What Is Selenium? Why Is It Used?

Selenium is a cross-platform and portable automation testing

framework created by Jason Huggins in 2004.
It has seen several upgrades since then, WebDriver 2.0 in 2011, and
3.0 in 2016.

We can use Selenium to write automation scripts for testing web

applications. It helps in reducing manual testing efforts, improves
productivity and quality.
Cross-platform means a Selenium script written on one OS say
Windows can run on other supported systems such as Linux or Mac
OS without making any changes.
Portable means the same script created for a desktop-based device
can run on different supported devices such as tablets, mobiles, etc.
What Is Selenium RC, And How Does It Talk To A
Browser?
Selenium RC a.k.a. Remote Control came out in early 2004.
It exposed a set of client APIs which use to send commands to a
server to perform actions on the browser.
What Is Selenium 2.0, And Why Is It Superior To RC?
Selenium 2.0 a.k.a. WebDriver is a set of native APIs which directly
send commands to the browser instead of delegating to a server.
Its release came out in 2011. It provided the native WebDriver API
interface replacing the old client-server API model.
What Is Selenium 3.0, And Why Is It Superior To 2.0?
It was a major WebDriver upgrade which landed up in 2016.
It is superior to 2.0 because it implemented the W3C specifications
for Webdriver APIs to make them a global standard.
Until 3.0, it was the Selenium community that was supplying Web
drivers for specific browsers. But now, they provide their respective
drivers that support the standard Web driver API interface.
What Is The Latest Selenium Webdriver
Architecture?
Below block diagram explains the latest architecture Selenium
Webdriver supports.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7170"

src="//cdn.techbeamers.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/Selenium-Webdriver-Architecture.png"
alt="Selenium Webdriver Architecture" width="537" height="251"
srcset="//cdn.techbeamers.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/Selenium-Webdriver-Architecture.png
537w,//cdn.techbeamers.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/Selenium-Webdriver-Architecture-
300x140.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 537px) 100vw, 537px">
What Are The Different Components Of The
Selenium Framework?
Selenium is an automation development kit that comprises the
following components.
▪ Selenium IDE:
A Firefox/chrome extension to record and play the user actions
performed on a web page.

▪ Selenium RC:
A Selenium Remote Control which exposes APIs for scripting tests in
different languages and also runs them in browsers.
▪ Selenium Webdriver:
These are native APIs that directly interact with the browser. They
give more control and faster than the RC APIs.
▪ Selenium Grid:
It provides concurrency. With its help, we can split testing and run a
set of cases on one machine and some on another.

What Are The Benefits Does WebDriver Has Over

Selenium RC?
Selenium RC had a complex architecture, whereas WebDriver
removed those complications. The below points discuss why
WebDriver is better than the RC.
▪ Selenium RC is slow because it has an additional JavaScript layer
known as the core. On the contrary, WebDriver is fast as it
natively interacts with the browser by utilizing its built-in
engine.
▪ Selenium core can’t ignore the disabled elements, whereas
WebDriver handles the page elements more realistically.
▪ Selenium RC has a mature set of APIs but suffers from
redundancies and complicated commands. On the other hand,
WebDriver APIs have a cleaner interface and do not have any
such problems.
▪ Selenium RC doesn’t provide support for the HtmlUnit browser,
whereas the WebDriver has a headless HtmlUnit driver.
▪ Selenium RC includes a test result generator to produce HTML
reports. Web Driver doesn’t have any built-in reporting ability.
What Are The Benefits Of Selenium Automation?
There are many benefits of using Selenium for automated testing.
▪ Open source: Since it is an OSS, so we don’t have to bear any
licensing cost for using it.
▪ Cross-browser: It works on all standard browsers such as Chrome,
FF, IE, and Safari. We can run same the test script in all
browsers.
▪ Multi-language: We can choose a familiar programming language
from Java, Python, C#, Ruby to use with Selenium.
▪ Cross-platform: It provides test compatibility across Windows,
Linux, and Mac OSX. We can run same the test script on all
platforms.
▪ Concurrency: With Selenium Grid, we can execute thousands of
tests in parallel.
▪ CLI support: We can create a test suite with hundreds of tests and
launch it with a single command.
▪ CI support: Jenkins is the best CI tool. It provides a Selenium plugin
 to configure tests for nightly execution.
▪ Third party integration
▪ Free help: We can get quick technical support from its large
community.
▪ Tester friendly: A non-programmer can also automate using
Selenium. It is not too complicated to be used only by a
programmer.
▪ Ongoing project: Active development and bug fixes on the latest
project.
What Are Some Downsides To Selenium
Automation?
Selenium is a perfect clinical tool to impersonate user actions in a
browser. However, it also has a few limitations given below.
▪ Doesn’t support automation of Windows applications
▪ Can’t perform mobile automation on its own
▪ Lacks a good built-in reporting
▪ Not 100% perfect for handling dynamic web elements
▪ Poses challenges while processing popups or frames
▪ Not that efficient in coping with the page load
▪ Can’t automate a captcha
What Programming Languages Does Selenium Allow
To Use?
Selenium Webdriver supports the following programming languages.
▪ Python
▪ Java
▪ C-Sharp
▪ JavaScript
▪ Ruby
▪ PHP
▪ Perl
What Are The OS/Platforms Does Selenium Support?
Following is the list of OS/platforms which Selenium supports.
▪ Windows Desktop
▪ Windows Mobile
 ▪ Linux
▪ Mac OS X
▪ IOS
▪ Android
What Types Of Cases Can You Automate With
Selenium?
We can use Selenium for automating the following types of cases.
▪ Functional cases
▪ Regression test cases
▪ Acceptance tests
▪ Sanity test cases
▪ Smoke testing
▪ End-to-end test cases
▪ Cross-browser tests
▪ Integration tests
▪ Responsiveness cases
▪
Can You Use Selenium For Testing Rest API Or Web
Services?
Selenium provides Native APIs for interacting with the browser using
actions and events. The Rest API and the web services don’t have any
UI and hence can’t be automated using Selenium.

