- May 02, 2025
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1.Is Playwright better than Selenium?
Playwright is generally considered better than Selenium for modern web application testing due to its speed, performance, and ease of use, particularly when testing modern web applications. However, Selenium remains a strong contender due to its wider browser and language support, larger community, and established ecosystem. The “better” choice depends on the specific project’s needs and priorities.
Playwright’s Advantages:
• Faster Performance:
Playwright is designed for speed and efficiency, offering faster test execution and reduced flakiness.
• Modern Features:
Playwright’s architecture is more aligned with modern web development practices, including support for asynchronous programming and easier debugging.
• Unified API:
Playwright provides a unified API across different browsers, simplifying testing and making it easier for beginners.
• Built-in Waits:
Playwright automatically waits for elements to be ready before performing actions, reducing the need for manual waits and improving test reliability.
• Debugging Tools:
Playwright offers powerful debugging tools, including an Inspector and the ability to pause execution and inspect the browser during a test.
Selenium’s Advantages:
• Wider Browser Support:
Selenium supports a wider range of browsers, including legacy browsers, which might be necessary for some projects.
• Larger Community and Resources:
Selenium has a larger and more active community, with extensive documentation and support resources.
• Mature Ecosystem:
Selenium has been around for a longer time and has a more mature ecosystem, with a wide variety of add-ons, plugins, and integrations.
• Multiple Language Support:
Selenium supports a wider range of programming languages, making it suitable for teams using diverse languages.
• Cross-Platform Support:
Selenium supports testing on various operating systems and platforms.
Which to Choose:
• For modern web applications:
If you’re testing modern web applications that rely on JavaScript frameworks and asynchronous programming, Playwright is a strong choice due to its speed, performance, and modern features.
• For projects with legacy browsers or diverse teams:
If you need to support legacy browsers or have a team using a variety of programming languages, Selenium’s wider browser and language support might be more advantageous.
• For projects where community support and documentation are crucial:
If you value a large and active community and extensive documentation, Selenium’s mature ecosystem and resources might be a better fit.
1. What is Playwright?
Playwright is an open-source testing tool, which supports functional, API, and component testing. The playwright is managed by Microsoft.
2. What is the difference between Selenium and Playwright?
The playwright is ready to use a framework one can install and start using. Selenium Provides API/Libraries you need to build the framework
Playwright shipped with in-built assertion libraries Selenium doesn’t provide any assertions, we need to integrate using JUnit or TestNG
The playwright uses the WebSocket connection to communicate with the browser Selenium uses the Webdriver API/HTTP to communicate with the browser
The playwright is faster compared to Selenium Selenium comparatively slower
The playwright doesn’t support the safari stock browser rather it uses the open-source, Webkit browser to test safari Selenium supports Safari
Playwright officially supports Java, Python, .NET C#, TypeScript, and JavaScript. Selenium officially supports Java, Python, C#, Ruby, Perl, PHP, and JavaScript
3.What are the advantages of a Playwright?
Compared to any other framework Playwright has a lot of advantages, as it is a modern solution it’s built on top of the limitation of another framework
• The playwright is easy to install and learn
• Playwright supports Java, Python, .NET C#, TypeScript, and JavaScript.
• It supports both API and end-to-end testing
• Playwright supports Chromium-based browsers, Firefox, Safari(Webkit)
• As Playwright doesn’t use the webdriver API the execution is comparatively faster
• Playwright automatically waits before making any actions where a user doesn’t have to provide implicit or explicit waits
• Playwright allows Network traffic control. Mocks etc.
• Edge case scenarios like File upload and download can be handled easily in playwright
4. Name some disadvantages of Playwright.
• Playwright doesn’t support Mobile automation (They might introduce it in the future)
• Playwright doesn’t support legacy IE Automation
• Playwright doesn’t support Safari stock browser
• Some of the build tools like Teamcity is not directly support
• Some of the features like Ordering, Priority, and Dependancy tests which are available in TestNG are not available in Playwright yet.
5. What are the different testing types the Playwright supports?
Playwright supports functional testing, API testing, and Component level testing.
6. What are the programming languages that the playwright supports
Playwright supports Java, Python, .NET C#, TypeScript, and JavaScript. However, the Typescript/Javascript version of Playwright is more stable and most used.
7. Briefly describe the commands that are used for Playwright installation and Execution of tests
As Playwright supports many programming languages each programming language follows its own installation process.
