Top 100 Selenium Interview Questions Answers
Top 100 Selenium Interview Questions Answers
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Web Testing (/softwaretesting.html)tools Selenium RC and WebDriver are consolidated in single tool in Selenium 2.0
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Selenium 3.0 is the latest version of Selenium. It has released 2 beta versions of selenium 3.0 with few of the below changes:
Minimum Java (/java System property webdriver.firefox.marionette now forces the server in marionette or
tutorial.html)version is now 8+ legacy firefox driver mode, ignoring any related Desired Capability
It will support for Firefox Via Grid fixes NPE’s on registration when browser not specified
Mozilla’s geckodriver
Support for Edge is provided by Update GeckoDriver –port argument in all bindings
MS
It now supports Safari on MacOS
via Apple’s own Safari driver
In Selenium every object or control in a web page is referred as an elements, there are different ways to find an element in a
web page they are
ID
Name
Tag
Attribute
CSS
Linktext
PartialLink Text
Xpath etc
For post release validation with continuous integration automation tool could be used
a) Jenkins
b) Hudson
c) Quick Build
d) CruiseCont
6) Explain what is assertion in Selenium and what are the types of assertion?
Assertion is used as a verification point. It verifies that the state of the application conforms to what is expected. The types of
assertion are “assert” , “verify” and “waifFor”.
XPath is used to find the WebElement in web pages. It is also useful in identifying the dynamic elements.
8) Explain the difference between single and double slash in Xpath? Single slash ‘/ ’
9) List out the technical challenges with Selenium? Technical challenges with Selenium are
10) What is the difference between type keys and type commands ?
TypeKeys() will trigger JavaScript (/interactivejavascripttutorials.html)event in most of the cases whereas .type() won’t. Type
key populates the value attribute using JavaScript whereas .typekeys() emulates like actual user typing
Assert: Assert allows to check whether an element is on the page or not. The test will stop on the step failed, if the asserted
element is not available. In other words, the test will terminated at the point where check fails.
Verify: Verify command will check whether the element is on the page, if it is not then the test will carry on executing. In
verification, all the commands are going to run guaranteed even if any of test fails.
12) What is JUnit Annotations and what are different types of annotations which are useful ?
In JAVA a special form of syntactic metadata can be added to Java source code, this is know as Annotations. Variables,
parameters, packages, methods and classes are annotated some of the Junit (/junittutorial.html)annotations which can be
useful are
Test
Before
After
Ignore
BeforeClass
AfterClass
RunWith
13) While using click command can you use screen coordinate?
To click on specific part of element, you would need to use clickAT command. ClickAt command accepts element locator and x,
y coordinates as arguments clickAt (locator, cordString)
15) Why testers should opt for Selenium and not QTP? Selenium is more popular than QTP (/quicktestprofessionalqtp
tutorial.html)as
16) What are the four parameter you have to pass in Selenium? Four parameters that you have to pass in Selenium are
Host
Port Number
Browser
URL
17) What is the difference between setSpeed() and sleep() methods?
Thread.sleep () : It will stop the current (java) thread for the specified period of time. Its done only once
SetSpeed () : For specific amount of time it will stop the execution for every selenium command.
Runs each command after setSpeed delay by the number of milliseconds mentioned in set Speed
This command is useful for demonstration purpose or if you are using a slow web application
18) What is same origin policy? How you can avoid same origin policy?
The “Same Origin Policy” is introduced for security reason, and it ensures that content of your site will never be accessible by
a script from another site. As per the policy, any code loaded within the browser can only operate within that website’s domain.
To avoid “Same Origin Policy” proxy injection method is used, in proxy injection mode the Selenium Server acts as a client
configured HTTP proxy , which sits between the browser and application under test and then masks the AUT under a fictional
URL
19) What is heightened privileges browsers?
The purpose of heightened privileges is similar to Proxy Injection, allows websites to do something that are not commonly
permitted. The key difference is that the browsers are launced in a special mode called heightened privileges. By using these
browser mode, Selenium core can open the AUT directly and also read/write its content without passing the whole AUT through
the Selenium RC server.
element.submit () ;
Alternatively you can use click method on the element which does form submission
21) What are the features of TestNG and list some of the functionality in TestNG which makes it more effective?
TestNG is a testing framework based on JUnit and NUnit to simplify a broad range of testing needs, from Unit Testing (/unit
testingguide.html) to Integration Testing (/integrationtesting.html). And the functionality which makes it efficient testing
framework are
22) Mention what is the difference between Implicit wait and Explicit wait?