What Are The Different Types Of Web Driver APIs

Supported In Selenium?

Following are the web drivers supported in Selenium.

| WebDriver Name | WebDriver API | Supported Browser |
1 Gecko Driver (a.k.a. Marinetto) | FirefoxDriver() | Firefox
2 Microsoft WebDriver (a.k.a. Edge) | InternetExplorerDriver() | IE
3 Google Chrome Driver | ChromeDriver() | Chrome
4 HTML Unit Driver | WebClient() | {Chrome, FF, IE}
5 OperaChromium Driver | ChromeDriver() | Opera
6 Safari Driver | SafariDriver() | Safari
7 Android Driver, AndroidDriver() | Android browser
8 ios Driver | IOSDriver() | ios browser
9 EventFiringWebDriver | EventFiringWebDriver() | ALL

Which Of The WebDriver APIs Is The Fastest, And

Why?
It is none other than the HTMLUnitDriver, which is faster than all of
its counterparts.
The technical reason is that the HTMLUnitDriver doesn’t execute in
the browser. It employs a simple HTTP request-response mechanism
for test case execution.
This method is far quicker than starting a browser to carry out test
execution.

What Do You Know About Selenium IDE?

Selenium IDE is a trendy Firefox /CHROME browser extension. It
presents a graphical interface to record, play, and save user actions.
Test automation beginners can find it convenient for web
automation testing. After capturing a workflow, we can also export
the steps in various formats.
Shinya Kasatani was the developer who created the Selenium IDE.
The idea crossed his mind while he was investigating the JavaScript
code inside the Selenium core. He then did a proof of concept and
developed it into a full-fledged IDE.
What Do You Know About Selenese?
Selenium IDE has a built-in linguistic system known as Selenese. It is
a collection of Selenium commands to perform actions on a web
page.
For example, it can detect broken links on a page, check the
presence of a web element, Ajax, JavaScript alerts, and a lot more.
There are mainly three types of command in Selenese.
▪ Actions: It can alter the state of an application. For example, you
are clicking on a link, selecting a value from the drop-down, etc.
▪ Accessors: These commands monitor the state of an application
and cache it into some variable. For
example, storeTextPresent, storeElementPresent etc.
▪ Assertions: These commands allow adding a checkpoint or a
verification point. They confirm the current state of a UI
element.

What Do You Know About Selenium Grid?

Selenium Grid is a tool which can distribute tests across multiple
browsers or different machines. It enables parallel execution of the
test cases. Using this, we can configure to run thousands of test
cases concurrently on separate devices or browsers.

What Do You Use Selenium Grid?

Selenium Grid allows the test cases to run on multiple platforms and
browsers simultaneously, and hence, supports distributed testing.
This ability to parallelize the testing is what makes us use the
Selenium Grid.

What Are The Pros/Benefits Of Using Selenium Grid?

There are a no. of benefits of using the Selenium Grid.
▪ Support concurrent test execution and hence saves us a lot of our
time.
▪ It presents us with the ability to execute test cases in different
browsers.
▪ After creating multi-machine nodes, we can use it to distribute
tests and execute them.
▪
What Does A Hub Do In Selenium Grid?
A hub is analogous to a server that drives the parallel test execution
on different machines.

What Does A Node Do In Selenium Grid?

The machine we register to a hub represents a node. The registration
allows the grid to fetch node configuration and execute tests. There
could be multiple nodes that we can bind to a Selenium Grid.

What Is The Command To Bind A Node To Selenium

Grid?
Please make sure to download the Selenium-server jar before
running the below command.
java –jar <selenium-server-standalone-x.xx.x.jar> –role node –hub
http://<node IP>:4444/grid/register

Which Of Java, C-Sharp, Or Ruby Can We Use With

Selenium Grid?
▪ Java: Yes, we can. Moreover, we can do parallel testing using
TestNG to utilize the Selenium grid features.
▪ C-Sharp: Yes, we can. We need to use “Gallio” to run our tests
concurrently in the grid.
▪ Ruby: Yes, we can. We’ll use the “DeepTest” to distribute our tests
across the grid.

What Are Selenium Grid Extras? What Additional

Features Does It Add To Selenium Grid?
Selenium Grid Extras is a set of management scripts to manage
nodes more efficiently.
Below is a summary of the features provided by extras.
▪ More control over the individual nodes
▪ Kill a browser running tests by name
▪ Stop a process or program by its PID
▪ Shift the mouse to a specific coordinate
▪ Retrieve physical memory (RAM) and persistent storage (Disk)
usage statistics
▪ Auto upgrade to newer versions of WebDriver
▪ Reset/re-start test nodes after a specified no. of iterations
▪ Centrally manage the configuration of all nodes
▪ Capture screenshots during error conditions

What Is The Difference Between MaxSessions Vs.

MaxInstances Properties Of Selenium Grid?

Sometimes we get confused while differentiating between

the MaxSessions vs. MaxInstances. Let’s understand the difference
with clarity.

