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
Holly Pears | UAT Test Lead | Bank of England –
Angelina was a really patient and thorough course leader. She went through all topics at a great pace considering the size of the group. The course itself is quite in depth.
Swapnil Nandy | Automation Engineer QA | Atradius –
Very Interactive
A bit stacked up course but ideally would be great if was 4 day training
Joshua James M. Perocho | Junior Quality Assurance Engineer | Penbrothers –
Angelina explained the course really well. She was very thorough in explaining everything.
Steve Adams | Senior Test Engineer | Foundry Visionmongers –
Broken down and challenged at each stage, often asking individuals questions to ensure focus,
There is still a lot of theory to digest however before next week’s exam which I will need to reinforce
Pol Ureta Canellas | Software Developer | EXCO GmbH –
I really liked it
Adriano Aru | Software Tester | IBM –
Very insightful course and presented very well by Angelina.
William Rodgerson | QA tester & Level 3 support | Toca.io –
I found John Young to be knowledgeable, personable and generally very helpful.
Zoe Dodds | Test Analyst | OVO Energy –
Although the course has a lot of information John made it easy to understand and relate back to my own role. This will most definitely help me when revising.
Muntaqa Dar | Test Analyst | Samaritans –
Good trainer and good style of teaching however I am more of a doer so don’t learn very well from just powerpoint slide shows. I have done other courses more hands-on/ interactive where I was actually putting things into practice rather than just listening.
Melissa Martin | Software Test Engineer | TotalMobile –
The course was very well run, John took the time to explain everything and answered any questions I had.
David Cabell | Quality Assurance Tester | CaseWare –
Clear and concise delivery of a large amount of information in a short period (Which was very useful!). Digestable and enjoyable.
Rebuzzi Damiano | Software Engineer in test | Moneyfarm –
The course was very useful and very well explained, even from a non-native English speaker it was very clear and thorough.
Mitchell Kirby | Software Tester | BCS –
Really great course, loved being able to do it online rather than needing to go to a physical classroom. John was an excellent trainer, really added detail to the slides and the learning resources, was very personable and made the course really interesting.
Nic Joannou| Test Analyst| WTC –
Well explained and structured, supportive and good at explaining/answering any questions asked.
Only small suggestion is mapping the content to the K1, K2, K3 criteria as we go through it, or even at the summaries towards the end of each topic/module; although this is intuitive once you retrospectively look back at the criteria and content.
Ami Marshall| Digital Project Manager| Marshalls –
I thought that my trainer was very good at keeping the group engaged and talking through real life examples of the theory. However, I felt that the slides for the training were far too busy and often very unclear. In my opinion the slides need completely redoing.
Jordan Russell| QA Lead| Totalmobile –
Content was interesting and was thoroughly covered by the trainer, everything explained in detail in ways that made sense. Gave me plenty of confidence for taking the exam.
karen Prisk| IT development and specialist information analyst | SPS –
Enjoyed the course found broken down very well and easy to follow.
Sabih Aslam| Test Analyst| Computacenter –
Very good course but I think it would have been better if it was spread to 5 days instead of 3 with few hours a day to absorb all of the information in. After 2/3 PM, it is quite hard to absorb everything.
Aaron Martin| Software Tester| Totalmobile –
First day was very intense, but presented really well and all questions asked were fully answered with detailed explanations.
Could have done with a quick intro into how to use Zoom as wern’t aware what to do when put into the individual rooms. Thought that we’d be invited back however there was an exit button when hovering on screen that took a while to find/become aware of.
Apeksha Patil | QA Engineer | SQA –
It was very helpful.