What is a QA Engineer?

A QA Engineer at Activision is the quality guardian for experiences that reach hundreds of millions of players. You ensure our games and game-making tools are reliable, performant, and compliant across platforms and services. Your work directly impacts player trust, live operations stability, and our ability to ship on schedule—whether you’re leading a test floor for a console release or automating complex GUI workflows for content creation tools used by our developers.

You will partner with Production, Development, and QA to surface the right issues at the right time, translate ambiguous symptoms into actionable defects, and validate fixes under real-world conditions. Expect to interact with titles and pipelines powering franchises like Call of Duty® and content creation tools at studios like Infinity Ward. The role is critical because quality at scale is not accidental—it’s engineered through disciplined test design, precise bug reporting, strong leadership on the floor, and smart automation that keeps pace with rapidly evolving game systems.

What makes this role compelling is the scope. You’ll span functional testing, 1st-party compliance (Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo), multiplayer/network edge cases, performance and compatibility, and, for SDET-track roles, automated GUI frameworks, CI integration, and toolchain validation. You’ll see the direct line from your decisions to milestone readiness at Alpha/Beta, certification outcomes, and day-one player sentiment.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Your preparation should balance hands-on QA craft (test design, compliance awareness, bug reporting excellence) with situational leadership and, for SDET roles, automation fundamentals in Python/Lua, GUI testing, and CI. Build fluency in how AAA game development ships: milestones, builds, branching, hotfix cadence, and stakeholder communication.

• Role-related Knowledge (Technical/Domain Skills) – Interviewers look for command of game QA fundamentals: building test plans, identifying high-severity issues, understanding 1st-party requirements, and using bug databases (Jira, DevTrack) to drive clarity. For SDET, expect deep dives into automated GUI testing, frameworks (e.g., Squish Qt), and integration with CI (e.g., Jenkins).

• Problem-Solving Ability (How you approach challenges) – You’ll be assessed on how you isolate variables, craft repro steps, triage ambiguous failures, and choose the right test strategy for risk and time. Strong candidates show structured thinking, measurable outcomes, and awareness of tradeoffs between breadth vs. depth.

• Leadership (How you influence and mobilize others) – For test floor roles, you must demonstrate team direction, clear daily reporting, coaching testers, and escalating blockers effectively. For SDET leads, you’ll be asked about mentoring, setting automation standards, and aligning stakeholders around coverage and reliability.

• Culture Fit (How you work with teams and navigate ambiguity) – We look for proactive communicators who are player-obsessed, resilient under deadline pressure, and collaborative with diverse teams. Show that you can receive/give feedback constructively, uphold QA standards, and contribute positively during crunch and change.

Interview Process Overview

You will experience a scenario-heavy, hands-on process that emphasizes practical judgment over trivia. Expect conversations that mirror the real cadence of game development: rapid iteration, evolving priorities, and tradeoffs near milestones. For leadership-focused roles, you’ll discuss how you run the test floor, track high-severity issues, and produce crisp daily reporting. For SDET roles, anticipate whiteboarding automation strategy, reviewing sample UIs, and assessing framework choices.

Pace and rigor are deliberate. You will be asked to explain how you translate unclear symptoms into clear defects, how you align test plans with Alpha/Beta readiness, and how you keep quality stable during build churn. The philosophy is consistent: we prioritize candidates who show strong craft, ownership, and communication that scales across teams.

You’ll likely meet a cross-functional panel (QA, Production, Engineering), with practical exercises aligned to your track. The process is collaborative and conversational; expect probing follow-ups that test depth, not just breadth.

This timeline illustrates the typical flow from recruiter screen to final panel, including technical or practical exercises. Use it to timebox your preparation: confirm logistics early, clarify which track you’re interviewing for, and request any pre-read or tooling expectations. Maintain momentum by sending timely follow-ups and asking focused questions tied to the next stage.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

Game QA Fundamentals and 1st-Party Compliance

This is the backbone of test floor excellence. You will show how you design and execute tests that surface the most impactful issues quickly, and how you align with Sony TRC/Microsoft XR/Nintendo Lotcheck requirements to prevent certification blockers.