1. MaxInstances: It is the no. of browser instances (of the same

versions) that can run on the remote machine. Check the below
commands.
-browser
browserName=firefox,version=59,maxInstances=3,platform=WINDO
WS
-browser
browserName=InternetExplorer,version=11,maxInstances=3,platfor
m=WINDOWS
It means we can run three instances of both Firefox and IE at the
same time. So, a total of six different browsers (FF & IE) could run in
parallel.
2. MaxSession: It dictates how many browsers (independent of the
type & version) can run concurrently on the remote machine. It
supersedes the “MaxInstances” setting.
In the previous example: If the value of “maxSession” is one, then no
more than a single browser would run. While its value is two, then
any of these combinations (2FF, 2IE, 1FF+1IE) can run at a time.

Selenium Interview Questions [Locators

Related]

What Are The Locators Selenium Supports?

Following is the list of supported locators by Selenium.
▪ ID: Unique for every web element
▪ Name: Same as ID although it is not unique
▪ CSS Selector: Works on element tags and attributes
▪ XPath: Searches elements in the DOM, Reliable but slow
▪ Class name: Uses the class name attribute
▪ TagName: Uses HTML tags to locate web elements
▪ LinkText: Uses anchor text to locate web elements
▪ Partial Link Text: Uses partial link text to find web elements

Which Of The Id, Name, XPath, Or CSS Selector

Should You Use?

If the page has unique names or identifiers available, then we should

use them.

If they are not available, then go for a CSS selector as it is faster than
the XPath.

When none of the preferred locators is present, then you may try the
XPath.

What Is XPath? How Does It Work?

XPath is the most-used locator strategies Selenium uses to find web
elements.

▪ It works by navigating through the DOM elements and attributes to

locate the target object. For example – a text box or a button or
checkboxes.
▪
▪ Although it guarantees to give you the element you are looking
after. But it is slower than as compared to other locators like
ID, name, or CSS selectors.
▪
What Does A Single Slash “/” Mean In XPath?
A single (forward) slash “/” represents the absolute path.
In this case, the XPath engine navigates the DOM right from the first
node.
/html/body/div/div[2]/input

What Does A Double Slash “//” Mean In XPath?

A double (forward) Slash “//” represents the relative path.
In this case, the XPath engine searches for the matching element
anywhere in the DOM.
//div//input[@id=’test’]

What Is An Absolute XPath, Explain With Example?

An absolute XPath will always search from the root node until it
reaches the target. Such an XPath expression includes the single
forward-slash (/) as the prefix.
/html/body/div[1]/div[5]/form/table/tbody/tr[3]/td/input

What Is A Relative XPath, Explain With Example?

A relative XPath doesn’t have a specific point to start. It can begin

navigation from any node inside the DOM and continues. Such an
XPath expression includes the double forward-slash (//), as given
below.
//div[@id=app]
How Do You Locate An Element By Partially
Comparing Its Attributes In XPath?

XPath supports the contains() method. It allows partially matching of

attribute’s value.
It helps when the attributes use dynamic values while having some
fixed part.
See the below example-
xPath usage => //*[contains(@category, 'tablet')]
id=test_123
test_234
test_345

//input[contains(@id, ‘test_’)]

The above expression would match all values of the category

attribute having the word ‘tablet’ in them.

How Do You Locate Elements Based On The Text In

XPath?
We can call the text() method. The below expression will get
elements that have text nodes that equal ‘Python.’
xPath usage = //a[text()='Python']
How Do You Access The Parent Of A Node With
XPath?
We can use the double dot (“..”) to point to the parent of any node
using the XPath.
For example – The locator //span[@id=”current”]/.. will return the
parent of the span element matching id value as ‘current’.

How Do You Get To The Nth Sub-Element Using The

XPath?
We can modify the XPath expression to get to the nth element in the
following ways:
1. Use XPath as an array by appending the square brackets with an
index.
# Example
tr[2]
The above XPath expression will return the second row of a table.
2. By calling position() in the XPath expression
# Example
tr[position()=4]

The above XPath will give the fourth row.

How Do You Use “Class” As A CSS Selector?

We can use the below syntax to access elements using the class CSS
selector.
.<class>
e.g. .color
It can help to select all elements related to the specified class.
How Do You Use “ID” As A CSS Selector?
We can use the below syntax to access elements using ID as the CSS
selector.
#<ID>
e.g. #name

How To Specify Attribute Value While Using The CSS

Selector?
Here is the syntax to provide the attribute value with the CSS
selector.
[attribute=value]
e.g. [type=submit]

How To Access The Nth Element Using The CSS

Selector?
Here is the syntax to access the nth attribute using the CSS selector.
<type>:nth-child(n)
e.g. tr:nth-child(4)

What Is The Primary Difference Between The XPath

And CSS Selectors?
With the XPath, we can traverse both forward and backward,
whereas CSS selector only moves forward.
Part –2:

Selenium Interview Questions [API Or

Commands Related]

What Are The Steps To Create A Simple Web Driver

Script?
Below are the minimal steps to create a WebDriver script.
▪ Launch the Firefox or Chrome browser by creating the WebDriver
ref pointing to ChromDriver /FirefoxDriver class.
▪
▪ Open website www.google.co.in using the get() method.
▪ Wait for the web page to load.
▪ Display a message on the console that the webpage gets loaded
successfully.
▪ Close the browser.
Source Code:
public class SimpleWebDriverScript {
public static void main(String[] args) {

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

 String URL = "https://www.google.co.in";
driver.get(URL);

driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(25, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

System.out.println("Webpage gets loaded successfully!!");

driver.close();
}
}

What Does FirefoxDriver Mean, A Class Or An

Interface?

