Automation Prerequisites — Foundations for Non-Coders
The on-ramp into test automation, built for manual testers with no coding background.
You already know how to test. You know what good looks like, you can spot a broken flow, and you can write a clear bug report. What stops a lot of strong manual testers from moving into automation is not the testing — it is the three skills underneath the tools: reading a web page’s structure, reading a little code, and getting around a terminal. This track teaches exactly those three, and nothing you do not need. By the end you are ready to start the Junior SDET automation track without feeling lost.
From manual tester to automation-ready
HTML & CSS for Testers
The DOM, elements, attributes, IDs and classes. CSS selectors — the basis of every locator your automation will use. Reading a page’s structure in DevTools so you can write locators that do not break.
~25 min read · ~60 min with exercises · Prerequisites
Lesson 2JavaScript Basics for Testers
Variables, functions, and the async / await / promises bit that trips everyone up — why automated tests have to wait. Read a simple test script and understand what each line is doing.
~25 min read · ~60 min with exercises · Prerequisites
Lesson 3Git & the Command Line
Terminal basics — cd, ls, and getting around. Clone, add, commit, push, pull, and branches. Reading git status, and why version control matters the moment you write test code.
~25 min read · ~60 min with exercises · Prerequisites
The gap nobody teaches
Most automation courses start at the tool — here is Playwright, here is Selenium, write this test. For someone coming from manual testing that is like being handed a power tool with no instructions on which way is up. The test fails, the error mentions a “selector” or a “promise” or asks you to “commit your changes”, and there is nowhere to stand because nobody taught the floor underneath.
This track is that floor. HTML and CSS so you understand what a locator is actually pointing at. Just enough JavaScript to read a test and know why it waits. Git and the command line so test code does not feel like a foreign country. None of it is deep — it is the precise slice an automation tester uses every day, and no more.
NZ examples throughout, written for people moving across from manual testing. Work through the three lessons in order, do the exercises, and the Junior SDET track will feel like the next natural step instead of a wall.
→ The Junior SDET automation track
Once these three lessons feel comfortable, you are ready for the real thing. The Junior SDET track picks up exactly where this leaves off — writing your first automated tests with a real tool, using the HTML, JavaScript, and Git foundations you build here.