For manual and functional testers · no coding required to start

Same question. Three answers. Which one passed?

That question breaks every test you know how to write. This course teaches you to answer it the way AI teams do: a pass rate, a range, a threshold, and the cases that failed. Twenty-three weeks, from your first terminal command to a release assessment you present on video.

23
weeks, about 7 h a week
167
hours of lessons and labs
7
portfolio projects on GitHub
12
planted defects to find
harbourbot · eval gate · 48 cases
> Can I cancel the day before and get a refund?
run 1 Yes, cancellations are free up to 48 hours before arrival.
run 2 Free cancellation is available up to 24 hours before check-in.
run 3 I don't have that information; reception can help.
 
> python gate.py results.json
in_scope 17/20 = 85% min 90% FAIL
multi_fact 6/8 = 75% min 80% FAIL
out_of_scope 9/10 = 90% min 90% ok
false_premise 4/5 = 80% min 75% ok
adversarial 4/5 = 80% min 100% FAIL
FAIL safety assertion failed on: parking-01
 
3 defects found · 1 run · $0.04 · ranges and traces in the full report

In plain words: the bot answered the in-scope questions right 17 times out of 20. The bar was 18. It is not ready to ship, and this output says exactly why.

Watch first

Two short videos before you decide.

What the course is, how it works, and exactly what arrives in your inbox when you buy. Under ten minutes together. Until they are up, each tile lists what its video covers, and the syllabus says the rest.

Why now

Your test cases still work. Your job title is about to change.

Every team is putting an AI assistant in front of customers. None of them can test it the old way, because the same question gets a different answer each time. They need a tester who can measure that. Not a data scientist.

Testing today
✓Run the case once. Compare. PASS.

One input, one expected result, one answer.

Testing an AI product
Plausible true rate: 77% to 91% Observed: 41 of 48 passed = 85% Threshold the product owner signed: 90% 0% 50% 100% 85% · range 77–91 min 90
Run it 48 times. Report the rate, the range, and the threshold. Below threshold: not ready.

What you keep

Test design, exploration, bug reports, judgment about severity.

What you add

Enough Python to run the tools, enough statistics to trust a number, and the new failure types.

What you get

A portfolio that proves it, and a title with "AI" in it.

Free sample · no sign-up

What is a token? A model? RAG?

You keep hearing these words and nobody stops to explain them. The course starts by answering 22 of them in plain language, in your first 15 minutes. Guess first, then open one.

What is a model?

A model is a program that learned its behaviour from examples instead of being written as rules. Nobody typed "if the guest asks about dogs, say 25". It read a huge amount of text and learned what a sensible reply looks like. That is why you cannot find the line of code that caused a wrong answer.

Taught properly in Lesson 5.1
What is a token?

The unit a model reads and writes: a word or a piece of a word. "Cancellation" might be two or three tokens. It matters to a tester because cost, speed, and size limits are all counted in tokens, not in words.

Taught properly in Lesson 5.2
What is RAG, and why is it needed?

Retrieval-augmented generation. A model knows nothing about your company's documents and its general knowledge stops at a cutoff date. RAG fixes both: when a question arrives, the system first searches your documents for the relevant passages, then hands them to the model and says "answer from these". Without it the bot guesses. With it, the bot can still go wrong in two new places: the search can fetch the wrong passage, or the model can ignore the right one. You will test both.

Taught properly in Lessons 5.7 and 8.1
Why does the same question get different answers?

The model does not look up an answer. It builds one, a token at a time, and at each step it picks from several likely options with a little randomness. A setting called temperature controls how much. So one run tells you very little, and that single fact is why AI testing is a different job.

Taught properly in Lessons 5.3 and 7.1
Do I have to become a programmer?

No. You need enough Python to loop over a list of questions, call an API, and write a line that says "this must be true". That is a few weeks of learning, and Stage A teaches exactly that and stops.

Taught properly in Module 2
The market · September 2026

The roles exist, they are hiring in India, and they pay more than the one you have.

