Microsoft Automation Testing Interview Questions & Answers

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

Keep URLs and credentials in per-environment config files or variables, choose with a command-line parameter and never hard-code secrets.

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

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

If the element is <input type="file">, use element.sendKeys("C:/path/file.pdf"). Use the Robot class or AutoIt only as a last resort for OS dialogs.

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

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.

Hard assert stops the test at the first failure; SoftAssert collects failures and reports them together when assertAll() is called.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Comparable defines the natural order inside the class (compareTo); Comparator defines custom orders externally (compare), useful for sorting test data in several ways.

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

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.

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

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

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

An interface for systems to talk to each other. GET reads, POST creates, PUT replaces, PATCH updates partially and DELETE removes.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Implicit wait applies globally to element lookups. Explicit wait waits for a specific condition (WebDriverWait + ExpectedConditions). Fluent wait is an explicit wait with custom polling and ignored exceptions.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

A test framework offering annotations, grouping, prioritisation, parallel runs, data providers and reports, which structure and scale Selenium tests.

== compares references (or primitive values); equals() compares content when overridden, as in String.

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

throw actually raises an exception object inside a method; throws declares in the method signature that it may pass an exception to the caller.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.