FirefoxDriver is a Java class, and it implements the WebDriver

interface.

Which Is The Super Interface Of Selenium Web

Driver?
Th SearchContext acts as the super interface for the Web Driver.

It is the external interface which has only two methods:

findElement() and findElements()

What Does The Webdriver Driver = New

FirefoxDriver(); Mean?

Webdriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

The above line of code represents the following:

▪ The driver is a variable of type ‘Webdriver’ interface.
▪ We are instantiating an object of the FirefoxDriver class and storing
it into the driver variable.
Why Do We Create A Reference Variable Of Type
Webdriver, Not The Actual Browser Type?
It is because we could use the same Webdriver variable to hold the
object of any browser, such as the ChromeDriver, IEDriver, or
SafariDriver, etc.
# We follow this approach as it can work with any browser instance.
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
# This approach is right too but will work only the Firefox.
FirefoxDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

How Do You Pass Credentials To An Authentication

Popup In Selenium?
We combine the username and password strings using the colon
separator and stuff them between the “http://” and the site URL. See
the below example.
http://userid:passcode@somesite.com
e.g. http://userid:passcode@somesite.com

What Are The Different Exceptions Available In

Selenium?
Like many programming languages, Selenium also provides exception
handling. The standard exceptions in Selenium are as follows.
▪ TimeoutException: This occurs if a command doesn’t finish within
the specified duration.
▪ NoSuchElementException: This occurs if the web element with the
specified attributes is not present on the page.
▪ ElementNotVisibleException: This occurs if the element is not
visible but still there inside the DOM.
▪ StaleElementException: This occurs in the absence of an element
that either got deleted or detached from the DOM.
What Do You Know About An Exception Test In
Selenium?
An exception test is a special exception that occurs in a test class.
Suppose, we have created a test case that can throw an exception.
In this case, the @Test annotation can help us specify the exception
that could occur.
Check out from the below example.
@Test(actualException = ElementNotVisibleException.class)

How Is An Assert Different From Verify?

▪ Assert: It allows us to verify the result of an expression or an
operation. If the “assert” fails, then it will abort the test
execution and continues with the next case.
▪
▪ Verify: It also operates the same as the assert does. However, if the
“verify” fails, then it won’t abort the test instead continues
with the next step.
What Difference Do You Make Between Soft Vs.
Hard Assert In Selenium?

▪ Soft Assert: It aggregates the errors that occurred during the test
execution. If such an assert fails, the control jumps to the next
step.
▪ Hard Assert: It immediately responds with an AssertException and
breaks the current test. After that, the next case in the
sequence gets executed.
▪
What Are The Different Waits Available In
WebDriver?
In Selenium Webdriver, the following three types of wait
mechanisms are available.
Static Wait – Thread.sleep(15000);
▪ Implicit Wait –
▪ Explicit Wait –
▪ Fluent Wait –

What Is Web Driver Implicit Wait?

Implicit Wait: It is a wait timeout which applies to a Webdriver
instance. It implies that all actions of this instance will timeout only
after waiting for a duration specified by the implicit wait.
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(15, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
e1
e2
e3

driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
e4 e5 e6

driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(0, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
e7 e8 e9

What Is Web Driver Explicit Wait?

Explicit Wait: It is an exclusive timeout method that works by adding
code to delay the execution until a specific condition arises. It is
more customizable in terms that we can set it up to wait for any
suitable situation. Usually, we use a few of the pre-built Expected
Conditions to wait for elements to become clickable, visible,
invisible, etc.

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

driver.get("http://target_page_url");
WebElement dynamicElement = (new WebDriverWait(driver, 15))
.until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(By.id("dynamicElement")));
What Is The Command To Enter Text In The HTML
Text Box Using Selenium?
We can do so by using the sendKeys() method.
WebDriver webdriver = new FirefoxDriver();
webdriver.get("https://www.google.com");
webdriver.findElement(By.xpath("<<xpath
expr>>")).sendKeys("Selenium Interview Questions");

How To Enter Text In The HTML Text Box Without

Invoking The SendKeys()?
There is a Selenium JavascriptExecutor class that provides methods
to perform actions on the HTML elements.
// Set up the JS object
JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor)driver;
// Issue command to enter the text
js.executeScript("document.getElementById('textbox').value = 'Some Text';");

What Is The Method To Read The JavaScript Variable

Using Selenium WebDriver?
Again, we can utilize the JavascriptExecutor class to read the value of
a JS variable. See the below code.
// Set up the JavaScript object
JavascriptExecutor jscript = (JavascriptExecutor) webdriver;
// Read the site title
String strTitle = (String)jscript.executeScript("return document.title");
System.out.println("Webpage Title: " + strTitle);

What Is The Command To Reset/Clear The HTML

Text Box In Selenium Webdriver?
Selenium provides the clear() function to reset the value inside the
text element.
WebDriver webdriver = new FirefoxDriver();
webdriver.get("https://www.google.com");
webdriver.findElement(By.xpath("<<xpath expr>>")).sendKeys("Selenium Interview
Questions");

webdriver.findElement(By.xpath("<<xpath expr>>")).clear();

What Is The Command To Get The Value Of A Text

Box In Selenium Webdriver?
Selenium provides the getText() function to read the value inside the
text element.

