Automation Testing Interview Questions for Top Product Companies (₹50+ LPA)

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

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

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

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

getText returns visible inner text; getAttribute returns an HTML attribute or property such as value, href or class.

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

Use Apache POI for Excel and the Properties class for config files, loaded in a utility class so tests read data instead of hard-coding it.

A method annotated with @DataProvider returns a 2D object array and the test with dataProvider = "name" runs once per row.

Automate stable, repetitive, high-risk and data-heavy flows (smoke, regression). Skip one-time tests, frequently changing UI and checks needing human judgement. Compare run frequency × manual time with build and maintenance cost.

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

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.

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.

It makes a test run only after specified tests pass, otherwise it is skipped. Use sparingly as it creates coupled tests.

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

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

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

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).

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

Headless mode or screen resolution, timing issues, environment data, missing dependencies, browser–driver version mismatch or parallel conflicts. Check logs and failure screenshots and make waits robust.

Maven project → POM with a BasePage → driver factory with ThreadLocal → config files → data-driven utilities (Excel/JSON) → TestNG or Cucumber runner → logging → Extent reports with screenshots on failure → Jenkins pipeline.

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.

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

final makes a variable, method or class unchangeable; finally is a block that always runs after try-catch; finalize is a deprecated method called before garbage collection.

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

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

Implicit, explicit (WebDriverWait with ExpectedConditions) and fluent waits; avoid mixing implicit and explicit waits and never rely on Thread.sleep.

String is immutable — every change creates a new object. StringBuilder is mutable and faster for repeated changes (not thread-safe; StringBuffer is).

A configuration file to define suites, tests, classes, groups, parameters and parallel execution settings.

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

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

Cast the driver to JavascriptExecutor and use executeScript, for example to scroll into view or click hidden elements.

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.

Re-locate the element after the DOM refreshes, use explicit waits for the refreshed element, don't keep element references for long, or wrap the action in retry logic.

Use then().statusCode(200).body("data.id", equalTo(5)), or extract() the response and assert fields with JsonPath.

public (everywhere), protected (package and subclasses), default (package) and private (same class), used to control visibility of test utilities.

Encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism and abstraction. Testers use them to build reusable page classes, base tests and utility libraries.

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

driver.switchTo().alert() lets you accept, dismiss, read text or send keys. Browser windows are handled with window handles.

Overloading: same method name, different parameters, in the same class (compile time). Overriding: a subclass redefines a parent method with the same signature (runtime polymorphism). WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver() is runtime polymorphism.

Keep credentials in external data, parameterise the test with a data provider, reuse a login method in a page class, and clear sessions between roles.

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

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

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

SOAP is a strict XML protocol with WSDL and WS-Security; REST is a lighter architectural style using HTTP and usually JSON.

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.

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

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

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

A design pattern where each page is a class holding its locators and actions, so tests stay readable and a locator change is fixed in one place.

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

WebDriver sends commands over HTTP (W3C protocol) to a browser-specific driver such as chromedriver, which controls the actual browser.

Classes such as Integer and Double that wrap primitive types as objects, needed for collections and for parsing text from web elements.

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

String r = new StringBuilder(s).reverse().toString(); // or loop from the last index and append each character

Use the Select class with selectByVisibleText, selectByValue or selectByIndex; for custom dropdowns click and choose from the list of elements.

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

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

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

An abstract class can hold state and concrete methods; an interface defines a contract (with default methods since Java 8). A class extends one abstract class but can implement many interfaces.

Compare effort saved by running automated tests repeatedly against the cost of building and maintaining scripts, counting execution time, defects found earlier and release speed.

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

Absolute starts from the root (/html/...) and breaks easily; relative starts anywhere with // and is more stable, for example //input[@id='email'].

200 OK, 201 Created, 400 bad request, 401 unauthenticated, 403 forbidden, 404 not found and 500 server error.

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.

Use external files or APIs and database setup scripts, generate unique data per run, and clean up afterwards so tests stay independent.

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

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

A callback where one system sends an HTTP request to another when an event occurs. Test with a mock receiver or tools such as webhook.site and verify the payload.

A try block that automatically closes resources such as file readers or streams, preventing leaks without a finally block.

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

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

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

A Java library that makes API tests readable using given-when-then, with easy request building, response validation and JSON path support.