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CaraQAway

Welcome — I’m Cara. This is a calm, friendly guide to QA: how we find bugs, build trust, and ship with confidence.

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Quotes I Work By

“Start small. Start now.”

“Progress beats perfection.”

“Focus is a choice you re-make daily.”

“Consistency compounds.”

Inspiration & Focus

Focus

Begin with what you have, where you are. The start matters most—no progress exists without it. Protect your attention and take the next small, clear step.

Follow Through

Consistency writes the ending. Keep moving, even when momentum dips. Finishes aren’t final; they’re proof that your will outlasts the hard parts.

QA, briefly

QA is how we keep promises to users. It turns “it should work” into “it does work” through thoughtful tests, curious exploration, and clear feedback that helps the whole team move faster with confidence.

🕒 Shift-left testing

Plan and write tests early so issues are caught before merge.

🔺 Automation pyramid

Lots of unit tests, some integration, a few E2E for balance.

🔍 Exploratory testing

Hands-on discovery to find issues scripts miss.

🚧 CI quality gates

Automated checks block unstable code from shipping.

Principles I follow

Test like a user; think like a system

View flows as a person would while keeping system states in mind.

Deterministic small tests

Prefer quick, reliable checks instead of long, flaky ones.

Data setup as a feature

Good fixtures/seeds make tests repeatable and readable.

Observability everywhere

Logs, traces, metrics = faster, clearer debugging.

30 Common Testing Types

Unit

Test a single function/class in isolation.

Integration

Verify components work together.

System

Test the whole app as one unit.

Acceptance (UAT)

Validate user/business needs.

Smoke

Basic build health checks.

Sanity

Quick checks after small changes.

Regression

Ensure old features still work.

Performance

Speed, responsiveness, stability.

Load

Behavior under expected traffic.

Stress

Behavior under extreme traffic.

Soak

Long-duration stability under load.

Security

Find and prevent vulnerabilities.

Penetration

Ethical hacking to exploit weaknesses.

Fuzz

Random inputs to trigger crashes.

Usability

Ease and delight of use.

Accessibility

Inclusive for people with disabilities.

Compatibility

Works across devices/browsers.

API

Endpoints follow spec & handle errors.

Contract

Consumer/provider agree on API behavior.

Visual Regression

Screenshots haven’t changed unexpectedly.

Localization (L10n)

Content adapted to locale/language.

Internationalization (i18n)

Product can be localized later.

Upgrade/Migration

Version changes preserve data.

Backup/Restore

Data can be saved & recovered.

Chaos Engineering

Inject failures to test resilience.

Mutation

Tests catch intentionally injected bugs.

Boundary

Behavior at input limits.

Pairwise

All pairs of input combinations.

Mobile

Behavior on phone/tablet OSs.

Compliance

Meets standards and regulations.

Tripleten Externship

I completed my first automation project during a 7-week externship with Tripleten, collaborating with Runestone Academy. Real-world QA, real deadlines, real growth.

View Externship ↗
Cara C Cross — QA Engineer and creator of CaraQAway

About Me

I’m Cara, a QA Engineer who took the scenic route into tech. From years of landscaping to leading test automation, I turned grit into growth. Through persistence and curiosity, I transitioned careers and now uplift others — especially women and career-changers — who are rewriting their stories in technology.