@Test
public void readText() {
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "<<chromedriver.exe>>");
WebDriver webdriver = new ChromeDriver();
webdriver.get("https://www.google.com");
String strText = webdriver.findElement(By.xpath("<<xpath expr>>")).getText();
System.out.println("Text element contains: " + strText);
}
};

What Is The Command To Get The Attribute Value In

Selenium Webdriver?
Selenium provides the getAttribute(value) function to read the value
inside the text element.

String strValue = webdriver.findElement(By.name("<<attrname>>")).getAttribute("value");

System.out.println("Attribute value is: " + strValue);

What Is The Command To Click On A Hyperlink In

Selenium Webdriver?
Selenium provides the click() function to click on a HTML link.
webdriver.findElement(By.linkText("Selenium Interview
Questions")).click();

What Is The Command To Submit The HTML Form In

Selenium Webdriver?
Selenium provides the submit() function to finalize a HTML form.
webdriver.findElement(By.id("<<htmlform>>")).submit();

However, we can also achieve the same effect by calling the click()
method.

What Is The Command To Press Enter Inside The

HTML Text Box Using Selenium Webdriver?
Selenium provides Enum Key macros to simulate the enter action.
webdriver.findElement(By.xpath("<<xpath>>")).sendKeys(Keys.ENTE
R);

What Is The Selenium Command To Delay Test

Execution For 10 Seconds?
In Java, we can use the following method to halt the execution for a
specified no. of milliseconds.
java.lang.Thread.sleep(long milliseconds)
To halt for 10 seconds, we can issue the following command:
Thread.sleep(10000)
Is It Mandatory To Prefix The URL With HTTP Or
HTTPS While Calling The Web Driver’s Get()
Method?
Yes, if the URL doesn’t contain the HTTP prefix, then the program will
throw an exception.
Hence, it is mandatory to pass the HTTP or HTTPS protocol while
calling the web driver’s get() method.

What Is The Other Method Which Gives The Same

Effect As We Get From The Web Driver’s Get()?

Selenium provides the “navigate.to(link)” method. It does the same

thing as we achieve from the get() call.

What Is The Principal Difference Between “GET” And

“NAVIGATE” Methods?
Get method makes a page to load or extracts its source or parse the
full text. On the contrary, the navigate method tracks the history and
can perform operations like refresh, back, and forward.

For example – We like to move forward, execute some functionality

and then move back to the home page.
We can achieve this by calling the Selenium’s navigate() API.
▪ The driver.get() method waits until the page finish loading.
▪ The driver.navigate() will only redirect and return immediately.
How Can I Move Back And Forth In A Browser Using
Selenium?
Selenium provides the following methods for moving back and forth
in a browser.
1) navigate().forward() – to move to the next web page as per the
browser’s history
2) navigate().back() – to move back to the previous page as per the
browser’s history
3) navigate().refresh() – to reload the current page
4) navigate().to(“URL”) – to start a new browser window and
opening up the specified link

What Is The Selenium Command To Fetch The

Current Page URL?
To retrieve the current page URL, we can call the getCurrentURL()
function.
webdriver.getCurrentUrl();

What Is The Selenium Command To Set The Browser

Maximized?
We can maximize the browser window by calling Selenium’s
maximize() method.
It sets the current window in the maximized state.
driver.manage().window().maximize();

What Is The Selenium Command To Delete Session

Cookies?
To delete session cookies, we can invoke the deleteAllCookies()
method.
webdriver.manage().deleteAllCookies();
State The Difference Between Web
Driver’s GetWindowHandle()
And GetWindowHandles() Methods?

webdriver.getWindowHandle() – It gets the handle of the active web

page.
webdriver.getWindowHandles() – It gets the list of handles for all the
pages opened at a time.

PART – 3:

State The Difference Between Web Driver’s Close()