AI-testing titles are still a small slice of QA jobs, but the fastest-growing and best-paid slice. Most of the demand hides inside SDET and QA roles that now ask for LLM, RAG, or evaluation skills. Those are Stages A to C.

10,000+
"AI testing" listings on LinkedIn India, and as many again in the US
34%
of QA job posts now mention AI, up from 9% in 2024
+49%
median pay for QA roles that ask for LLM or agent skills versus those that do not (US)
1.5× to 3×
what an AI-testing role pays in India compared with the manual-QA band
₹0 L₹20 L₹40 L₹60 L₹80 LManual / functional QAwhere you are nowManual / functional QA: up to ₹20 L at lead levelManual / functional QA: typical ₹3–7 L per year₹3–7 L · up to ₹20 L at lead levelSDET / automation engineerSDET / automation engineer: ₹30–55 L at product companiesSDET / automation engineer: typical ₹10–28 L per yearAI Test / AI Quality EngineerAI Test / AI Quality Engineer: ₹42–65 L reported for specialistsAI Test / AI Quality Engineer: typical ₹12–38 L per yearLLM Evaluation EngineerLLM Evaluation Engineer: typical ₹15–40 L per yearAI Red Team AnalystAI Red Team Analyst: ₹50–80 L at lead levelAI Red Team Analyst: typical ₹22–50 L per yearPrompt QA / prompt engineerPrompt QA / prompt engineer: ₹25–60 L only when paired with codePrompt QA / prompt engineer: typical ₹4.6–6 L per year₹10–28 L · ₹30–55 L at product companies₹12–38 L · ₹42–65 L reported for specialists₹15–40 L₹22–50 L · ₹50–80 L at lead level₹4.6–6 L · ₹25–60 L only when paired with codetypical bandsenior, product company, or specialistwhere you are now
India, per year, September 2026. Hover a bar for the detail. The full table with US figures is below.
Full table: India and US pay, and what gets you there
RoleIndia, per yearUnited StatesWhat gets you there
Manual / functional QA₹3–7 L₹14–20 L at lead level$55–110kYour starting point. Test design, exploration, and defect reporting all carry over.
SDET / automation engineer₹10–28 L₹30–55 L at product companies$95–195kStage A: Python, pytest, Playwright, CI.
AI Test Engineer / AI Quality Engineer20–35% above SDET₹42–65 L reported for specialists$180–240kStages A to C: eval suites, golden sets, rubrics, judges, a gate in CI.
LLM Evaluation Engineer₹15–40 L+$160k averageModules 7 and 8: promptfoo, DeepEval, RAGAS, Langfuse, retrieval and agent testing.
AI Red Team Analyst₹22–50 L₹50–80 L at lead level$80–220kModule 9: prompt injection, leakage, guardrails, OWASP LLM Top 10, PyRIT and Garak.
Prompt QA / prompt engineer₹4.6–6 L average₹25–60 L when paired with code$100k+Module 6, plus Stage A. Prompting without code is the one path that plateaus.

Compiled 28 September 2026 from LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor listings and three 2026 QA market reports (SoftwareTestPilot, InterviewStack, ScrollTest) and the KnowledgeHut red-team salary guide. These are ranges, not promises: product companies in Bengaluru and Hyderabad pay at the top of each band, services firms at the bottom, and the AI-specialist figures rest on a few hundred salary reports. No course can guarantee a salary.

The portfolio

You leave with proof, not a certificate.

Every module ends with something in your GitHub repository that a hiring manager can open, run, and read. These are the ones interviews are built around.

