What does a software tester actually do?

I'm interested in tech and someone mentioned trying out software testing. What do software testers do on a day-to-day basis? Is it more about coding or finding bugs? Any insights would be great!

Software testing is an integral part of the software development life cycle. As a software tester, your main job is to ensure the quality, functionality, and reliability of the software products by finding and documenting bugs and issues.

On a daily basis, the role can involve a range of tasks:

1. Developing Test Cases: This involves defining the conditions to test the software. It's based on the software requirements and tells you what to test, how to test it, and what the expected results should be.

2. Execution of Test Cases: This means actually running the tests that have been created. It includes running the software under controlled conditions and monitoring the results to compare them with expected outcomes.

3. Finding and Documenting Bugs: If the software doesn't behave as expected, testers note down the issues, providing a detailed description of what went wrong.

4. Regression Testing: After developers fix the bugs, testers ensure that these fixes didn't unintentionally break anything else in the software. This is what's known as regression testing.

5. Collaborating with the Development Team: Communication is a crucial part of the role. Testers often work closely with developers to explain the defects and reproduce them if necessary.

In terms of whether it's more about coding or finding bugs, it depends a lot on the specific role and the methodologies of the team. In some roles, you might write scripts to automate the testing process, which does involve some coding. However, in many roles, the focus is more on manual testing - rigorously checking the software to locate and report bugs. Both aspects are equally vital to the overall goal of ensuring that the software works as intended and delivers a smooth experience to end users.