And Quit() Methods?
These two methods perform the same task, i.e., the closing of the
browser. However, there is a slight difference.
webdriver.close(): It closes the active WebDriver instance.
webdriver.quit(): It closes all the WebDriver instances opened at a
time.
State the difference between Web driver’s findElement() and
findElements() methods?
Both these methods traverse the DOM looking for the target web
element. However, there are some basic differences between them.
1. The findElement() method returns the first WebElement matching
the locator, whereas the findElements() fetches all passing the
locator criteria.
// Syntax of findElement()-
WebElement item = webdriver.findElement(By.id("<<ID value>>"));
// Syntax of findElements()-
List <WebElement> items = webdriver.findElements(By.id("<<ID
value>>"));
2. Another difference is if no element is matched, then the
findElement() raises NoSuchElementException whereas
findElements() returns an empty list.
How Do You Check If An Object Is Present On
Multiple Pages?
We can use the isElementPresent() command to verify the object on
all pages.
assertTrue(selenium.isElementPresent(locator));
How Do You Check For The Presence Of A Web
Element After The Successful Page Load?
We can verify the presence of a web element with the following
code.
While using the below function, do supply some timeout value (in
seconds) to check the element in a regular interval.
public void checkIfElementPresent(String element, int timeout)
throws Exception {
for (int sec = 0;; sec++) {
if (sec >= timeout)
fail("Timeout! Couldn't locate element." + element);
try {
if (selenium.isElementPresent(element))
break;
} catch (Exception ex) {
 }
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
How To Handle Web-Based Alerts/Pop-Ups In
Selenium?
WebDriver exposes the following APIs to handle such popups.
▪ Dismiss(): It handles the alert by simulating the Cancel button.
▪ Accept(): It handles the alert window by simulating the Okay
button.
▪ GetText(): You may call it to find out the text shown by the alert.
▪ SendKeys(): This method simulates keystrokes in the alert window.
How To Handle Windows-Based Alerts/Pop-Ups In
Selenium?
Handling a window-based pop-up is not straight-forward. Selenium
only supports web applications and doesn’t provide a way to
automate Windows-based applications. However, the following
approaches can help.
1 Use the Robot class (Java-based) utility to simulate the keyboard
and mouse actions. That’s how you can handle the window
based pop.
2 The KeyPress and KeyRelease methods simulate the user pressing
and releasing a specific key on the keyboard.
How To Handle Multiple Popup Windows In
Selenium?
Selenium provides the getWindowHandles() method, which returns
the handles for all open popups.
We can store them into a <String> variable and convert it into an
array.
After that, we can traverse the array and navigate to a specific
window by using the below code.
driver.switchTo().window(ArrayIndex);
Alternatively, we can use the Java Iterator class to iterate through
the list of handles. Find below is the code to handle multiple
windows using Selenium.
String hMyWindow = driver.getWindowHandle();
WebDriver popup = null;
Iterator<String> hWindows = driver.getWindowHandles();
while(hWindows.hasNext()) {
String hWindow = hWindows.next();
popup = driver.switchTo().window(hWindow);
if (popup.getTitle().equals("HandlingMultipleWindows") {
break;
}
}
How Can You Access A Database From Selenium?
Selenium doesn’t have a direct API to access a database. Hence, we
can look for its support in the programming language we choose to
work with Selenium.
For illustration purposes, we used Java with Selenium.
Java provides the Connection class to initiate a connection with the
database. It has a getConnection() method that we need to call. For
this, we’ll make a Connection Object. It’ll manage the connection to
the database.
Please note: An application could have one or more connections
opened to a database or different databases.
Here is a short overview of the steps to be performed.
▪ Firstly, we establish a connection with the database.
▪ After that, we call the DriverManager.getConnection() method.
▪ This method accepts a string pointing to the database URL.
▪ The DriverManager class then attempts to find a driver to access
the database URL.
▪ After it finds a suitable driver, the call to the getConnection()
method succeeds.
Syntax:
String url = "jdbc: odbc: makeConnection";

Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, "userID",

"password");
How To Handle AJAX Controls Using Selenium?
Let’s understand the handling of AJAX with an example.
Consider the Google search text box, which is an Ajax
control. Whenever we write some text into the box, it shows up a list
of auto-suggested values.
To automate this type of element, we need to grab the above list in a
string as soon as the box receives input. After that, we can split and
take the values one by one.
How To Work With AJAX Controls In WebDriver?
AJAX is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It is
independent of the opening and closing tags required for creating
valid XML.
Sometimes, the WebDriver itself manages to work with the Ajax
controls and actions. However, if it doesn’t succeed, then try out the
below code.
//Waiting for Ajax Control

WebElement AjaxCtrl = (new WebDriverWait(driver,

10)).until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(By.
&lt;locatorType&gt;("&lt;locator Value&gt;")));
What Is A Page Object In Selenium WebDriver?
First of all, both these terms belong to the Page Object Model
(POM), a design pattern in Selenium. Let’s now see how are they
different from each other.
Page Object is a class in POM corresponding to a web page. It
captures the functionality as functions and objects as members.
public class LogInPage
{
private WebElement user;
private WebElement pass;

public LogInPage() {
}
 public void findObjects() {
user = browser.findElement(By.id("userName"));
pass = browser.findElement(By.id("password"));
}

public void processLogIn() {

user.sendKeys("john");
pass.sendKeys("password");
}
}
What Is A Page Factory In Selenium WebDriver?
Page Factory is a method to set up the web elements within the
page object.
public class LogInPage
{
@FindBy(id="userName")
private WebElement user;

@FindBy(id="password")
private WebElement pass;

public LogInPage() {
PageFactory.initElements(browser, this); // Setup the members
as browser.findElement()
}

public void processLogIn() {

user.sendKeys("john");
pass.sendKeys("password");
}
}
What Are User Extensions, And How Do You Create
Them?
User extensions are a set of functions written in JavaScript. They are
present in a separate known as the extension file. Selenium IDE or
Selenium RC access it to activate the extensions.
Selenium’s core has a JavaScript codebase. So, we can also use it to
create the extension.
The extension has a specific format, as given below.
// sample
Selenium.prototype.doFunctionName = function(){

}
The function name begins with a “do” prefix. It signals Selenium to
interpret this function as a command.
It means we can call the above function inside any of our steps.
What Is The Right Way To Capture A Screenshot In
Selenium?
Sometimes, an image than a trace log can help us identify the right
reason for an error. The code in the below example will capture the
image and store it in a file.
Import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
WebDriver ins = new ChromeDriver();
ins.get("http://www.google.com/");

File screen =
((TakesScreenshot)ins).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);
// Now you can do whatever you need to do with it, for example
copy somewhere

FileUtils.copyFile(screen, new File("c:\tmp\myscreen.png"));

