ISTQB CT-MAT case studies
ISTQB CT-MAT · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The ISTQB Certified Tester Mobile Application (CT-MAT) is a specialist-level certification in the ISTQB portfolio. ISTQB describes it as providing "an insight into methods, techniques, and tools a professional may use to test mobile applications," and notes that it "covers the required mobile project activities, roles, methods, and methodologies." In other words, it is aimed at testers who already hold core testing knowledge and now work on mobile products, where device fragmentation, platform differences, connectivity, and release cadence change how testing must be organised. The ISTQB CT-MAT case studies are 5 cases and about 4,672 words.
1Certifying a banking app across a fragmented Android fleet with 15 test days
The mobile team at a retail bank must certify a new release of its Android and iOS app before a regulator-set deadline in six weeks, and only 15 test days are available to one tester. Analytics from the previous release show Android 13 at 41% of sessions, Android 12 at 22%, Android 11 at 12%, iOS 17 at 9%, iOS 16 at 8%, iOS 15 at 5%, with the remainder spread over older versions.
926 words, about 5 min2Courier app loses the active order on incoming calls and battery saver
A courier app for a food delivery service runs on Android 10–14 and iOS 16–17. Couriers accept an order, navigate with background GPS, then often receive an incoming call.
942 words, about 5 min3Offline field-service sync produces duplicates and silent overwrites
A field-service app used by 40 technicians lets them create work orders and attach photos offline, then synchronises when connectivity returns. Technicians work in rural areas with intermittent 2G/3G and frequently leave the app in the background for hours.
931 words, about 5 min4Retail app misses performance targets ahead of a 3G-market campaign
A retail app's product-listing page takes 8.2 seconds to become interactive on a simulated 3G profile and 2.6 seconds on 4G, against a 1.5-second target for 4G. Instrumentation shows heap growth of about 40 MB per browse session that is never released, and a battery test on a mid-range Android device shows 12% drain in a 20-minute browsing session.
906 words, about 5 min5Health app security review before a regulator-facing release
A consumer health app stores medical records and lets users book appointments. A security review before a major release finds that session tokens are kept in plain SharedPreferences on Android and NSUserDefaults on iOS, the app permits screenshots and shows record content in the app-switcher preview, no certificate pinning is implemented, and contacts permission is requested on first launch before the user has done anything.
967 words, about 5 min