Be ready to go over:

• Test planning for features and milestones: Identifying risk areas, smoke vs. regression, cross-platform coverage
• Compliance concepts: Save/resume behavior, network disconnect handling, entitlement, age/guideline prompts, error messaging
• Severity and priority: How you assess impact to submission, live players, and schedule
• Advanced concepts (less common): Localization compliance, accessibility checks, peripheral compatibility edge cases, platform-specific telemetry validation

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Outline a test plan to validate a new multiplayer map across PS5/Xbox/PC, including crossplay and voice chat."
• "Explain how you would verify compliance for a forced sign-out during an online match."
• "A defect is disputed as ‘Not a Bug.’ Walk us through how you’d investigate and respond with evidence."

Bug Reporting and Database Mastery

We expect precision, clarity, and completeness in bug reports—your defect quality determines fix velocity. You’ll demonstrate how you maintain standards in Jira/DevTrack/DevTest, perform bug sweeps, and ensure high-severity items are tracked to resolution.

Be ready to go over:

• Defect anatomy: Clear title, repro steps, expected vs. actual, attachments, environment/build, severity/priority
• Triage and sweeps: Duplicates, WNF decisions, regression verification, database hygiene
• Reporting: Daily summaries, milestone assessments at Alpha/Beta, communicating risk/coverage
• Advanced concepts (less common): NMI queues, dashboards/queries for risk burndown, tagging for platform/peripheral variants

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Rewrite this vague bug into an actionable report with steps and evidence."
• "How would you track a blocker through to certification readiness across multiple teams?"
• "Describe your approach to auditing duplicate bugs ahead of Beta."

Test Design and Strategy

Strong candidates show intentionality: choosing techniques and coverage based on risk and constraints. You’ll be evaluated on how you structure exploratory sessions, systematize regression, and align tests with production goals.

Be ready to go over:

• Technique selection: Boundary/error guessing, state transitions, pairwise, session-based test charters
• Regression prioritization: Feature hot spots, platform/app store updates, network dependencies
• Metrics and outcomes: Coverage models, defect detection rate, mean time to resolve/verify
• Advanced concepts (less common): Telemetry-informed testing, synthetic account workflows, soak/performance sampling within QA scope

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design a smoke test suite for daily build acceptance on a live-ops title."
• "Given two days before Alpha, what do you cut and why?"
• "How would you validate a new matchmaking algorithm without internal tooling changes?"

Automation and Tools (SDET Track)

For roles focused on developer tools, you will be assessed on your ability to build robust GUI automation, integrate with CI, and raise the quality bar for content creation pipelines. Expect to discuss design choices, flake reduction, and maintainability.

Be ready to go over:

• Framework selection and design: Page-object models for GUI, locator strategies, synchronization
• Languages and tooling: Python/Lua; familiarity with frameworks like Squish Qt, TestComplete, or Ranorex
• CI integration: Test orchestration in Jenkins/TeamCity, artifacts, logs, and gating strategies
• Advanced concepts (less common): Parallelization, headless runs, test data/versioning strategies, integrating with C++/C# components

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Propose an automation strategy to validate a complex Qt-based asset import workflow."
• "A GUI test is intermittently failing in CI. How do you isolate flakiness and harden the test?"
• "Walk us through a Python utility you would build to capture and annotate logs/screens during failures."

Leadership and Communication on the Test Floor

As an Associate QA Project Lead, you’re an extension of the Project Lead—setting direction, supervising execution, and communicating status. Interviewers assess how you mentor testers, handle pressure, and keep stakeholders aligned.

Be ready to go over:

• Daily management: Task assignment, progress tracking, coaching, and unblocking
• Reporting cadence: Clear daily reports, risk callouts, readiness for Alpha/Beta
• Cross-team alignment: Partnering with Production/Development, escalating effectively
• Advanced concepts (less common): Building onboarding/training programs, improving QA systems and procedures, leading focus groups or demos

Example questions or scenarios:

• "You’re short on testers and have a critical build. How do you reset priorities and communicate impact?"
• "Describe a time you coached a tester to elevate bug quality."
• "How would you structure a daily report to surface risks and ask for decisions?"