In this context we are using the Playwright and Javascript we need to use the following commands
Before installation, we need to ensure that NodeJS binaries are installed in our machine and then we can use
npm init playwright@latest
The above command will install the required packages and configurations. Once done we are ready to write the test cases.
npx playwright test
The command is used for executing playwright tests. By default, the playwright executes all the tests that are available for the project.
8. What is a Configuration File in Playwright explain?
As the name indicates the configuration file is the place where we configure the execution behavior of the playwright. The configuration file is typically named playwright.config.ts(/js).
Using the configuration file we can configure headless mode, fullscreen, screenshot options, baseURL, browser options, etc.
9. What is @playwright/test package in Playwright?
The Playwright can be used with different test runners such as Mocha, Jasmine, Jest, etc. Similar way playwright has its own test runner called the playwright test. The playwright test is the default test runner for the playwright.
10. What is Page class in Playwright?
The Page class in playwright is the main class, which provides the methods to interact with the browser. It also provides a set of event handlers that helps to execute a set of actions as soon as the event triggers.
11. How to navigate to specific URLs in Playwright explain with sample tests
const { test, expect } = require(“@playwright/test”);
test.describe(“navigation”, () => {
test(“navigation”, async ({ page }) => {
await page.goto(“https://playwright.dev/”);
});
});
The page.goto() is used for navigating to a specific URL.
The test.describe() hook is used for grouping the set of tests
The test() contains actual tests with playwright commands.
12. What are the different types of reporters that the playwright supports?
The playwright supports different types of reports
• Dot reporter
• Line reporter
• HTML reporter
• JSON reporter
• JUnit reporter
• Custom reporter
In addition to the above playwright also supports allure reporters using third-party plugins.
13. What are the locators in the Playwright list of any five
Locators help to find the elements on the page uniquely at any point in time.
The page class provides the locator function.
• page.getByText() : Find the element that matches the given text
• page.getByRole(): Find the element that matches the role attribute
• page.getByLabel(): Find the element that matches the label
• page.getByTestId(): Find the element that matches the data-testid attribute
• page.getByTitle(): Find the element that matches the title attribute
• page.locator(
14. What are the different types of text selectors available in Playwright?
Text-based locators in Playwright are a unique feature, that helps to locate the element which is having specific text
locator.(
34. What are Playwright fixtures?
Test fixtures are used to establish an environment for each test. Some of the pre-defined fixtures are page, context, browser, browserName. The fixture is isolated for each test.
Consider you have multiple tests like below
test(‘basic test’, async ({ page }) => {
await page.goto(‘https://playwright.dev/’);
});
test(‘basic click, async ({ page }) => {
await page.locator(‘#logo’).click();
});
Though you expect the above test to be executed one after the other, the test runs and fails. As the page fixture is isolated.
You can override the default fixtures like below.
For example, the above test can be rewritten to execute correctly
let todoPage;
test.beforeEach(async ({ page }) => {
todoPage = new TodoPage(page);
});
test(‘basic test’, async () => {
await todoPage.goto(‘https://playwright.dev/’);
});
test(‘basic click, async () => {
await todoPage.locator(‘#logo’).click();
});
You can notice that the todoPage is shared between tests.
35. What is CodeGen in Playwright?
Playwright codeGen is similar to the selenium test recorder, the CodeGen is a tool that comes with playwright you can use it for recording the Playwright tests.
36. How to parameterize tests in Playwright?
Parameterize helps to run the same tests with multiple values, some times it is also called as data-driven testing. Playwright allows parameterization, you can use data from either csv, json or plain arrays. To implement parameterization you need to use for or foreach loop.
Example:
const fruits = [‘Banana’, ‘Orange’,’Apple’];
for (const name of fruits) {
test(`testing with ${name}`, async () => {
//your code
});
}
37. Write a code to upload the file
• The playwright provides a special command to upload a single file or multiple files. The command setInputFile() or setInputFiles() is used for uploading the file in Playwright.
• Example:
• Upload single file:
await page.getByLabel(‘Upload file ‘).setInputFiles(‘myfile.pdf’);
• Upload multiple files:
await page.getByLabel(‘Upload files’).setInputFiles([‘file1.pdf’, ‘file2.pdf’]);
• Note: Passing empty array to setInputFiles() makes unselect the files if you are already selected.
• Example:
await page.getByLabel(‘Upload file’).setInputFiles([]);
38. Write a code to download the file
• The upload and download files are edge case scenarios, Playwright has dedicated commands for both. The download files can be performed in the playwright using the waitForEvent() in the playwright.