How To Simulate Mouse Over Action On A Submenu
Option Under A Header Menu?
Using the Actions object, you can first move the menu title, and then
proceed to the popup menu item and click it. Don’t at all miss to
invoke the “actions.Perform()” at the end. Check out the below Java
code:
Actions acts = new Actions(driver);
WebElement menuHoverLink =
driver.findElement(By.linkText("Menu heading"));
acts.moveToElement(menuHoverLink);
WebElement subLink =
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#headerMenu .subLink"));
acts.moveToElement(subLink);
acts.click();
acts.perform();
How To Resolve The SSL Certificate Issue (Secured
Connection Error) In Firefox With WebDriver?
There can be many reasons for the secured connection error. It could
be because of the following:
▪ While a site is getting developed, it may not have the right SSL
certificate.
▪ The site may be using a self-signed certificate.
▪ The SSL may not have configured appropriately at the server end.
However, you still want to test the site’s standard functionality using
Selenium. Then, the idea is to switch off the SSL setting and ignore
the SSL error.
Check out the below code to disable the SSL in Selenium.
FirefoxProfile ssl = new FirefoxProfile();

ssl.setAcceptUntrustedCertificates(true);

ssl.setAssumeUntrustedCertificateIssuer(false);

WebDriver ins = new FirefoxDriver(ssl);

How To Resolve The SSL Certificate Issue In IE?
In the internet explorer, it is somewhat trivial to ignore the SSL error.
Please add the below line of code and safely skip the SSL issue.
// Copy the below code after opening the browser.

driver.navigate().to("javascript:document.getElementById('overrideli
nk').click()");
How To Handle A Proxy Using Selenium In Java?
Selenium implements a PROXY class to configure the proxy. See
below example:
String setPROXY = "10.0.0.10:8080";

org.openqa.selenium.Proxy allowProxy =
new.org.openqa.selenium.Proxy();
allowProxy.setHTTPProxy(setPROXY)
.setFtpProxy(setPROXY)
.setSslProxy(setPROXY);
DesiredCapabilities allowCap = new DesiredCapabilities();
allowCap.setCapability(CapabilityType.PROXY, allowProxy);
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(allowCap);
How To Handle A Proxy Using Selenium In Python?
from selenium import webdriver

PROXY = "10.0.0.10:8080" # IP:PORT or HOST:PORT

chrome_opt = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
chrome_opt.add_argument('--proxy-server=%s' % PROXY)