This word cloud highlights the most common topics for Activision QA Engineer interviews, emphasizing areas like compliance, test planning, bug reporting, automation (Python/Squish), and leadership/communication. Use it to weight your study time: double down on dominant themes and ensure you can demonstrate depth with concrete stories and artifacts.

Key Responsibilities

You will own the quality strategy and execution for your scope. On test floor leadership tracks, that means translating product goals into actionable test plans, supervising execution, and producing reports that drive decisions. On SDET tracks, it means building automation frameworks that validate complex tool workflows and integrating them into a reliable CI pipeline.

• Primary deliverables include test plans and charters, daily status reports, milestone assessments for Alpha/Beta, high-quality defect reports, and verified regressions. SDET deliverables include stable automated suites, CI dashboards, and utilities that improve developer velocity.
• Cross-functional collaboration is constant: you’ll interface with Production for priorities and risk, Engineering for bug triage and fix validation, and other QA groups to align on coverage, standards, and issue sweeps.
• Expect involvement in special projects such as demos, focus groups, training, and process improvements. You may be asked to act as Lead in a Project Lead’s absence to maintain continuity of operations.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

Strong candidates combine technical fluency, operational discipline, and clear communication. You should demonstrate how your background maps to the specific track you’re pursuing.

• Must-have technical skills

  • Bug tracking systems: Proficiency with Jira/DevTrack; able to enforce database hygiene and reporting standards
  • Test design and execution: Building actionable plans, writing reproducible defects with evidence, regression best practices
  • Platform knowledge: Familiarity with popular console platforms, peripherals, and PC hardware/software environments
  • For SDET: Scripting proficiency (e.g., Python/Lua), GUI automation concepts, and basic CI workflows (e.g., Jenkins)

• Experience expectations

  • ~1+ year in a QA department (game industry or comparable), with evidence of leadership (e.g., Senior QA Tester, Acting Associate QA Project Lead)
  • For lead SDET roles: 5+ years in test automation, including 2+ years mentoring or leading

• Soft skills that distinguish

  • Leadership and mentoring, day-to-day supervision, and prioritization under pressure
  • Excellent written and verbal communication across varied personalities and disciplines
  • Proactivity, punctuality, and strong work ethic; ability to give and receive feedback constructively
  • Player mindset and passion for high-quality games; curiosity about game creation technologies

• Nice-to-have advantages

  • Familiarity with 1st-party compliance processes (Sony TRC, Microsoft XR, Nintendo Lotcheck)
  • Experience with Squish Qt, TestComplete, Ranorex; programming in C++/C#
  • Experience designing innovative testing procedures and improving QA systems
  • Exposure to content creation pipelines and developer tools in game development

This module summarizes compensation insights for QA roles at Activision, including hourly ranges for test floor leadership roles and higher bands for SDET positions based on experience and location. Treat these figures as directional: your final offer will reflect scope, background, and geography, and may include incentive components where applicable.

Common Interview Questions

Expect a mix of scenario-based prompts, walkthroughs of your past work, and (for SDET) code/architecture discussions. Focus on clarity, structure, and the “why” behind your choices.

Technical/Domain: QA Fundamentals and Compliance

These questions validate your grasp of game QA craft and platform submission standards.

• How would you structure a test plan for a new multiplayer feature that introduces crossplay and voice chat?
• Walk through your process for verifying a platform sign-in/sign-out flow during live gameplay.
• Explain severity vs. priority with examples from a pre-release build near Alpha.
• How do you ensure a bug report is fully actionable for developers across sites?
• What are common certification blockers you proactively test for on consoles?

Test Design and Strategy

Interviewers assess how you optimize coverage under constraints and communicate risk.

• Given two days before Beta, which tests would you cut, keep, or expand—and why?
• How do you design exploratory charters for a feature with limited specs?
• Describe metrics you track to know whether testing is effective week over week.
• How do you use data (telemetry, crash logs) to guide where to test deeper?
• Outline your approach to regression after a major refactor landed late in cycle.

Automation and Tools (SDET)

Questions here focus on GUI automation, framework choices, and CI reliability.

