Automation Testing Interview Questions for Experienced Professionals (₹10–12 LPA)

An open-source suite for browser automation: WebDriver, IDE, Grid and the older RC. WebDriver controls browsers through their native drivers.

It manages dependencies through pom.xml, builds the project, runs tests with Surefire and standardises structure across teams.

An authorisation framework where a client obtains an access token from an auth server and sends it as a Bearer token; tests fetch and reuse the token in setup.

Click to open the dropdown, then locate the option by its text, e.g. //li[text()='India'], and click it. Add an explicit wait for the animation.

Code pushed to Git → Jenkins job triggers (webhook or schedule) → mvn clean test with the suite XML → reports and screenshots published → notifications on Slack/email → failures triaged before release.

Define parameter name and value in the XML and read them with @Parameters in the test or configuration method.

Use isDisplayed(), isEnabled() and isSelected() on the WebElement before interacting or asserting.

id, name, className, tagName, linkText, partialLinkText, CSS selector and XPath. Prefer stable ids or CSS, using XPath when needed.

Runtime events that disrupt flow. Use try-catch-finally, throw, throws, and custom exceptions; checked exceptions must be handled while unchecked ones need not be.

Use CSS or XPath with contains(), starts-with() or stable attributes, relative axes, or data-test attributes agreed with developers.

Create a job or pipeline that checks out code, runs mvn test, publishes reports and triggers on commits or schedules.

BeforeSuite, BeforeTest, BeforeClass, BeforeMethod, Test, AfterMethod, AfterClass, AfterTest and AfterSuite.

Get getWindowHandles(), loop to find the target, and call driver.switchTo().window(handle); switch back using the stored parent handle.

Use then().time(lessThan(2000L)) and then().header("Content-Type", containsString("json")) along with body assertions.

Mouse and keyboard actions such as hover, drag and drop, double click, right click and key combinations, built with moveToElement(...).perform().

ArrayList stores an ordered list (e.g. all product names on a page). HashMap stores key–value pairs (e.g. test data or config properties).

//button[normalize-space()='Login'] //button[contains(text(),'Login')]

A subclass redefines a parent method. Frameworks use it to customise base behaviour, such as overriding a wait or click method in a base page class.

Use headers such as Bearer tokens, basic auth, API keys or OAuth flows; fetch a token in a setup step and reuse it.

A framework combining data-driven, keyword-driven and POM approaches with reporting and utilities, giving flexibility and reuse.

Locate rows and columns with XPath such as //table//tr and //td, loop through them to read or click cells, or build the XPath dynamically from the row text.

findElement returns the first match and throws NoSuchElementException if nothing is found. findElements returns a List (empty if nothing is found) — handy to check whether an element exists.

Relative locators, improved Grid, W3C compliance, new window or tab creation, Chrome DevTools Protocol access and element-level screenshots.

A lightweight text format of key-value pairs and arrays used in API requests and responses, validated field by field in tests.

It runs tests in parallel across multiple machines and browsers using a hub and nodes, cutting execution time and increasing browser coverage.

It uses the key's hashCode to find a bucket and equals to resolve collisions, giving O(1) average lookups; Java 8 converts long buckets into trees.

Lambdas are short anonymous functions; streams process collections declaratively with filter, map and collect, for example filtering link text from a list of elements.

Use JavascriptExecutor with window.scrollTo or scrollIntoView, or the Actions class scroll methods in Selenium 4.

Set window size explicitly, use proper waits, check animations and viewport differences, and capture screenshots and logs to find timing issues.

A scripted or declarative Jenkinsfile that defines stages such as build, test and deploy as code stored with the project.

close() closes the current window; quit() closes all windows and ends the driver session.

200 OK, 201 Created, 204 No Content, 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found, 500 Internal Server Error.

Implement ITestListener.onTestFailure(): File src = ((TakesScreenshot) driver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE); then copy it into the reports folder.

TestNG reports, ExtentReports and Allure give charts, screenshots and logs that are easy to share with the team.

A helper that initialises @FindBy elements lazily using initElements; some teams skip it in favour of plain By locators.

POST creates a resource, PUT replaces the whole resource (idempotent) and PATCH updates part of it.

Verifying that a provider and consumer agree on request and response formats, using tools like Pact, to catch breaking changes early.

ArrayList and LinkedList for lists, HashSet for unique values, HashMap for key-value test data, and Iterator for traversing them, for example collecting web elements in a list.

Schedule the job, spin up environments or containers, run suites in parallel, store reports and screenshots, notify failures on Slack or email and track trends.

ArrayList has fast random access and slower inserts in the middle; LinkedList has fast inserts and deletes but slow access by index.

Do not automate it; ask for a test environment where CAPTCHA is disabled or use test keys, or a bypass token agreed with developers.

One interface, many forms. WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver() lets the same test code run on any browser class that implements WebDriver.

Stabilise waits and data, isolate tests, use retries cautiously, quarantine unstable tests, run in consistent containers and track flaky rates.

@BeforeTest runs once before all methods in a test tag of testng.xml; @BeforeMethod runs before every test method.

Behaviour-driven development writes scenarios in Given-When-Then Gherkin that map to step definitions in code, so business and QA share one language.

Use mocks or stubs such as WireMock to simulate the dependency and test your service in isolation.

this refers to the current object; super refers to the parent class, used to call parent constructors and methods.

A special method that initialises an object. It can be overloaded with different parameters, and testers use it to pass the WebDriver into page classes.

Continuous Integration builds and tests every commit, and Continuous Delivery ships automatically. Automated tests give fast feedback and gate releases.

given().baseUri(url) .when().get("/users/1") .then().statusCode(200).body("id", equalTo(1));

Encapsulation: private locators with public page methods. Inheritance: pages extend a BasePage. Polymorphism: the WebDriver interface for different browsers. Abstraction: utility layers hiding Selenium details.

Running the same test logic with multiple data sets from Excel, CSV, JSON or a database, so coverage increases without duplicating code.

Docker packages tools in containers so tests run identically everywhere; Selenium Grid and browsers can be started quickly in containers.

switchTo().frame(index, name or element) enters the frame, and switchTo().defaultContent() returns to the main page.

Arrays have a fixed size and can hold primitives; ArrayList grows dynamically, holds objects and offers helper methods.

Tag tests with groups = {"smoke","regression"} and include or exclude them in testng.xml to run chosen sets.

Store each driver in a ThreadLocal so every thread gets its own instance and tests do not interfere.

Use TestNG parallel="methods | classes | tests" with thread-count, keep WebDriver in a ThreadLocal, and use Selenium Grid or a cloud grid for multiple browsers.

Git tracks changes, enables code review, branching and rollback and lets teams collaborate on the framework safely.