Selenium Interview Questions
Q #8) When should I use Selenium IDE?
Selenium IDE is the simplest and easiest of all the tools within the Selenium Package. Its record and playback feature make it exceptionally easy to learn with minimal acquaintances to any programming language. Selenium IDE is an ideal tool for a naïve user.
Q #9) What is Selenese?
Selenese is the language which is used to write test scripts in Selenium IDE.
Q #10) What are the different types of locators in Selenium?
The locator can be termed as an address that identifies a web element uniquely within the webpage. Thus, to identify web elements accurately and precisely we have different types of locators in Selenium:
- ID
- ClassName
- Name
- TagName
- LinkText
- PartialLinkText
- Xpath
- CSS Selector
- DOM
Q #11) What is the difference between assert and verify commands?
Assert: Assert command checks whether the given condition is true or false. Let’s say we assert whether the given element is present on the web page or not. If the condition is true then the program control will execute the next test step but if the condition is false, the execution would stop and no further test would be executed.
Verify: Verify command also checks whether the given condition is true or false. Irrespective of the condition being true or false, the program execution doesn’t halt i.e. any failure during verification would not stop the execution and all the test steps would be executed.
Q #12) What is an XPath?
XPath is used to locate a web element based on its XML path. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is used to store, organize and transport arbitrary data. It stores data in a key-value pair which is very much similar to HTML tags. Both being markup languages and since they fall under the same umbrella, XPath can be used to locate HTML elements.
The fundamental behind locating elements using XPath is the traversing between various elements across the entire page and thus enabling a user to find an element with the reference of another element.
Q #13) What is the difference between “/” and “//” in Xpath?
Single Slash “/” – Single slash is used to create Xpath with absolute path i.e. the xpath would be created to start selection from the document node/start node.
Double Slash “//” – Double slash is used to create Xpath with relative path i.e. the xpath would be created to start selection from anywhere within the document.
Q #14) What is Same origin policy and how it can be handled?
The problem of same origin policy disallows to access the DOM of a document from an origin that is different from the origin we are trying to access the document.
Origin is a sequential combination of scheme, host, and port of the URL. For example, for a URL http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/resources/, the origin is a combination of http, softwaretestinghelp.com, 80 correspondingly.
Thus the Selenium Core (JavaScript Program) cannot access the elements from an origin that is different from where it was launched. For Example, if I have launched the JavaScript Program from “http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com”, then I would be able to access the pages within the same domain such as “http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/resources” or “http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/istqb-free-updates/”. The other domains like google.com, seleniumhq.org would no more be accessible.
So, In order to handle same origin policy, Selenium Remote Control was introduced.
Q #15) When should I use Selenium Grid?
Selenium Grid can be used to execute same or different test scripts on multiple platforms and browsers concurrently so as to achieve distributed test execution, testing under different environments and saving execution time remarkably.
Q #16) What do we mean by Selenium 1 and Selenium 2?
Selenium RC and WebDriver, in a combination, are popularly known as Selenium 2. Selenium RC alone is also referred as Selenium 1.
Q #17) Which is the latest Selenium tool?
WebDriver
Q #18) How do I launch the browser using WebDriver?
The following syntax can be used to launch Browser:
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();
Q #19) What are the different types of Drivers available in WebDriver?
The different drivers available in WebDriver are:
- FirefoxDriver
- InternetExplorerDriver
- ChromeDriver
- SafariDriver
- OperaDriver
- AndroidDriver
- IPhoneDriver
- HtmlUnitDriver
Q #20) What are the different types of waits available in WebDriver?
There are two types of waits available in WebDriver:
- Implicit Wait
- Explicit Wait
Implicit Wait: Implicit waits are used to provide a default waiting time (say 30 seconds) between each consecutive test step/command across the entire test script. Thus, subsequent test step would only execute when the 30 seconds have elapsed after executing the previous test step/command.
Explicit Wait: Explicit waits are used to halt the execution till the time a particular condition is met or the maximum time has elapsed. Unlike Implicit waits, explicit waits are applied for a particular instance only.
Q #21) How to type in a textbox using Selenium?
The user can use sendKeys(“String to be entered”) to enter the string in the textbox.
Syntax:
WebElement username = drv.findElement(By.id(“Email”));
// entering username
username.sendKeys(“sth”);
Q #22) How can you find if an element in displayed on the screen?
WebDriver facilitates the user with the following methods to check the visibility of the web elements. These web elements can be buttons, drop boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, labels etc.
- isDisplayed()
- isSelected()
- isEnabled()
Syntax:
isDisplayed():
boolean buttonPresence = driver.findElement(By.id(“gbqfba”)).isDisplayed();
isSelected():
boolean buttonSelected = driver.findElement(By.id(“gbqfba”)).isDisplayed();
isEnabled():
boolean searchIconEnabled = driver.findElement(By.id(“gbqfb”)).isEnabled();
Q #23) How can we get a text of a web element?
Get command is used to retrieve the inner text of the specified web element. The command doesn’t require any parameter but returns a string value. It is also one of the extensively used commands for verification of messages, labels, errors etc displayed on the web pages.
Syntax:
String Text = driver.findElement(By.id(“Text”)).getText();
Q #24) How to select value in a dropdown?
The value in the dropdown can be selected using WebDriver’s Select class.
Syntax:
selectByValue:
Select selectByValue = new Select(driver.findElement(By.id(“SelectID_One”)));
selectByValue.selectByValue(“greenvalue”);
selectByVisibleText:
Select selectByVisibleText = new Select (driver.findElement(By.id(“SelectID_Two”)));
selectByVisibleText.selectByVisibleText(“Lime”);
selectByIndex:
Select selectByIndex = new Select(driver.findElement(By.id(“SelectID_Three”)));
selectByIndex.selectByIndex(2);
Q #25) What are the different types of navigation commands?
Following are the navigation commands:
navigate().back() – The above command requires no parameters and takes back the user to the previous webpage in the web browser’s history.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().back();
navigate().forward() – This command lets the user to navigate to the next web page with reference to the browser’s history.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().forward();
navigate().refresh() – This command lets the user to refresh the current web page there by reloading all the web elements.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().refresh();
navigate().to() – This command lets the user to launch a new web browser window and navigate to the specified URL.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().to(“https://google.com”);
