Earlier this summer, more than 86,000 college students across India competed in the fourth edition of TCS’ Software Assurance Contest, TESTimony.

Teams from Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College, Pondicherry, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar and Chandubhai S Patel Institute of Technology, Gujarat won the top three positions respectively after a fiercely contested grand finale held on 28 July 2016 at TCS Sahyadri Park, Pune.

A game-based software testing contest

Launched in 2013 by TCS, TESTimony, a game-based software testing contest, is held across TCS accredited institutes in India. TESTimony is an attempt to nurture and lay a strong foundation for students in this space, helping them jumpstart their career in software testing.

Ajoyendra Mukherjee, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Human Resources, TCS, said, “The digital technologies are evidently making the world hyperconnected and dematerialised. At TCS, we aim to shape the future by enabling today’s youth to be technologically updated and skilled. National contests like TCS TESTimony are more than just a competition, as they provide a unique platform for students to inspire creative talent. It is a unique opportunity to not only learn and explore the world of testing but also to showcase one’s expertise and earn peer recognition and honour.”

Cracking a software testing case study

This year, the contest witnessed more than 86,000 registrations from 10 regions in India. The 10 finalist teams contested for the top three spots at the TESTimony 2016 grand finale in Pune. The finalists had to crack a case study and showcase their prowess in Selenium, JMeter and Appium testing tools. The teams presented their solutions drawn from TCS Assurance Centers of Excellence (CoEs) and labs to the panelists.

Students interacted with experts in TCS ASU through a series of webinars and road-shows during the registration phase. The registered students formed teams of two and participated in three preliminary rounds in the contest comprising bug reports, test reports, and a presentation on the overall testing strategy and approach. Students were assessed on solution accuracy, speed, and efficiency.

Mentoring new software testers

To mentor students for a career in assurance, TCS has also launched iAssurance, a channel on the Campus Commune portal where students can access assurance specific discussion forums, videos, blogs, polls, quizzes, contests and other content and social collaboration tools.

Winners

The first place was won by Shyam Suganth J. and Thamarai Selvan S from SMVEC, Pondicherry. The team, Anurag Saurabh Singh and Keshav Rathi, from KIIT, Bhubaneswar walked away as the first runners-up while Richa Desai and Vishal Dhanadiya from CSPIT, Gujarat bagged the third position.

The finalists were awarded provisional job offers and internships, to begin their exciting careers in software testing at TCS. Apart from this, they also won exciting prizes like the iPad Pro, Motorola smart watch and more.

Over the years, TESTimony has hosted over 127,000 student participants across 10 cities and more than 900 engineering colleges in India.

Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.