chrome = webdriver.Chrome(options=chrome_opt)
chrome.get("<< target URL >>")
What Are TestNG Annotations Frequently Used With
Selenium?
TestNG annotations prioritize the calling of a test method over
others. Here are the ones to use with Selenium:
▪ @BeforeSuite – to run before all tests.
▪ @AfterSuite – to run only once after all tests.
▪ @BeforeClass – to run only once before the first test method.
▪ @AfterClass – to run only once after all the test methods of the
current class finish execution.
▪ @BeforeTest – to run before any test method inside the “Test” tag.
▪ @AfterTest – to run after any test method inside the “Test” tag.
What Do You Know About TestNG @Parameters?
In TestNG, the “@Parameters” is a keyword that allows the
arguments to pass to “@Test” methods.
Please refer to this TestNG tutorial to learn more about parameters.
What Is Data Provider In TestNG?
The data provider is a TestNG annotation. It allows you to pass
parameters like a property file or a database to a test method.
What Is Meant By Grouping In TestNG?
It is an innovative TestNG feature that didn’t exist in the JUnit. You
can assign methods with proper context and refine groupings of test
methods.
You can not only link methods to groups but also tell groups to
include other groups.
How To Associate A Single Test To Multiple Groups
In TestNG?
TestNG framework allows multiple tests to run by using the test
group feature.
We can associate a single test to multiple groups, as shown in the
below example.
@Test(groups = {"regression-testing", "smoke-testing"})
Is TestNG Capable Of Running Multiple Suites?
Yes, we can run multiple testNG suites in the following manner:
<suite name="SuperSuite">
<suite-files>
<suite-file path="subSuite1.xml" />
<suite-file path="subSuite2.xml" />
...
</suite-files>
</suite>
We can also run various suites in parallel by using an Ant task.
Selenium Interview Questions [General
Questions]
What Is A Framework? What Are The Different
Types Of Frameworks Available?
A framework is a charter of rules and best practices to solve a
problem systematically. There are various types of automation
frameworks.
Some of the most common ones are as follows:
▪ Data-Driven Testing Framework
▪ Keyword Driven Testing Framework
▪ Hybrid Testing Framework
▪ Behavioural Driven Framework
What Are The Open-Source Frameworks (OSF) Does
Selenium Support?
Selenium can integrate with the following Open Source frameworks.
▪ JUnit
▪ TestNG
▪ Maven
▪ FitNesse
▪ Xebium
What Is The Principal Difference Between A Data-
Driven Framework & A Keyword Driven Framework?
Data-driven framework (DDF)
▪ In a Data-driven framework, the test case logic is the part of test
scripts.
▪ It advises keeping the input data separate.
▪ Usually, the test cases receive the data from the external files (XLS
or CSV) and store them into variables. Later during execution,
the variables serve as input as well as verification points.
Keyword-driven framework (KDF)
▪ In KDF, there happens to be a table of keywords. Every keyword
either maps to an action or an object.
▪ The actions reflect the product functionality, and the objects
represent its resources such as web elements, command or the
 DB URL, etc.
▪ They remain detached from the test automation suite. Hence, the
creation of the tests can continue with or without the AUT
(application under test).
▪ The keyword-driven tests cover the full functionality of the
application under test.
What Is The Difference Between Hybrid And Data-
Driven Framework?
A hybrid framework is a combination of both data-driven and
keyword-driven Selenium frameworks.
A data-driven framework works on the concept of separating data
from the tests. It solely depends on the test input data.
What Are The Two Most Common Practices For
Automation Testing?
The two most frequently used practices for automation are as
follows:
▪ Test-Driven Development (TDD) introduced in 2003
▪ Behavior Driven Development (BDD) got first heard in 2009
What Is Test-Driven Development (TDD)
Framework?
TDD a.k.a. test-driven design is a software development paradigm
that proposes to conduct unit testing frequently on the source code.
It recommends to write tests, monitor, and refactor the code on
failure.
The concept of TDD came to light while a few XP (Extreme
Programming) developers conceived it.
It intends to prepare tests to check if the code breaks or not. After
each test case failure, the developer should fix and re-run the test to
verify the same. This process should repeat until all units function as
per the design.
What Is Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
Framework?
BDD follows most of the principles of TDD but replaces its unit-
centric approach with a domain-centric design.
It intends to bring in inputs not only from the Dev or QA but an array
of stakeholders such as Product Owners, Technical Support,
Managers, and Customers.
The goal is to identify and automate appropriate tests that reflect
the behavior sought by the principal stakeholders.
What Are The Main Traits Of A Software Test
Automation Framework?
A test automation framework should have the following features.
▪ Flexible in the programming language selection
▪ Support of keywords and actions
▪ Provision of data sources for input
▪ Allow test case creation and modification
▪ Define test case priority
▪ Manual or automated execution
▪ Maintain test results history
▪ Generate test metrics such as test vs. code coverage
▪ Report creation
▪ CI tool integration such as Jenkins
▪ Cross-browser and cross-platform support
What Type Of Test Framework Did You Create Using
Selenium?
While replying to such questions, stay focused, and keep your
answer short and crisp. You can start by telling about the different
components in your framework and then explain them one by one.
Here is an illustration for your help.
▪ I worked on a framework built on top of the Page Factory
framework.
▪ I’ve created a page class for every web page in my application. It
keeps the objects and the handler functions.
▪ Every page class has a followup test class where I create tests for
related use cases.
▪ I used separate packages to host the pages and their test classes.
It’s a best practice to do that way.
▪ The framework also had a lib package for utility and some standard
wrapper functions over Selenium APIs.
▪ Java is ca ore programming language used for this project. It was
primarily because the team had previous Java experience. Also,
we could utilize the TestNG annotations and report features.
▪ Most test cases are data-driven. They require input from the
external data source. So, I used Java property/POI class to read
from the CSV/XLS files.
▪ We used the TestNG group feature for labeling test cases as P1, P2,
and P3.
▪ The Log4J library provided the necessary support for tracing in our
project.
▪ Instead of using the TestNG reporting, we preferred the Extent
report. It has more graphical options and gives an in-depth
analysis of the results.
▪ We built the framework with the help of Maven. Also, Jenkins
provided support for automated build and execution.
▪ Bitbucket allowed us to manage our source code using git
repositories.
What Are Challenges Have You Faced With
Selenium? And How Did You Overcome Them?
Here are some of the problems that testers usually face while doing
automation with Selenium.
▪ Wrong implementation: I used the page object model but had it
implemented incorrectly. My classes were focussing on the
web elements rather than they should have resembled the user
actions.
▪ Duplicate code: The project had many category pages. Each
category had a different search function instead of handling
them at a central place.
▪ Ineffective use of wait: I used implicit wait with a fixed timeout.
But some pages were timing out due to higher load time. I had
to adopt the Fluent wait (with a variable timeout) to overcome
this problem.
▪ Improper error handling: It was getting hard to debug the cause of
 a failed test. At some places, the {try-catch} blocks were
missing, and hence, cases were skipping w/o giving a proper
reason. Therefore, I had to refactor the code by adding asserts
and exception handling.
▪ Inconsistent XPath: Most of the locators were using the XPath
method. And the developers kept them changed while fixing
new defects. I called up a discussion with them and agreed to
have a fixed XPath or an ID for the web elements.
▪ Performance & Localization: We were using the flat files (CSV)
initially to feed data to test cases. However, it had us failed in
testing localization as well as beaten us on the performance. Ee
migrated all of our test data to MySQL and fixed both issues.
▪ Monolithic tests: Earlier tests weren’t using the labeling. Honestly,
there wasn’t a way to do it. Hence, we integrated our test suite
with TestNG and got away with this limitation. Now, we have
many test groups like features-based (F1, F2, F3…), priority-
based (P1, P2, P3).
What Benefits Does TestNG Have Over The JUnit
Framework?
TestNG vs. JUnit – The Benefits
1 In JUnit, we start by declaring the @BeforeClass and @AfterClass.
However, there isn’t such a constraint in TestNG.
2 TestNG allows adding setUp/tearDown routines, which JUnit
doesn’t.
3 -@BeforeSuite & AfterSuite, @BeforeTest & AfterTest,
@BeforeGroup & AfterGroup
4 TestNG doesn’t enforce a class to extend.
5 Method names aren’t mandatory in TestNG, which are in JUnit.
6 We can make a case depend on another in TestNG, whereas in
JUnit, it’s not possible.
7 TestNG allows grouping of tests, whereas JUnit doesn’t. Executing a
group will run all tests under it. For example, if we have a no. of
cases distributed in two groups, namely the Sanity and
Regression. If the requirement is to run the “Sanity” tests, then
we can configure TestNG to execute the tests under the
 “Sanity” group. TestNG will execute all cases associated with
the “Sanity” group.
The parallelization of test cases is another crucial feature of TestNG.