Module 4

A browser suite that runs green in CI

Ten Playwright tests against a live demo shop, twenty green runs in a row, three real defects documented.

proof: workflow badge · test-results/ · README defects table
Module 5

A variance report

One chatbot question, twenty runs, a table of what varied, and thresholds a product owner could sign.

proof: results.csv · report.md · your thresholds
Module 7

An evaluation suite with a gate

A 40-question golden set, a judge you calibrated by hand, and a gate that blocks a bad change from merging.

proof: gate output · promptfoo grid · calibration table
Module 8

A RAG and agent test plan, executed

Retrieval measured on its own, answers checked claim by claim, and a test that catches a destructive action before it happens.

proof: sweep table · test_agent_trajectories.py · findings
Module 9

A red-team report

Thirty attack cases across the OWASP LLM Top 10, an automated sweep, and findings with severities and retests.

proof: REDTEAM_REPORT.md · evidence/ · retest table
Module 11

A release assessment, on video

The capstone: full suite in CI, red-team, a two-page go or no-go, and a ten-minute recorded walkthrough.

proof: demo.mp4 · EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY.md · 12 defects
The practice product

You test a real, deliberately broken AI product.

Harbour View Hotel has a support bot that answers policy questions and a concierge agent that can cancel bookings. You build both from parts you write yourself, so you understand every line.

6
defects hidden in the bot
4
in the agent
2
in the release candidate

You get the code. You do not get the list. Your evaluation suite has to find them, and the reveal at the end shows your pass rates moving as each one is switched off.

planted defects12 total
01Indexes last year's policy; six numbers wrongbot
02Retrieves one chunk so two-fact questions lose onebot
03No grounding rule, answers from general knowledgebot
04Never refuses, invents answers to off-topic questionsbot
05A document paragraph carries an instruction it followsbot
06No length limit; slow and expensive answersbot
07Cancels bookings without asking the guestagent
08Fifty-step loop with no repeat guardagent
09Trusts instructions hidden in booking recordsagent
10Crashes on a text booking ID instead of erroringagent
11The policy contradicts itself on children's ratesrelease
12A safety fix that refuses a third of real questionsrelease
One is shown. The other eleven are yours to find. Learners who finish the capstone typically report nine or more, with evidence.
Curriculum

Four stages. The hard part is in the middle, and we say so.

Stage A has no AI in it on purpose: seven weeks of foundations so every tool later is something you can run and read. Already write Python? Skip Modules 2 and 3 and finish in nineteen weeks.

Stage A · Foundations · 7 weeks · 55 hoursAFoundations7 weeks · 55 hStage B · AI fundamentals · 4 weeks · 28 hoursBAI fundamentals4 weeks · 28 hStage C · Testing AI systems · 8 weeks · 54 hoursCTesting AI systems8 weeks · 54 hStage D · Capstone & career · 4 weeks · 30 hoursDCapstone & career4 weeks · 30 h
Stage A · Weeks 1 to 7

Foundations

  • 0 · Orientation & setup3 h
  • 1 · Command line & Git6 h
  • 2 · Python from zero24 h
  • 3 · APIs, HTTP & data8 h
  • 4 · Test automation14 h
55 h · no AI yet, on purpose
Stage B · Weeks 8 to 11

AI fundamentals

  • 5 · How LLMs work14 h
  • 6 · AI as your assistant14 h
28 h · first API call, first variance report
Stage C · Weeks 12 to 19

Testing AI systems

  • 7 · Evaluating LLM apps26 h
  • 8 · RAG & agents14 h
  • 9 · Safety & security14 h
54 h · the part employers pay for
Stage D · Weeks 20 to 23

Capstone & career

  • 10 · Classical ML basics8 h
  • 11 · Capstone16 h
  • 12 · Career transition6 h
30 h · release assessment, 50 interview answers

Every module has a full page of lesson content: objectives, teaching notes, student material, checkpoints with answer keys, and labs with a definition of done. Read the complete syllabus.

How it is taught

Type the code. Run it. Find the bug. Write it up.

Every lesson has the same five parts, so you always know what "done" looks like.

  1. 1Objectives

    Two to four things you can be tested on.

  2. 2Real code

    Runnable in every lesson, checked before it ships.

  3. 3Checkpoint

    Three questions and an answer key.

  4. 4Lab with a rubric

    A definition of done and points.

  5. 5Cost shown

    Every AI call prints its price. Under $10 for the whole course.

Fit

Built for one kind of person.

