Professional Ethics and Industry Practices
What this domain tests
Professional ethics covers how a tester handles confidential information, player data, security issues and pressure to ship. The exam expects judgement, not just knowledge of an NDA.
Core rules
- Confidentiality: builds, roadmaps, unannounced titles and embargoed content stay inside the agreed channels. Do not stream, screenshot or post from a work account.
- Player data is personal data. Handle it under privacy rules such as GDPR or CCPA, use test accounts, and never copy live player records into an open ticket.
- Security and economy exploits should be reported privately to the security or community team, with steps and impact. Do not demonstrate them on live servers or share them publicly before a coordinated disclosure.
- Report honestly: do not understate reproduction rates, hide a critical defect to protect a milestone, or mark a case as passed when it was not run.
- Respect fair play: no cheating tools, no exploiting live economies, no selling accounts or items.
- Accessibility and inclusive design are quality requirements, not optional extras.
Worked example
A tester discovers that a shop UI allows a negative quantity, granting currency instead of spending it. Reasoning: the correct action is to stop, avoid repeating the exploit on a live account, preserve evidence with a test account, and report it through the restricted security channel with a severity of critical because it affects the live economy. Posting it in a public Discord would cause immediate harm and breach confidentiality. The tester also checks whether the defect exists on the staging build and documents the exact steps, then waits for the coordinated disclosure window before discussing it outside the team.
Traps
Treating ethics as only an NDA. Leaking embargoed material for attention. Testing exploits on production. Hiding a blocker to hit a deadline. Inflating or deflating reproduction rates. Sharing player data in a ticket. Assuming accessibility is someone else's job.