• Example:
const [ download ] = await Promise.all([
page.waitForEvent(‘download’),
// Perform the action that initiates download
page.locator(‘button#delayed-download’).click(),
]);
• Once the download is complete you can get the downloaded path using the command
const downloadedPath = await download.path();
39. How to perform drag and drop in Playwright?
• Drag and drop can be performed using multiple ways
• Using dragTo() command
• Manually specifying mouse actions
Using dragTo() function for drag and drop
You need to pass the target position locator to dragTo function
Example:
await page.locator(‘#item-to-be-dragged’).dragTo(page.locator(‘#item-to-drop-at’));
The above dragTo() function internally does
• Hovers on the item to be dragged
• Clicks on the item to be dragged
• Move the mouse to target location
• Rleases the left mouse button
As mentioned earlier, you can use the manual method, by perfoming all the above actions instead of dragTo() function.
Manual way to drag and drop
await page.locator(‘#item-to-be-dragged’).hover();
await page.mouse.down();
await page.locator(‘#item-to-drop-at’).hover();
await page.mouse.up();
40. How to handle browser popups or dialogs?
• Dialog popups are native to the browser or operating systems. The dialogs need special mechanism to handle as you cannot inspect the locator for these pop-ups.
• There are different types of pop ups such as alert(), confirm(), prompt()
• Handling Alert
• //Click on Ok
page.on(‘dialog’, dialog => dialog.accept());
• Handling confirm
• //Click on Ok
page.on(‘dialog’, dialog => dialog.accept());
//Click on Cancel
page.on(‘dialog’, dialog => dialog.dismiss ());
• Handling Prompt
• //Type the text, RSAcademy and Accept the pop up
page.on(‘dialog’, dialog => dialog.accept(“RSAcademy”));
41. What is testInfo Object?
testInfo object contains information about tests that are currently running such as duration, errors, project, status, etc. Using the testInfo object we can control the test execution.
42. What is testError Object?
The testError object in PLaywright contains information about errors thrown during the test execution such as error message, stack, and value.
43. What is global setup and tear down explain?
• The global setup is one-time setup that is needed for test execution. The global setup is executed before starting any tests. For example, if you want to set up some files, and URLs you can utilize this function.
• Similarly, the global teardown is a one-time teardown option provided by Playwright. The global teardown will be executed after all the tests are executed. This will be helpful to generate custom reports, sending emails, freeing up resources, etc.
• Example Global Set up
// global-setup.js
module.exports = async config => {
const {storageState } = config.projects[0].use;
};
// playwright.config.js
const config = {
globalSetup: require.resolve(‘./global-setup’),
use: {
storageState: ‘state.json’,
},
};
module.exports = config;
• Example Global Teardown
// global-teardown.js
module.exports = async config => {
//Some code
};
// playwright.config.js
const config = {
globalTeardown: require.resolve(‘./global-teardown),
use: {
storageState: ‘state.json’,
},
};
module.exports = config;
44. How to capture Network logs in Playwright?
The playwright provides a way to monitor browser network logs. You can capture all the request and response network logs and their status. Using the listener
page.on(‘request’, request =>
console.log(‘>>’, request.method(), request.url()));
page.on(‘response’, response =>
console.log(‘<<', response.status(), response.url()));
await page.goto('https://example.com');
45. How to capture screenshots in PLaywright?
• The Playwright allows taking the screenshot. the page.screenshot() function is provided by Playwright to the screenshot. You can place the screenshot() command anywhere in the code to save the screenshot.
• Take the full page screenshot
await page.screenshot({ path: 'screenshot.png', fullPage: true });
• Take the Element level screenshot
await page.locator('.header').screenshot({ path: 'screenshot.png' });
46. Does Playwright support API testing? If so how can we perform API testing?
Yes, Playwright supports API Testing. We can perform any HTTP API method calls such as GET, POST etc. using the playwright and validate the status and responses.
Example:
test("Get users", async ({ request, baseURL }) => {
const apiResponse = await request.get(`${baseURL}public/v2/users/`);
expect(apiResponse.ok()).toBeTruthy();
expect(apiResponse.status()).toBe(200);
});
47. What is Visual Testing? Why do we need it?
• Visual Testing is also known as visual comparisons, where two screenshots will be compared. The first screenshot is called the reference or base image, the subsequent run will compare the recent screenshot with reference images and produce the results.
• Visual comparison testing is helpful for UI testing. Using functional testing we will not be able to validate the fonts, styles, typography, alignment, etc. but using the visual comparison we can validate everything related to the application User interface.
