Course Overview
The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) v4.0 course is your gateway to advancing your software testing career. This fully accredited programme provides a solid foundation in software testing principles, preparing you for the globally recognised ISTQB CTFL certification.
Tailored for professionals in the UK and beyond, it covers best practices aligned with modern methodologies, including Waterfall, Agile, DevOps, and Continuous Delivery.
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Course Highlights
- Duration: 3-day intensive training. (9am – 5pm)
- Format: Available in Virtual, Classroom and E-learning
- Online Pre-Course: Approximately four to five hours to complete
- Exam Simulator: Our simulator is designed to prepare you for success in the CTFL exam
- Content: Covers the latest ISTQB syllabus, exam preparation, and revision.
- Accreditation: Fully accredited by UKITB on behalf of ISTQB
- SFIAplus Level: Rated at level 3 by the BCS.
E-Learning Course
Our e-learning ISTQB Software Testing course includes:
- 12 months access to accredited online materials
- ISTQB® CTFL v4.0 exam (valid for 12 months)
- Exam simulator for practice
Why Choose ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) v4.0 Certification?
- Globally recognised qualification: Achieve the ISTQB CTFL certification, a benchmark in software testing excellence.
- Career Advancement: Enhance your prospects in the UK and international markets.
- Comprehensive Curriculum: Gain in-depth knowledge of software testing concepts and terminology.
- Versatile Application: Apply learned skills across multiple software development approaches.
Who Should Attend This Course?
This ISTQB Certification course is ideal for:
- Software testers and test analysts
- Test engineers and consultants
- Test leads and managers
- User acceptance testers
- Software developers
- Project and quality managers
- IT directors and management consultants
About ISTQB and the Certified Tester Scheme
ISTQB® (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) established the globally recognized Certified Tester scheme to:
- Provide internationally acknowledged professional qualifications
- Enable software companies to hire and train certified testers
- Facilitate global understanding and comparison of testing skills
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Entry Requirements
Important note regarding pre-course
There is mandatory online pre-course work that must be undertaken prior to attending this course. It is expected that it will take approximately four to five hours to complete. You will be sent full instructions with a link to the online pre course three weeks prior to course commencement.
On arrival at the course candidates should have read the provided Syllabus in preparation for the course. The course is intensive and those delegates who have prepared achieve a higher exam success rate.
CTFL Exam
To qualify as an internationally recognised Certified Foundation Level Tester and be issued with an ISTQB® Foundation Level Certificate, delegates must successfully pass the exam:
- The examination consists of a one-hour exam with 40 multiple choice questions.
- It will be a ‘closed book’ examination i.e. no notes or books will be allowed into the examination room.
- Duration of 60 minutes (or 75 minutes for candidates taking examinations that are not in their native language)
- The pass mark is 65% (26 out of 40).
Learning Objectives
The Business Outcomes expected of a candidate who has achieved the new Foundation Level certification are as follows:
- Understand what testing is and why it is beneficial
- Understand fundamental concepts of software testing
- Identify the test approach and activities to be implemented depending on the context of testing
- Assess and improve the quality of documentation
- Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of testing
- Align the test process with the software development lifecycle
- Understand test management principles
- Write and communicate clear and understandable defect reports
- Understand the factors that influence the priorities and efforts related to testing
- Work as part of a cross-functional team
- Know risks and benefits related to test automation
- Identify essential skills required for testing
- Understand the impact of risk on testing
- Effectively report on test progress and quality
ISTQB Foundation Level Syllabus
- Fundamentals of Testing
- Testing Throughout the Software Development Lifecycle
- Static Testing
- Test Analysis and Design
- Managing the Test Activities
- Test Tools
E-Learning – Key Points
- Fundamentals of testing
- Test activites, testware and roles
- Essential skills and good practices
- Testing in context of software development lifecycles
- Test levels, test types and maintenance testing
- Static testing basics
- Feedback and review process
- Test techniques overview
- Black box testing
- White box testing
- Experienced based testing
- Collaboration-based test approaches
- Test planning
- Risk Management
- Test monitoring, control and completion
- Configuration and defect management
- Test tools
- Exam hints and tips
Next steps/Follow on courses
The Certified Tester Foundation Level certification is the prerequisite to the other modules within the Certified Tester Scheme.
The “Core” stream modules are valid for any technology/ methodology/ application domain and build on the Foundation Level:
- Advanced Test Manager
- Advanced Test Analyst
- Advanced Technical Test Analyst
The “Agile” stream focuses on testing practices specifically for the Agile methodology:
- Advanced Agile Technical Tester
The “Specialist” stream provides a deep dive into areas which may be based on quality characteristics, specific test approaches and test activities, or which cluster testing know-how for certain industry domains:
- Acceptance Testing
- AI Testing
- Mobile Application Testing
- Model-Based Tester
- Security Tester
- Test Automation Engineer
Karl Gwilliam|IT QA Lead|Deloitte –
This was a good experience and presented well. It was presented well over Goto as well, it was nice to be at home and not have the stress of having to go to a location for this for sure._x000D_
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The content was spot on, although a lot to take it I think with the right amount of revision I should be able to pass the exam._x000D_
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I would recommend this course to anyone looking to getting into the testing world for sure. It has opened my eyes as well and made think about whether a career is right for me in testing full time.