This is for you if

  • You have two or more years of manual, functional, or exploratory testing.
  • You are comfortable with test cases, bug reports, and Postman, and have never written code, or wrote a little once and stopped.
  • You have about seven hours a week for six months and a laptop that can run Python.
  • You want a job title with "AI" in it and the portfolio to back it up.

This is not for you if

  • You want to train models or become a data scientist. Module 10 is a week of ML basics; the rest is application testing.
  • You want a certificate without the labs. There is no shortcut through Module 2, and we do not pretend there is.
  • You need the course to run in a browser only. Everything runs on your machine, in a real terminal, because that is where the tools are.
Instructor

Taught by Chandru

Chandru builds and tests software products, and wrote every lesson, lab, and line of practice code in Zero to AI Tester. It is the path Chandru wanted and could not find: one that starts at the terminal and ends at a release assessment.

Built for testers who are told AI will replace them, by someone who thinks the opposite: the people who already know how to design a test are the people AI teams need most.

Pricing

One price. Everything included. Yours to keep.

Pay once by UPI or card. The whole course arrives by email within a minute, as pages you open in your browser. No subscription, no expiry.

Before you buy
  1. Read the first 15 minutes free
  2. Watch the two videos
  3. Read the complete syllabus
  4. Check "who it's for"

All sales are final. It is a digital product delivered in full the moment you pay, so there are no refunds. Unsure? Email a question first.

₹1,499 the course ~$10 AI credit the whole bill, start to finish AI credit is bought from the model provider, from Module 5 on. Every other tool in the course is free.
Questions

Things people ask before enrolling.

How is the course delivered?

As a pack of web pages, by email, within a minute of paying. Unzip it, open the start page in any browser, and everything is there offline, forever. When a lesson is updated you get a new pack at no charge.

Can I get a refund?

No. All sales are final. It is a digital product delivered in full the moment you pay, which is why the syllabus, the videos, and the first 15 minutes of the course are free before you pay. Email a question first if anything is unclear.

What does it cost beyond the course?

About ten dollars of AI credit, bought from the model provider. Every script prints what it spent. Every other tool in the course is free and open source.

How much time does it really take?

About seven hours a week for 23 weeks. Two weekday evenings for lessons and one weekend block for the lab. Already write Python? Skip Modules 2 and 3 and finish in about 19.

I have never written code. Can I really do this?

Yes. That is who it is written for. Module 2 teaches Python from the first line with every example about testing. You will be writing test code by week four and driving a browser by week six.

Windows or Mac?

Either. Every command is shown for both. You need a laptop with 8 GB of RAM or more; Module 0 installs VS Code, Python, and Git and checks them for you.

Which tools will I learn?

Python, pytest, Playwright, GitHub Actions, the Claude API, promptfoo, DeepEval, RAGAS, Langfuse, and Claude Code with the Playwright MCP server. Garak, PyRIT, and Great Expectations as a survey. The principles come first, because the tools will change.

Is there a certificate? What about ISTQB?

No certificate, on purpose. You leave with a public portfolio of seven projects and a recorded release assessment, which is what interviews are built around. Module 10 maps the course onto the ISTQB CT-AI syllabus if an employer filters on it.

Do I attack real systems in the security module?

No. Only the practice app on your own machine and a sandbox API built for testing. The module opens with the authorisation rule and the terms require it.

What if I get stuck?

Every checkpoint has an answer key and every lab a rubric. Module 0 teaches the fifteen-minute rule and a four-line "what I ran, what happened" template. Beyond that, email works.

What comes next

Tell me which course you want next.

More courses are planned in the same style: from zero, real code, a broken practice product, a portfolio at the end. Tick what you would buy and you hear first, with an early price.

No newsletter, no weekly emails. One message when a course you ticked launches, and nothing else.

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Delivered by email within a minute · learn at your own pace · keep it forever

Twenty-three weeks from "it seems fine" to "85%, interval 77 to 91, above threshold, here are the three that failed."

That sentence is the job. This is the course that gets you to it.