u/VoiceOk6583

Another bug slipped through and management caught it. Some of you know my situation from my previous post I’m the only QA and there’s often pressure to finish testing and push by EOD.

This one was a normal user journey: updating the note directly worked, but updating it through another workflow showed “status updated” without actually updating the note.

I accept that I missed the E2E scenario. But when you’re constantly pushed to deliver by EOD, some coverage gaps are inevitable.

At what point is an escaped bug a QA failure, and at what point is it a process/deadline problem?

Not looking for reassurance genuinely want an objective perspective from experienced QAs.

I have around 10 months of QA experience, and I won't pretend I'm a great tester. I struggle with domain knowledge, structure, memory, and sometimes thinking of edge cases spontaneously. I'm actively trying to improve.

I'm currently the only QA at a fintech startup, testing 3 loan apps + 2 aggregator platforms across web/mobile and APIs. Testing is often expected to be completed in 2–4 hours, even for fairly large scopes.

Requirements aren't always clearly documented. When I ask for clarification, I've sometimes been told “Why don't you know this?” or “Check competitor products.” Eventually I became hesitant to ask questions.

Recently, I missed an issue where a marketing site's Apply Now button redirected to the Play Store instead of the web app. Nobody had told me the expected destination, so I assumed it was intentional. When questioned, I also forgot the correct app URL under pressure and gave the wrong one. The CEO grilled me, saying “You're here for experience only, you don't know anything.”

I've also been told that QA is not anyone's team and I'm alone, and I've been compared/taunted when someone more experienced handles testing.

I know I have real weaknesses and mistakes to fix, but the constant pressure and scrutiny are seriously draining my confidence.

Experienced QAs: is this normal for a junior solo QA, or am I in an unusually unhealthy setup?

I have around 10 months of QA experience, and I won't pretend I'm a great tester. I struggle with domain knowledge, structure, memory, and sometimes thinking of edge cases spontaneously. I'm actively trying to improve.

I'm currently the only QA at a fintech startup, testing 3 loan apps + 2 aggregator platforms across web/mobile and APIs. Testing is often expected to be completed in 2–4 hours, even for fairly large scopes.

Requirements aren't always clearly documented. When I ask for clarification, I've sometimes been told “Why don't you know this?” or “Check competitor products.” Eventually I became hesitant to ask questions.

Recently, I missed an issue where a marketing site's Apply Now button redirected to the Play Store instead of the web app. Nobody had told me the expected destination, so I assumed it was intentional. When questioned, I also forgot the correct app URL under pressure and gave the wrong one. The CEO grilled me, saying “You're here for experience only, you don't know anything.”

I've also been told that QA is not anyone's team and I'm alone, and I've been compared/taunted when someone more experienced handles testing.

I know I have real weaknesses and mistakes to fix, but the constant pressure and scrutiny are seriously draining my confidence.

Experienced QAs: is this normal for a junior solo QA, or am I in an unusually unhealthy setup?

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I'm a 10-month-experience QA working as the only QA in a fintech startup, currently responsible for 3 loan apps and 2 aggregator platforms.

I know I'm not an excellent tester yet. I struggle with structure, memory, domain knowledge and sometimes thinking of edge cases. I'm working on those things.

But I'm struggling with the environment too. Testing is often expected to be completed in 2–4 hours, while I'm also expected to maintain the QA process, report bugs, track fixes, and ensure coverage. Requirements aren't always clear, but when I ask questions, I'm sometimes told to figure it out from competitor products. At the same time, I'm discouraged from spending too much time with developers because apparently I'm “wasting their time.”

I've been told QA is basically on its own. I was also told by someone from product that “you have to decide how many balls you can dodge.” That really made me realize that I'm not sure I want to work this way long-term.

I understand that 100% bug-free software is impossible and edge cases will always exist. I'm not expecting perfection. What I want is clear expectations, reasonable time to test, and enough collaboration to understand the product and make good decisions.

I'm not trying to blame everything on management — I genuinely have a lot to improve as a tester. But after weeks of feeling constantly scrutinized and struggling to keep up, my confidence is getting drained and I'm seriously considering an alternate career path.

For experienced QAs: is this normal startup/QA reality, or am I in an unhealthy setup? And if you've been in a similar situation, did changing companies change your experience of QA?

I have around 10 months of QA experience, and I won't pretend I'm a great tester. I struggle with domain knowledge, structure, memory, and sometimes thinking of edge cases spontaneously. I'm actively trying to improve.

I'm currently the only QA at a fintech startup, testing 3 loan apps + 2 aggregator platforms across web/mobile and APIs. Testing is often expected to be completed in 2–4 hours, even for fairly large scopes.

Requirements aren't always clearly documented. When I ask for clarification, I've sometimes been told “Why don't you know this?” or “Check competitor products.” Eventually I became hesitant to ask questions.

Recently, I missed an issue where a marketing site's Apply Now button redirected to the Play Store instead of the web app. Nobody had told me the expected destination, so I assumed it was intentional. When questioned, I also forgot the correct app URL under pressure and gave the wrong one. The CEO grilled me, saying “You're here for experience only, you don't know anything.”

I've also been told that QA is not anyone's team and I'm alone, and I've been compared/taunted when someone more experienced handles testing.

I know I have real weaknesses and mistakes to fix, but the constant pressure and scrutiny are seriously draining my confidence.

Experienced QAs: is this normal for a junior solo QA, or am I in an unusually unhealthy setup?

Does anyone know about Demonstrator in Chandigarh University for DSA one of my friends got a test invitation in havkerrank for the same..

I'm 27 years old, and I started my corporate career in September last year as a Manual QA Engineer. My first opportunity was at a startup, where I worked for about six months. Unfortunately, the company went through layoffs, and I, along with 11 other colleagues out of a team of around 25 people, lost our jobs.

Thankfully, I found another job the very next month. On paper, that sounded like a fresh start, but reality has been much harder than I expected.

I am currently the only QA engineer in the company, responsible for testing three loan applications and two aggregator platforms by myself. The development team works incredibly fast, especially with AI tools like Cursor, so new features and changes keep coming at a pace that is difficult for one person to keep up with. As a result, my workload never seems to decrease. There is always another release, another bug to verify, or another feature waiting to be tested.

The work culture has also been difficult. There are no real working hours. Although weekends are officially off, they rarely feel like holidays because work continues through calls and messages, and taking leave often just means working from home instead of getting actual time off. On one occasion, I even saw my boss slap an employee over a mistake, which made the environment feel intimidating and unhealthy.

Lately, I've been mentally exhausted. It feels as though I'm working only to survive one more day rather than building a meaningful career. The constant pressure and responsibility have taken a toll on my confidence.

Recently, my boss called me into her cabin and asked me to apply for a loan through our marketing website. I explained that the actual loan application was hosted on a different domain from the marketing site. She responded by saying that I lacked basic testing knowledge and that not recognizing this was a serious blocker. Whether I was right or wrong in that situation, the conversation left me questioning my abilities.

To be honest, I don't feel like I fit naturally into the corporate world. I often wonder whether I'm simply not good enough for it. My confidence has dropped significantly, and there are days when I genuinely feel like a failure, even though I'm trying my best to keep going.

Getting errors