Persistent Systems Automation Testing Interview Questions & Answers
Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.
About Persistent Systems hiring for Automation Testing roles
Persistent Systems is an Indian technology services company focused on software product engineering, digital transformation, cloud and data services. It serves clients in banking, healthcare, life sciences and software. In India it hires for software engineers, quality engineers, data engineers and analysts, often through campus drives with coding-focused assessments.
For Automation Testing roles, this Persistent Systems practice set focuses most on Selenium WebDriver (9), Selenium Grid & Docker (4), Git, Maven and Jenkins (4), TestNG Framework (4). It has 17 easy, 23 medium questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.
Company type
IT services
Headquarters
Pune, India
Main India offices
Pune, Nagpur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Goa
Persistent Systems Automation Testing interview process
Online assessment (aptitude + coding)
Technical round 1
Technical round 2
HR round
Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.
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01
What is RemoteWebDriver and how is it different from ChromeDriver?
ChromeDriver starts and controls a browser on the same machine as the test. RemoteWebDriver sends the same WebDriver commands over HTTP to a remote endpoint, such as a Selenium Grid, a Docker container or a cloud provider, which starts the browser elsewhere. You pass the Grid URL and browser options, and the rest of the test code stays the same. ChromeDriver itself actually extends RemoteWebDriver.
02
What is the Page Object Model and what problem does it solve?
POM is a design pattern where each page or component of the application has a class holding its locators and the actions a user can perform there, such as login() or searchProduct(). Tests call these methods instead of using Selenium directly. When the UI changes, you update one page class instead of dozens of tests, which reduces duplication and makes tests readable.
03
Write a declarative Jenkinsfile that runs Maven tests and publishes results.
Create a ConfigReader that loads properties once, using a singleton or a static holder initialised lazily in a thread-safe way, and exposes typed getters like getInt("timeout"). Let system properties and environment variables override file values so CI can change them. Keep it read-only after loading so parallel threads cannot change settings mid-run.
05
How do you handle a test that is flaky only in headless mode?
Add the recorder from Templates using the Recording template, which also creates a Thread Group and Recording Controller. Start the recorder on port 8888, set your browser or system proxy to localhost:8888 and import the ApacheJMeterTemporaryRootCA certificate so HTTPS works. Perform the user journey, then stop. Afterwards remove static resources and third-party calls, add correlation for dynamic values, parameterize data and add think time.
08
Write a REST Assured PUT test that updates a resource using a POJO.
Shift-left means testing earlier in the development cycle: reviewing requirements, writing acceptance criteria and test cases before coding, running unit and API tests on every commit, and giving developers fast feedback. Defects found early are cheaper to fix. In practice SDETs pair with developers, add tests to pull request pipelines and test APIs before the UI is built.
11
What is the difference between getText() and getAttribute()?
compile is the default and available everywhere. test is only for test compile and run, such as TestNG and REST Assured. provided is needed for compiling but supplied at runtime by the container. runtime is not needed to compile but needed to run, like JDBC drivers. system and import are rarer. In test projects, mark test libraries as test scope unless framework code in src/main uses them.
Page load strategy decides when navigation commands like get() return. Normal, the default, waits for the full load event including images and stylesheets. Eager returns when the DOM is ready (DOMContentLoaded), which speeds up heavy pages. None returns immediately after the initial response. With eager or none you must rely on explicit waits for the elements you need. Set it through options.setPageLoadStrategy(PageLoadStrategy.EAGER).
15
Which locator strategies does Appium support and which should you prefer?
Appium supports accessibility id, id (resource-id on Android), class name, XPath, Android UiAutomator selectors, iOS predicate strings and iOS class chains. Prefer accessibility id because it is fast, works across Android and iOS and also improves app accessibility. Next use resource-id or iOS predicates. Use XPath only as a last resort because it walks the whole UI tree and is slow and brittle, especially on iOS.
Comparable defines the natural order inside the class (compareTo); Comparator defines custom orders externally (compare), useful for sorting test data in several ways.
BasePage is a parent class for all page objects holding common things: the driver reference, a WebDriverWait, and helper methods such as click with wait, type, getText, waitForVisible and scrollIntoView. Child pages extend it and stay focused on page-specific locators and actions. Keep it small; if it grows into hundreds of methods, move helpers into separate utility classes using composition.
19
What are Appium capabilities and which ones are essential to start a session?
Capabilities are key-value settings sent when creating a session that tell Appium what to automate. Essential ones are platformName, appium:automationName (UiAutomator2 or XCUITest), appium:deviceName or appium:udid, and either appium:app (path to the apk or ipa) or appPackage and appActivity for an installed Android app. In Appium 2 non-standard capabilities need the appium: prefix. In Java you usually set them through UiAutomator2Options or XCUITestOptions.
A test plan contains Thread Groups that simulate users, Samplers such as HTTP Request that send requests, Config Elements like HTTP Request Defaults, CSV Data Set Config and Header Manager, Logic Controllers that control flow, Timers that add think time, Pre and Post Processors that prepare data or extract values, Assertions that validate responses, and Listeners that collect results. Elements apply according to their scope in the tree.