Implicit Wait: Sets a timeout for all successive Web Element searches. For the specified amount of time it will try looking for
element again and again before throwing a NoSuchElementException. It waits for elements to show up.
23) Which attribute you should consider throughout the script in frame for “if no frame Id as well as no frame name”?
You can use…..driver.findElements(By.xpath(“//iframe”))….
You will ned to switch to each and every frame and search for locator which we want.
24) Explain what is the difference between find elements () and find element () ?
It finds the first element within the current page using the given “locating mechanism”. It returns a single WebElement
findElements () : Using the given “locating mechanism” find all the elements within the current page. It returns a list of web
elements.
25) Explain what are the JUnits annotation linked with Selenium?
@Before public void method() – It will perform the method () before each test, this method can prepare the test
@Test public void method() – Annotations @Test identifies that this method is a test method environment
@After public void method() To execute a method before this annotation is used, test method must start with test@Before
Datadriven framework: In this framework, the test data is separated and kept outside the Test Scripts, while Test Case (/test
case.html)logic resides in Test Scripts. Test data is read from the external files ( Excel Files) and are loaded into the variables
inside the Test Script. Variables are used for both for input values and for verification values.
Keyworddriven framework: The keyword driven frameworks requires the development of data tables and keywords,
independent of the test automation. In a keyword driven test, the functionality of the application under test is documented in a
table as well as step by step instructions for each test.
27) Explain how you can login into any site if it’s showing any authentication popup for password and username?
Syntaxhttp://username:password@url
ex http://creyate:tom@www.gmail.com (mailto:tom@www.gmail.com)
WebElement el = driver.findElement(By.id(“ElementID”))
29) Explain what is the difference between Borland Silk and Selenium?
Borland Silk test is not a free testing tool Selenium is completely free test automation tool
Silk test supports only Internet Explorer Selenium supports many browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari,
and Firefox Opera and so on
Silk test uses test scripting language Selenium suite has the flexibility to use many languages like Java,
Ruby,Perl and so on
Silk test can be used for client server Selenium can be used for only web application
applications
An object repository is an essential entity in any UI automations which allows a tester to store all object that will be used in the
scripts in one or more centralized locations rather than scattered all over the test scripts.
Selenium Grid (/introductiontoseleniumgrid.html) sent the tests to the hub. These tests are redirected to Selenium Webdriver,
which launch the browser and run the test. With entire test suite, it allows for running tests in parallel.
Yes. But not as effectively as a dedicated Performance Testing (/performancetesting.html) tool like Loadrunner.
If you are using SeleniumWebDriver, you don’t need the Selenium Server as it is using totally different technology
Selenium Server provides Selenium RC functionality which is used for Selenium 1.0 backwards compatibility
Selenium Web driver makes direct calls to browser using each browsers native support for automation, while Selenium RC
requires selenium server to inject Javascript into the browser
34) Mention what are the capabilities of Selenium WebDriver or Selenium 2.0 ?
Handling multiple frames, pop ups , multiple browser windows and alerts
Page navigation and drag & drop
Ajax based UI elements
Multi browser testing including improved functionality for browser not well supported by Selenium 1.0
35) While injecting capabilities in webdriver to perform tests on a browser which is not supported by a webdriver what
is the limitation that one can come across?
Major limitation of injecting capabilities is that “findElement” command may not work as expected.
36) Explain how you can find broken images in a page using Selenium Web driver ?
Get XPath and get all the links in the page using tag name
In the page click on each and every link
Look for 404/500 in the target page title
Use getCssValue(arg0) function to get the colors by sending ‘color’ string as an argument
38) Using web driver how you can store a value which is text box?
You can use following command to store a value which is text box using web driver
driver.findElement(By.id(“your Textbox”)).sendKeys(“your keyword”);
To switch between frames webdrivers [ driver.switchTo().frame() ] method takes one of the three possible arguments
WebDriverException
NoAlertPresentException
NoSuchWindowException
NoSuchElementException
TimeoutException
41) Explain using Webdriver how you can perform double click ?
You can use “type”command to type in a file input box of upload file. Then, you have to use “Robot” class in JAVA to make file
upload work.
44) Explain how you can handle frames using Selenium 2.0 ?
To bring control on HTML frame you can use “SwitchTo” frame method
driver.switchTo().frame(“frameName”);
driver.switchTo().frame(“parentFrame.4.frameName”);
This would bring control on frame named “frameName” of the 4th sub frame names “parentFrame”
getwindowhandles(): It is used to get the address of all the open browser and its return type is Set<String>
getwindowhandle(): It is used to get the address of the current browser where the control is and return type is string
Syntaxdriver.switchTo().defaultContent();
By.id()
By.name()
By.tagName()
By.className()
By.linkText()
By.partialLinkText()
By.xpath
By.cssSelector()
48) What is the command that is used in order to display the values of a variable into the output console or log?