• Propose a Python-based strategy to automate a complex Qt tool workflow end to end.
• How do you reduce GUI test flakiness related to timing and element stability?
• Describe how you’d integrate automated tests into Jenkins with useful build artifacts.
• When would you write an integration GUI test vs. a lower-level test harness—and why?
• How do you version test data for stable, repeatable runs across branches?

Behavioral / Leadership

We’re looking for ownership, mentoring, and communication under pressure.

• Tell us about a time you led a team through a high-pressure milestone. What changed because of you?
• Describe how you coached a tester to improve bug quality and impact.
• Share an example of a difficult dispute over a ‘Not a Bug’ or ‘Will Not Fix’—how did you resolve it?
• How do you communicate daily status to surface risk and request decisions?
• What improvements to QA systems/procedures have you implemented?

Problem-Solving / Case Scenarios

You’ll be asked to reason through ambiguous issues and propose next steps.

• A crash occurs only on PS5 with a certain headset attached. How do you isolate variables?
• Build notes mention a network layer change; what smoke tests do you prioritize?
• A high-severity bug reappears after being verified. How do you investigate and prevent recurrence?
• You suspect duplicate bugs are inflating counts. How do you audit and clean the database?
• A GUI automation test fails in CI but passes locally. Outline your debug plan.

Use this interactive module on Dataford to rehearse by topic, track progress, and identify weak areas. Practice aloud and timebox your responses to simulate interview pacing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult is the interview, and how much time should I allocate to prepare?
Allocate 2–3 weeks for focused prep: fundamentals of test design/bug reporting, console compliance, and track-specific skills (automation or leadership). The difficulty is moderate to high, with depth checks through realistic scenarios.

Q: What makes successful candidates stand out?
Clarity and specificity. Strong candidates present crisp test strategies, impeccable bug reporting, measurable outcomes, and a player-first mindset. SDET candidates differentiate with maintainable frameworks, CI rigor, and flake mitigation tactics.

Q: What is the culture like on QA teams?
Collaborative, fast-paced, and delivery-oriented. You’ll work closely with Production and Development, with high ownership and transparent communication—especially near Alpha/Beta and submission windows.

Q: What is the typical timeline and next steps after interviews?
Timelines vary by role and studio needs, but you can expect quick follow-ups after each stage. Keep your availability current, and proactively share references or work samples (non-proprietary) that reinforce your strengths.

Q: Are roles on-site, hybrid, or remote?
Work arrangements vary by studio and role. Some SDET roles are on-site due to toolchain access and close collaboration; test floor leadership often aligns to on-site operations. Confirm specifics with your recruiter.

Other General Tips

• Own the scenario: In every question, state assumptions, outline options, choose a path, and describe validation. This demonstrates leadership and judgment.
• Evidence-first bug reports: Bring examples (sanitized) that show perfect repro steps, environment/build IDs, expected vs. actual, and attached logs/screens—this is your craft signature.
• Align to milestones: Frame answers around Alpha/Beta readiness, submission risk, and how your work de-risks certification and launch.
• For SDET: design for reliability: Talk explicitly about locator strategies, synchronization, retries with backoff, and CI artifacts that enable fast root cause.
• Narrate tradeoffs: When time is short, explain what you’d cut, keep, or defer—and how you’d communicate that to stakeholders.
• Show team impact: Highlight how you mentor testers, uplift processes, and improve signal quality in daily reports and dashboards.

Summary & Next Steps

This role places you at the center of shipping iconic entertainment—where quality is strategy. Whether you’re directing a test floor through Alpha/Beta or building automation that secures content creation pipelines, your decisions shape player experiences on day one and beyond. You will collaborate across disciplines, translate ambiguity into action, and raise the bar for how we validate complex systems at scale.

Focus your preparation on four pillars: QA fundamentals and compliance, exemplary bug reporting, test strategy under constraints, and your track specialization (leadership or SDET automation). Rehearse scenario answers with measurable outcomes, and prepare artifacts that showcase your craftsmanship and judgment.

Explore the interactive practice on Dataford, align with your recruiter on track and logistics, and approach each conversation with confidence and clarity. You’ve built the skills—now demonstrate how you’ll bring them to Activision’s players and creators. We look forward to meeting you.