Mastering Selenium: A Comprehensive Guide to Conquering Your Interview

Selenium Interview Questions Your Gateway to Automation Testing Success

In today’s dynamic digital landscape, automation testing has become an indispensable ally for software development teams. Selenium, a powerful open-source testing framework, stands as a frontrunner in this realm, empowering testers to streamline their efforts and ensure the quality of their applications. If you’re aiming to land a coveted role in the automation testing domain, mastering Selenium interview questions is crucial This comprehensive guide delves into the most frequently asked Selenium interview questions, equipping you with the knowledge and confidence to ace your interview

Navigating the World of Selenium A Beginner’s Guide

Before diving into the depths of Selenium interview questions, let’s establish a solid foundation. What is Selenium, and why is it so widely adopted?

Selenium is an automation framework that empowers testers to control web browsers and execute automated tests across various platforms Its open-source nature, cross-browser compatibility, and support for multiple programming languages make it a versatile and cost-effective solution.

Unlocking the Secrets of Selenium: A Deep Dive into Key Concepts

Now, let’s embark on a journey through the core concepts of Selenium, unraveling its functionalities and capabilities.

Selenium Components:

  • Selenium IDE: A Firefox/Chrome plugin designed to expedite the creation of automation scripts.
  • Selenium Remote Control (RC): A server that enables test execution in diverse programming languages.
  • Selenium WebDriver: A programming interface for creating and running test cases.
  • Selenium Grid: A tool for distributing test execution across multiple machines.

Selenium Advantages:

  • Open-source and free: No licensing fees, making it accessible to all.
  • Multi-language support: Write tests in your preferred language, such as Java, Python, or Ruby.
  • Platform support: Works seamlessly on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Multi-browser support: Test across various browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
  • Framework availability and flexibility: Choose from a range of frameworks like TestNG, JUnit, and Cucumber.
  • Reusability: Create reusable test scripts for efficient testing.
  • Integrated and parallel test execution: Run tests concurrently for faster execution.

Selenium Interview Questions: Your Path to Success

Now that you know the basics of Selenium, let’s look at the most common Selenium interview questions, which have been broken down by difficulty level for your convenience.

Beginner Level:

  • What is Selenium?
  • What are the Selenium suite components?
  • Mention the advantages of using Selenium as an automation tool.
  • What is test automation or automation testing?
  • What are the advantages of automation testing?
  • What is Selenese? How is it classified?
  • What are the limitations of Selenium testing?
  • What is the difference between Selenium 2.0 and Selenium 3.0?
  • What are the testing types supported by Selenium?
  • What are the different types of annotations which are used in Selenium?

Intermediate Level:

  • How to type text in an input box using Selenium?
  • How to click on a hyperlink in Selenium?
  • How to scroll down a page using JavaScript?
  • How to assert the title of a webpage?
  • How to mouse hover over a web element?
  • How to retrieve CSS properties of an element?
  • What is POM (Page Object Model)?
  • Can Captcha be automated?
  • How does Selenium handle Windows-based pop-ups?
  • How to take screenshots in WebDriver?
  • Why do testers choose Selenium over QTP?
  • What are the data-driven framework and keyword-driven framework?
  • What is the difference between getwindowhandles() and getwindowhandle()?
  • What is a Selenium Maven project?
  • What is an Object Repository?
  • What exactly is meant by a WebElement in Selenium, and how is it used?

Advanced Level:

  • Is there a way to type in a textbox without using sendKeys()?
  • How to select a value from a dropdown in Selenium WebDriver?
  • What does the switchTo() command do?
  • How to upload a file in Selenium WebDriver?
  • How to set browser window size in Selenium?
  • When do we use findElement() and findElements()?
  • What is a pause on an exception in Selenium IDE?
  • How to login to any site if it is showing an Authentication Pop-Up for Username and Password?
  • What is the difference between single and double slash in Xpath?

Top Selenium Interview Questions for Experienced:

  • How do you find broken links in Selenium WebDriver?
  • Name some of the commonly used automation testing tools that are used for functional automation.
  • Name some of the commonly used automation testing tools that are used for non-functional automation.
  • List out some of the automation tools which could be integrated with Selenium to achieve continuous testing.
  • What do you mean by the assertion in Selenium?
  • Explain the difference between assert and verify commands.