In order to display a constant string, command can be used is echo <constant string>
If order to display the value of a variable you can use command like echo ${variable name>>
Above is using PHP. If you are using Java, replace echo with System.out.println
49) Explain how you can use recovery scenario with Selenium?
Recovery scenarios depends upon the programming language you use. If you are using Java then you can use exception
handling to overcome same. By using “Try Catch Block” within your Selenium WebDriver Java tests
To iterate through options in test script you can loop features of the programming language, for example to type different test
data in a text box you can use “for” loop in Java
51) How can you prepare customized html report using TestNG in hybrid framework ?
52) From your test script how you can create html test report?
TestNG: Using inbuilt default.html to get the HTML report. Also XLST reports from ANT, Selenium, TestNG combination
JUnit: With the help of ANT
Using our own customized reports using XSL jar for converting XML content to HTML
53) Explain how you can insert a break point in Selenium IDE ?
Select “Toggle break point” by right click on the command in Selenium IDE
Press “B” on the keyboard and select the command in Selenium IDE
Multiple break points can be set in Selenium IDE
54) Explain in Selenium IDE how can you debug the tests?
Insert a break point from the location from where you want to execute test step by step
Run the test case
At the given break point execution will be paused
To continue with the next statement click on the blue button
Click on the “Run” button to continue executing all the commands at a time
Selenese is a selenium set of command which are used for running the test
There are three types of Selenese
Actions: It is used for performing the operations and interactions with the target elements
Assertions: It is used as a check points
Accessors: It is used for storing the values in a variable
58) In selenium IDE what are the element locators that can be used to locate elements on web page?
Xpath locators
Css locators
Html id
Html name
59) In Selenium IDE how you can generate random numbers and dates for test data ?
In Selenium IDE you can generate random numbers by using Java Script
type
css=input#s
javascript{Math.random()}
And for
type
css=input#s
javascript{new Date()}
60) How you can convert any Selenium IDE tests from Selenese to another language?
You can use the format option of Selenium IDE to convert tests into another programming language
61) Using Selenium IDE is it possible to get data from a particular html table cell ?
storeTable
Css=#table 0.2
textFromCell
When a locator has changed and Selenium IDE cannot locate the element
When element Selenium IDE waiting to access did not appear on the web page and the operation timed out
When element Selenium IDE was trying to access was not created
63) Explain how you can debug the tests in Selenium IDE ?
Insert a break point from the location where you want to execute step by step
Run the test case
At the given break point execution will be paused
To continues with the next step click on the Blue button
To run commands at a time click on run button
64) From Selenium IDE how you can execute a single line?
From Selenium IDE single line command can be executed in two ways
Select “Execute this command” by right clicking on the command in Selenium IDE
Press “X” key on the keyboard after selecting the command in Selenium IDE
65) In which format does source view shows your script in Selenium IDE ?
66) Explain how you can insert a start point in Selenium IDE?
Press “S” key on the keyboard and select the command in Selenium IDE
In Seleniun IDE right click on the command and the select “Set / Clear Start Point”
67) What if you have written your own element locator and how would you test it?
To test the locator one can use “Find Button” of Selenium IDE, as you click on it, you would see on screen an element being
highlighted provided your element locator is right or or else an error message will be displayed
68) What is regular expressions? How you can use regular expressions in Selenium ?
A regular expression is a special text string used for describing a search pattern. In Selenium IDE regular expression can be
used with the keyword regexp: as a prefix to the value and patterns needs to be included for the expected values.
69) What are core extension ?
If you want to “extend” the defualt functionality provided by Selenium Function Library , you can create a Core Extension. They
are also called “User Extension”. You can even download readymade Core Extension created by other Selenium enthusiats.
70) How will you handle working with multiple windows in Selenium ?
We can use the command selectWindow to switch between windows. This command uses the title of Windows to identify
which window to switch to.
71) How will you verify the specific position of an web element
You can use verifyElementPositionLeft & verifyElementPositionTop. It does a pixel comparison of the position of the element
from the Left and Top of page respectively
You can use the storeAlert command which will fetch the message of the alert pop up and store it in a variable.
Selenium IDE have limitations in terms of browser support and language support. By using Selenium RC limitation can be
diminished.