Run docker run -d -p 4444:4444 -p 7900:7900 --shm-size=2g selenium/standalone-chrome:latest, preferably with a pinned version tag instead of latest. It starts a mini Grid with one Chrome node. Point RemoteWebDriver to http://localhost:4444 with ChromeOptions and the tests run inside the container. Port 7900 lets you watch through noVNC. Stop it with docker stop when finished, or use --rm so it is removed automatically.
23
How do you handle a dropdown that is not a <select> tag?
Do not assert on positions when the API does not guarantee order. Use order-independent Hamcrest matchers such as hasItem, hasItems or containsInAnyOrder on the extracted field, for example body("name", hasItems("Pen", "Book")). Or use GPath filtering like find { it.id == 42 } to pick the right item before checking its fields. If order matters for the feature, raise it as a requirement and request a sort parameter.
25
What is WebDriver and how does it communicate with the browser?
Merge combines branches by creating a merge commit, keeping the full history exactly as it happened. Rebase replays your commits on top of another branch, producing a straight, linear history without a merge commit. Rebase is good for tidying a local feature branch before a pull request; never rebase commits that others have already pulled, because it rewrites history.
28
Write an XPath for a button with the text "Login".
This is almost always shared memory exhaustion, because Docker's default /dev/shm of 64 MB is too small for Chrome. Set shm_size: 2gb in Compose or --shm-size=2g in docker run. Also check the container's memory limit and the number of sessions per node, since several browsers in one container multiply memory use. Heavy pages or memory leaks in long sessions can also crash tabs, so restart sessions between test classes.
31
How do you verify response time and headers in REST Assured?
The basic auth dialog is not part of the page, so findElement cannot reach it. The simplest way is putting credentials in the URL, like https://user:pass@site.test, which works in many browsers. In Selenium 4 with Chromium you can register credentials through the HasAuthentication interface: ((HasAuthentication) driver).register(UsernameAndPassword.of("user", "pass")). Keep the credentials in environment variables or a secret store, never in code.
33
What are JMeter listeners and why should you avoid most of them during a load run?
Listeners collect and display results, such as View Results Tree, Summary Report and Aggregate Report. Visual listeners keep every sample in memory and redraw graphs, which consumes a lot of CPU and RAM and can make JMeter itself the bottleneck. During real load runs disable them, run in non-GUI mode, write raw results to a JTL file and generate the HTML dashboard afterwards. Use View Results Tree only for debugging.
// Requires the webview to be debuggable in the app build
Set<String> contexts = driver.getContextHandles();
for (String ctx : contexts) {
if (ctx.startsWith("WEBVIEW")) {
driver.context(ctx);
break;
}
}
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#email")).sendKeys("qa@test.com");
// back to native controls
driver.context("NATIVE_APP");
Use @Test(expectedExceptions = IllegalArgumentException.class) and optionally expectedExceptionsMessageRegExp to check the message. The test passes only if that exception is thrown. For more control, use Assert.assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> service.withdraw(-5)), which returns the exception so you can inspect it further. This style is clearer because the check applies to one line, not the whole test.
39
What is the LoadableComponent pattern in Selenium?
LoadableComponent is a Selenium support class that standardises how a page object ensures it is loaded. You extend it and implement load(), which navigates to the page, and isLoaded(), which throws an Error if the page is not ready. Calling get() checks isLoaded and calls load only if needed, then checks again. It gives a consistent, self-verifying way to open pages and fails fast with a clear message.
40
What is the Maven Surefire plugin and how do you configure it for TestNG?
Surefire runs tests during the test phase. For TestNG, configure suiteXmlFiles with the path to testng.xml, so mvn test runs that suite. You can pass system properties, set parallel and threadCount, and control reports. Make the suite file a property like ${suiteXml} so CI can choose smoke.xml or regression.xml with -DsuiteXml=smoke.xml.
Tips to crack the Persistent Systems Automation Testing interview
Practise coding problems of easy to medium difficulty, as Persistent assessments usually focus more on programming than service peers.
Revise data structures, OOP, DBMS and operating system basics for the technical rounds.
Read about Persistent's product engineering background and its partnerships with major cloud providers.
Keep a one-minute story ready for every project on your CV: problem, your part, tools, result.
Practise the hard questions on this page aloud; Persistent Systems interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are there in the Persistent Systems Automation Testing interview?
Candidates usually go through 4 stages: Online assessment (aptitude + coding); Technical round 1; Technical round 2; HR round. The exact rounds change with the role, team, location and your experience, so confirm the process with the recruiter.
Which topics should I prepare for the Persistent Systems Automation Testing interview?
This practice set leans on Selenium WebDriver (9), Selenium Grid & Docker (4), Git, Maven and Jenkins (4), TestNG Framework (4). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most Persistent Systems interviewers ask you to walk through real work.
Are these the exact questions asked at Persistent Systems?
No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in it services interviews like Persistent Systems's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.
Where does Persistent Systems hire Automation Testing professionals in India?
Persistent Systems has large teams in Pune, Nagpur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Goa. Openings and locations change often, so check the Persistent Systems careers page and filter by city and experience.
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