48. Write a simple code to Test Visually
For example, if we need to compare the home page we need to write the below code in Playwright.
test(‘Visual test homepage’, async ({ page }) => {
await page.goto(‘https://playwright.dev’);
await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot();
});
• During the first run, the playwright stores the reference image of the homepage, and the next run will be compared against the reference image.
• Optionally we can pass the pixel differences if we need to ignore the minor differences in the image.
test(‘example test’, async ({ page }) => {
await page.goto(‘https://playwright.dev’);
await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot({ maxDiffPixels: 100 });
});
49. How to configure multiple reporters in Playwright?
The playwright allows configuring multiple reporters. The reporter option is available on the playwright.config.js, you can specify the reporter types to configure multiple reporters.
Example:
// playwright.config.js
const config = {
reporter: [
[‘list’],
[‘line’],
[‘json’, { outputFile: ‘test-results.json’ }]
],
};
module.exports = config;
50. What is the serial mode in Playwright?
In some scenarios, tests may be inter dependent. The second test might need the output of the first one. Running tests parallelly in such cases will create the test cases to fail and it’s like a false failure. The serial mode allows running the tests serially one after the another. If one test fails all remaining tests are skipped and can be retried as a group again.
Example:
test.describe.configure({ mode: ‘serial’ });
let page;
test.beforeAll(async ({ browser }) => {
page = await browser.newPage();
});
test.afterAll(async () => {
await page.close();
});
test(‘runs first’, async () => {
await page.goto(‘https://playwright.dev/’);
});
test(‘runs second’, async () => {
await page.getByText(‘Get Started’).click();
});
51. How to perform parallel execution in PLaywright?
• The playwright supports parallel execution. Parallel execution can be achieved at the global level or test level in the playwright.
• Parallel in test file level
• The mode: ‘parallel’ can be passed to describe.configure() function to achieve parallelism.
Example:
test.describe.configure({ mode: ‘parallel’ });
test(‘runs in parallel 1’, async ({ page }) => { /* … */ });
test(‘runs in parallel 2’, async ({ page }) => { /* … */ });
• Parallel option in the playwright config file
• We can mention the fullyParallel option in the configuration file, this makes the tests run parallelly to all tests.
//playwright.config.js
const config = {
fullyParallel: true,
};
module.exports = config;
52. How to perform mobile device emulation in Playwright?
• The emulation features allow testing the application in mobile mode or tablet mode by changing the properties of the browser such as screensize, useragent, geolocation etc.
• For example, if we need to test the mobile safari we can specify the option in the playwright config file like below.
const config = {
projects: [
{
name: ‘Mobile Safari’,
use: {
…devices[‘iPhone 12’],
},
},
],
};
module.exports = config;
• Similarly, we can set the viewport to match the mobile or tablet screen size
const config = {
use: {
viewport: { width: 580, height: 720 },
},
};
module.exports = config;
53. Mention some of the helpful ways to debug Playwright tests.
• The playwright provides multiple ways to debug.
• Using the debug option in the command line.
npx playwright test –debug
• Debug single test
npx playwright test example.spec.ts –debug
VSCode extension
• Apart from the command line debugging option Playwright also provides the VSCode extension “Playwright Test for VSCode”
• Trace on option
• You can also force the Playwright to record the trace by passing the –trace on option.
• Example:
npx playwright test –trace on
Pause option
page.pause() can also be used inside the test script to pause the test and do some debugging.
54. What is actionability in Playwright? Explain in detail
• Playwright architecture has a special type of checks before performing any actions on elements. The checks are called actionability checks.
• For example when you do click operation page.click()
• It will perform many checks internally such as
• Element is attached to DOM
• Element is Visible
• Element is Stable and animation is completed(if any)
• Element is ready to receive the events
• Element is enabled.
This mechanism is also called automatic waiting in the Playwright. Since the Playwright performs all the above checks by default one is no need to perform the above checks manually.
55. Mention some of the advantages of Playwright compared to Cypress
• The Cypress and Playwright share a lot of similarities and Playwright overcomes a lot of limitations that cypress has
• The playwright supports iFrame, Cypress doesn’t
• Playwright supports multiple windows/tabs, Cypress doesn’t
• A playwright can test the cross-domain URLs whereas Cypress doesn’t support
• Playwright supports Safari Webkit browser Cypress doesn’t support Safari
• Playwright supports multiple languages such as Java, Javascript, Python, and C#, the Cypress supports only Javascript/Typescript