Additional Resources to Enhance Your Selenium Expertise:

By mastering Selenium interview questions and gaining a thorough understanding of its capabilities, you’ll be well-equipped to excel in your automation testing career. Remember, consistent practice, exploration of advanced concepts, and staying abreast of the latest trends will further solidify your expertise and open doors to exciting opportunities in the dynamic world of software testing.

Toptal sourced essential questions that the best Selenium developers and engineers can answer. Driven from our community, we encourage experts to submit questions and offer feedback.

selenium interview questions

How can I wait for a page to load or for an element on a page to show up?

To wait for a page to load, explicit wait can be used. Explicit waits stall until some specific condition is met. Although Thread. Sleep() is a type of explicit wait in which the thread stops for a set amount of time. This may not be the most reliable way to wait for a page to load.

For example, rather than using something like:

… where the thread sleeps for 30 seconds (30,000 milliseconds), the following can be used:

And Selenium waits until the given element shows up on the page or throws a TimeoutException after 30 seconds. 2 .

What is Page Object Model and Page Factory in Selenium?

Page Object Model in Selenium is a design pattern where web pages are represented using classes. Then, variables in the class can be used to store links to web page elements, and methods can be used to make the variables do things. This is a beautiful way to write test routines that are easy to read and will be easier to maintain and add to in the future.

When you set up “locators,” Page Factory will give each WebElement variable a reference to an element on the real web page that goes with it. Using annotations like @FindBy, you can set up ways to find elements and give them the information you need to be identified:

More about Page Object Model and Page Factory can be found here. 3 .

How do you deal with frame elements in Selenium on a page?

In order to manipulate frame and its content you must switch to it first. Like when you have to go to a different page before you can do something on this one:

… where index is the zero-based index of the frame. Switching the frame directs all further interactions through the driver towards the selected frame. The frame method also works with name, element ID and reference to already located elements.

To switch back to the default frame, the defaultContent method can be used:

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What are some differences between CSS selector and XPath based locators?

  • CSS selectors are often easier to read than XPath. It’s likely that most front-end developers already know what CSS selectors are.
  • Most modern web browsers support CSS selectors the same way, but not all of them support XPath engines the same way.
  • CSS selectors work faster than XPath.

Because of these and other reasons, Selenium “best practices” say to use CSS selectors instead of XPath. 5 .

What is the best way to write a locator that finds paragraph elements that are the direct child of a div element or the descendant of a div element?

Immediate child:

An immediate child in XPath is defined indicated using “/”, while on CSS, it is indicated using “>”. For example, with XPath:

… and with CSS:

Descendent:

To find paragraph elements that are descendent to any div element (i. e. We can use “//” in XPath and just a space in CSS to show that the paragraph element is in the subtree rooted at the div element:

Briefly explain what the following snippet of Java code does:

A WebElement variable named sample is created, and an XPath search is used to set it up with a reference to an element that has the text value “data.” 7 .

How can you send text input to a focused element?

This can be done by simulating key presses on the focused element. One way is to perform “actions” on the web driver object:

An alternative way is to switch to the active element first, and send keys to it directly:

Why do we use headless drivers? How can you visually investigate test failure when using headless drivers?

Headless drivers are typically used in continuous integration (CI) setups. Headless drivers, such as PhantomJS, provide all standard web browser functionalities, but run in the command-line. Because these drivers are based on command-line tools and don’t show anything on the screen, they’re perfect for fully automated setups.

The developer needs to add ways to take screenshots so that they can look into test failures visually. If they don’t, they’ll have to rely on command line output. 9 .

Absolute XPaths and relative XPaths are not the same thing. Why are relative XPaths usually better than absolute XPaths in automated tests?

Absolute XPaths, in terms of web pages, start with the root element:

Relative XPaths, on the other hand, usually start with “//”:

It’s likely that both of these XPaths point to the same element on a web page, but the first one is more likely to break if the page is changed. In this case, if you move the table inside a div element, the absolute XPath won’t be able to find the th element. On the other hand, the relative XPath will still continue to work. 10 .

What is a hybrid framework in Selenium?

A hybrid framework is a combination of keyword- and data-driven frameworks. 11 .

What is StaleElementException ?

This is the error that is thrown when the called element is no longer connected to the DOM because of any reason.

There is more to interviewing than tricky technical questions, so these are intended merely as a guide. Not every good candidate for the job will be able to answer all of them, and answering all of them doesn’t mean they are a good candidate. At the end of the day, hiring remains an art, a science — and a lot of work.

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Questions and answers sent in will be looked over and edited by Toptal, LLC, and may or may not be posted, at their sole discretion.

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