Faiz Ahmed|Software Tester|Atheon Analytics –
Course was good, adequate breaks and detailed content. Using the Online platform was a better experience than i thought it would be
Clara Fordham|Test Analyst|WiggleCRC –
It was good, great slides! Glad to do it online. Just wish we could request a printed version of the materials.
Anthony Tibbs|Analyst|Old Mutual Wealth / Quilter –
course was explained well, trainer was excellent
Samiha Akter | Graduate Technology Consultant | KPMG –
Angelina was amazing at teaching the content – she was interactive, engaging and enthusiast. I believe an improvement for the exam would be to have more K3 questions as application of learning is better.
yusra shabir | grad trainee | kpmg –
It was really good, there were very hard concepts however angelina took time and care to help anybody and everybody out whilst still being on track for our course. Angelina was always joyful and kept us engaged, even on very hard topics and when we were tired. I found her examples very helpful in explaining topics. Also her experience not only helped us understand the exam sceanrios but also helped understand us what we can expect in real life testing scenarios. Some improvements on the course content is Maybe some videos explaining certain types of concepts in context e.g. amazon company decided to build this app for X, Y, z would have been helpful and we could access that on teh PP slides in our own time. This is because the sessions are not recorded so any examples used/talked about will have disappeared from memory as theres so much content and so many examples. We also had a few technical issues so maybe a better platform for collaboration? Overall I loved the course and learning with Angelina!
Ellie Hindley-Skelt | Graduate Trainee | KPMG –
there were a lot of technical problems at first but once we moved from go to meetings to teams then it was fine. Would suggest going straight to teams.
Caro Edwards | Consulting Graduate Trainee | KPMG UK –
Found the content very extensive and questions quite difficult to answer but trainer was helpful and taught us in depth
Cameron Thomley | Technology Consultant | KPMG –
The course was well delivered but the content itself can be confusing due to the nature of there being a large amount of unfamiliar terminology that feeds into one another. Angelina was brilliant at clarifying confusions however which helped a lot.
Tonna Anyansi | Graduate Trainee | KPMG –
Angelina covered the relevant information and went through practice questions after every topic. She was great answering questions, and did well making the content digestible.
Alex Stewart | Digital Consultant Grad Trainee | KPMG –
A lot of content in little time. A very enthusiastic and helpful trainer.
Sofia Melia Castilla | Graduate Trainee | KPMG –
Trainer explained everything very clearly and enthusiastically. It was a lot of information and syllabus to digest in 4 days but Angelina made it fun and easier to understand. Very good experience overall!
Mohamed Shurfudeen | Project Engineer | Trinity Systems –
I personally found it hard to understand certain concepts because i have no prior testing experience.
Aleksandra Zmuda | IT Solutions Test Analyst | Clipper Logistics –
The course met my expectations, highly informative, clearly explained, useful for my current role and carrier path I have chosen. Thank you!
Chelsea Houston | Software Engineer / Test Analyst | Capgemini –
Very insightful and informative. Trainer kept my attention throughout the whole 3 days. Was happy to help out when we were confused. Hard course with a lot of work needed but well worth it. Learnt a lot of very helpful info. Trainer very friendly and easy to understand and get along with. Looking forward to taking more courses in the future.
Robbie Aitken | Programmer | Euroclear –
Interesting course, Rosie was a great trainer. Good delivery, kept us engaged, well-paced, also very very patient.
Dylan Anderson | Software Tester Apprentice | RWE Supply and Trading –
Really good course. Provides plenty of information needed for being a tester, although I think it needs better pacing, so that I can get the info from the course noted for exam revision.
Jon Hardman | Test Analyst | Principality –
I found Rosie very easy to listen to, very patient, and felt like i could ask questions when I needed. In my personal opinion the syllabus of the course seemed to reference outdated techniques. However Rosie was very good in teaching these. In future I personally would find it better if there was even more engagement e.g. more questions to the group.
Ian Smith | QA Analyst | Principality –
Course tutor was brill, What was hardest was the way some of the example questions/ISTQB syllabus was written.
Chris Elias | Test Engineer | Principality –
Rosie was a good tutor – she was very well spoken and explained the syllabus as best as possible. The course seems to be very manual tester focused which was disappointing for me as I mainly work with Test Automation. I found the exam questions have been made deliberately difficult and ambiguous. I feel there was a big focus on boundary/partition testing which I feel is a very small area in software testing these days. Overall I feel this course is a bit outdated for todays modern software development requirements.