SNHU CS-320: Software Test, Automation QA
CS-320 teaches software testing in Java: unit tests with JUnit, requirements-based test design, and basic QA strategy. Across the term you build and test three small services (contact, task, and appointment), then reflect on your testing approach in a final summary.
Fennie is independent and not affiliated with Southern New Hampshire University. This is an unofficial study guide.
What makes it hard
The coding is lighter than CS-300, but writing tests that actually cover the requirements (string length limits, null checks, boundary values) is detail work that's easy to do sloppily and lose rubric points. Students also stumble on JUnit setup and on the difference between testing behavior versus implementation.
What you'll cover
- • Unit testing with JUnit
- • Requirements-to-test traceability
- • Boundary and equivalence testing
- • Test coverage
- • Static vs. dynamic testing
- • QA strategy and reflection
The CS-320 study guide
How to study for SNHU CS-320, step by step.
- 1
Get JUnit running in week 1
Most of the frustration students report in CS-320 is tooling, not testing. Have a trivial test passing in your environment before the first milestone opens.
- 2
Turn each requirement into explicit test cases
For every rule (string length limits, null checks, ID formats), write down the boundary values and invalid inputs it implies before coding. Coverage of the requirements is what the rubrics actually grade.
- 3
Watch every test fail first
Break the code on purpose to confirm the test catches it, then fix it. A test that can't fail proves nothing, and the reflection assignments ask you to explain exactly this kind of reasoning.
- 4
Keep a requirements-to-tests checklist
One row per requirement, one column per test that covers it. Gaps in that table are the points you'd otherwise lose silently across the three milestone services.
Today
Today's CS-320 plan
What a Fennie Daily Plan looks like for CS-320. Yours is built from your own syllabus and adapts every day to your deadlines and progress.
First plan free, no card required. Fennie is independent and unaffiliated with your school.
FAQ
Is CS-320 hard?
It's considered one of the more manageable CS courses if you're comfortable with Java. The work is meticulous rather than conceptually hard; full requirement coverage in your tests is what the rubrics actually grade.
What do you build in CS-320?
Three small Java services (contact, task, and appointment), each with validation rules, plus JUnit test classes proving the rules work. A final project reflects on your testing strategy across all three.
Do I need to know JUnit before CS-320?
No, the course introduces it. Get your environment running JUnit in week 1, though; most of the frustration students report is tooling setup, not the testing concepts themselves.
More SNHU courses
CS-210: Programming Languages
CS-210 introduces C++ and compares how different languages handle the same problems, sitting early in SNHU's CS core after IT-140 and IT-145. The signature project is the Corner Grocer item-tracking program, which reads a file and reports item frequencies using maps.
CS-250: Software Development Lifecycle
CS-250 covers the software development lifecycle with a heavy focus on Agile and Scrum: roles, ceremonies, user stories, and how requirements become working software. There's little programming; assignments are mostly written analyses of a case-study development team.
CS-300: Data Structures and Algorithms: Analysis and Design
CS-300 is SNHU's data structures course in C++: vectors, linked lists, hash tables, and binary search trees, plus Big-O runtime analysis. It builds to the ABCU advising program project, where you choose a data structure, justify it with runtime analysis, and implement a course-catalog loader and printer.
CS-330: Computational Graphics and Visualization
CS-330 is SNHU's OpenGL course: you spend the entire 8 weeks building one 3D scene in C++ that recreates a real photo, adding geometry, textures, lighting, and camera controls milestone by milestone. It's one of the last courses in the CS program and assumes solid C++ from CS-210 and CS-300.