more than 4,000 of the titles on the ASTQB website - and that was only a fraction of the titles! 

Why do so many different roles get their ISTQB certification from ASTQB? It makes sense, as everyone involved in software quality including testers, DevOps, Agile teams and QA teams can benefit from the shared terminology, communications, principles and knowledge offered through software testing certification. 

See if you can find your title in the list. If you are a manager who is trying to invent a new title for a position, this is also a good place to start!