Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL v4.0) — Chapter 2: Testing Throughout the Software Development Lifecycle

Chapter 2 places testing inside the development lifecycle: how testing fits sequential and iterative models, test-first approaches such as TDD, ATDD and BDD, shift-left and DevOps, and then the two classifications the exam cares most about — test levels (component, component integration, system, system integration, acceptance) and test types (functional, non-functional, black-box, white-box). It closes with confirmation and regression testing and with the triggers for maintenance testing.

Six questions, all K1 and K2. The content is intuitive, which is exactly why candidates answer too fast here.

Where candidates lose these points:

• Test level vs test type — the single most confused pair in the whole syllabus. A level says when and against what; a type says what quality characteristic. Performance testing is a type and can be run at any level.

• Confirmation vs regression testing — confirmation re-tests the fix itself; regression checks that nothing else broke. Both run after a change, and questions rely on you not reading which one is asked for.

• Maintenance testing triggers — modification, migration and retirement. Retirement is the one candidates forget: archived data still has to be restorable.

• Shift-left is not "test earlier instead of later" — early testing supplements the later levels, it does not replace them.