Software plays an integral role in everyday life due to its near-ubiquitous presence in our increasingly technological society. It has a profound impact on improving the efficiency, reliability, security, and safety of many service-oriented and mission-critical systems.
These goals, however, cannot be fully achieved without effective software testing. While many courses aim to equip students with fundamental knowledge and techniques in software testing, they often overlook industry practices and provide limited opportunities for real-world testing experience. To address this gap and promote advanced software testing theories, techniques, and tools, the QRS conference, in collaboration with the University of Florence and other sponsors such as Mooctest Inc., has organized several International Software Testing Contests at various venues in recent years.
These contests aim to provide participants with hands-on, real-world software testing and tool-usage experience, offering valuable opportunities to apply the testing techniques they have learned to industry-level testing challenges.
The 2026 Summer Contest will be held on Thursday, July 23, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm CET (Central European Time) in a hybrid format, with an in-person session at the University of Florence and online participation via Zoom.
Although participation in the contest is free of charge, all contestants are required to complete their registration via the Google Form by July 22.
Each contestant will receive a certificate of participation for taking part in the contest.
Contestants who rank among the top three with the highest scores will also receive an award certificate.
All contestants must use their own computers with the required software installed (see Running Environment). The contest consists of two parts:
The first part consists of a JUnit tutorial and practice, which will be available from March 15 to July 22. Each contestant may complete this part independently. The objective is to help participants become familiar with the contest format and the fundamentals of the JUnit testing framework. Basic knowledge of Java programming is required.
The second part will take place on July 23, 2026, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM CET (Central European Time). The contest is individual-based. Each contestant will design test cases with specific input values based on the provided README file and source code to test multiple Java programs. The quality of the generated test cases will be evaluated based on the achieved code coverage and mutation scores.
Operating System Requirements
The system must run on Windows 10 or later, or macOS.
IDE Configuration
Any Integrated Development Environment (IDE) compatible with JDK 8 is supported, including but not limited to Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA.
Environment Configuration
Participants may choose to configure JDK 8 and Maven 3 locally or utilize the virtual environment built into their IDE.
Local Configuration
Please download JDK 8
and Maven 3.
Installation should follow the provided tutorials for JDK 8
and Maven 3.
Using IDE-Bundled JDK 8 and Maven 3
Alternatively, users may directly utilize the JDK 8 and Maven 3 bundled with their IDE. For reference, please consult the tutorial for
IntelliJ IDEA.
The in-person contest will be held on the University of Florence campus. Online participants can join via Zoom using the following credentials (Meeting ID: 835 7210 8230; Passcode: 085162)