On different platforms and different web browser for automating web application selenium RC is used with languages like
Java, C#, Perl, Python
Selenium RC is a java based and using any language it can interact with the web application
Using server you can bypass the restriction and run your automation script running against any web application
Selenium IDE does not directly support many functions like condition statements, Iteration, logging and reporting of test results,
unexpected error handling and so on as IDE supports only HTML language. To handle such issues Selenium RC is used it
supports the language like Perl, Ruby, Python, PHP (/phptutorials.html)using these languages we can write the program to
achieve the IDE issues.
The main difference between Selenium RC and Webdriver is that, selenium RC injects javascript function into browsers when
the page is loaded. On the other hand, Selenium Webdriver drives the browser using browsers built in support
Advantages of RC are
77) Explain what is framework and what are the frameworks available in RC?
A collection of libraries and classes is known as Framework and they are helpful when testers has to automate test cases.
NUnit, JUnit, TestNG, Bromine, RSpec, unittest are some of the frameworks available in RC .
To handle popups in RC , using selectWindow method, popup window will be selected and windowFocus method will let the
control from current window to popup windows and perform actions according to script
79) What are the technical limitations while using Selenium RC?
Apart from “same origin policy” restriction from js, Selenium is also restricted from exercising anything that is outside browser.
80) Can we use Selenium RC to drive tests on two different browsers on one operating system without Selenium Grid?
Yes, it is possible when you are not using JAVA testing framework. Instead of using Java testing framework if you are using java
client driver of selenium then TestNG allows you to do this. By using “parallel=test” attribute you can set tests to be executed in
parallel and can define two different tests, each using different browser.
If you want full automation against different server and client platforms, You need a way to invoke the tests from a command line
process, reports that tells you what happened and flexibility in how you create your test suites. TestNG gives that flexibility.
82) Explain how you can capture server side log Selenium Server?
To capture server side log in Selenium Server, you can use command
83) Other than the default port 4444 how you can run Selenium Server?
You can run Selenium server on javajar seleniumserver.jarport other than its default port
84) How Selenium grid hub keeps in touch with RC slave machine?
At predefined time selenium grid hub keeps polling all RC slaves to make sure it is available for testing. The deciding parameter
is called “remoteControlPollingIntervalSeconds” and is defined in “grid_configuration.yml”file
To handle network latency you can use driver.manage.pageloadingtime for network latency
86) To enter values onto text boxes what is the command that can be used?
Breakpoints: When you implement a breakpoint in your code, the execution will stop right there. This helps you to verify that
your code is working as expected.
StartpointsStartpoint indicates the point from where the execution should begin. Startpoint can be used when you want to
run the testscript from the middle of the code or a breakpoint.
Few points that favor Python (/pythontutorials.html)over Java to use with Selenium is,
90) Mention what are the challenges in Handling Ajax Call in Selenium Webdriver?
Using "pause" command for handling Ajax call is not completely reliable. Long pause time makes the test unacceptably slow
and increases the testing time. Instead, "waitforcondition" will be more helpful in testing Ajax applications.
It is difficult to assess the risk associated with particular Ajax applications
Given full freedom to developers to modify Ajax application makes the testing process challenging
Creating automated test request may be difficult for testing tools as such AJAX application often use different encoding or
serialization technique to submit POST data.
In Selenium WebDriver, Listeners "listen" to the event defined in the selenium script and behave accordingly. It allows
customizing TestNG reports or logs. There are two main listeners i.e. WebDriver Listeners and TestNG Listeners.
IAnnotationTransformer
IAnnotationTransformer2
IConfigurable
IConfigurationListener
IExecutionListener
IHookable
IInvokedMethodListener
IInvokedMethodListener2
IMethodInterceptor
IReporter
ISuiteListener
ITestListener
The desired capability is a series of key/value pairs that stores the browser properties like browser name, browser version, the
path of the browser driver in the system, etc. to determine the behavior of the browser at run time.
For Selenium,
For Database Testing (/datatesting.html) in Selenium Webdriver, you need JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) API. It allows
you to execute SQL (/sql.html)statements.
Selenium is designed to automate webbased applications on different browsers. But to handle window GUI and nonHTML
popups in the application you need AutoIT. know more about How to use AutoIT with Selenium (/useautoitselenium.html)
99) Mention why do you need Session Handling while working with Selenium?
While working with Selenium, you need Session Handling. This is because, during test execution, the Selenium WebDriver has
to interact with the browser all the time to execute given commands. At the time of execution, it is also possible that, before
current execution completes, someone else starts execution of another script, in the same machine and in the same type of
browser. So to avoid such situation you need Session Handling.
100) Mention what are the advantages of Using Git Hub For Selenium?