Skip to content

Expedia Group Playwright Testing Interview Questions & Answers

Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.

About Expedia Group hiring for Playwright Testing roles

Expedia Group is a global online travel company that owns brands such as Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo. Its platforms help travellers search and book hotels, flights, holiday rentals and packages, while partners use its tools to reach customers. In India it has technology centres that hire software engineers, data scientists, analysts and quality engineers for its travel platforms.

For Playwright Testing roles, this Expedia Group practice set focuses most on Network Mocking (7), Framework Design and CI/CD (6), Debugging and Trace Viewer (4), JavaScript and TypeScript (4). It has 1 easy, 23 medium, 16 hard questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.

Company type
Product
Headquarters
Seattle, USA
Main India offices
Gurugram, Bengaluru

Expedia Group Playwright Testing interview process

  1. Online coding assessment
  2. Technical round 1 (DSA)
  3. Technical round 2 (system design or domain)
  4. Hiring manager and behavioural round

Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.

Solved for Expedia GroupStart practicing
3 QUESTIONS FREESign up to unlock the full question bank and track your progress.Unlock every question and answer, then continue practising company-wise and package-wise.
3 questions free Unlock the rest in seconds
01

How do you open a trace file?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Download trace.zip from the test results or CI artifact. Run npx playwright show-trace path/to/trace.zip to open it locally, or drag the file into trace.playwright.dev, which processes it in the browser without uploading it. In the HTML report, failed tests with a trace show a trace link you can click directly.
02

What are Partial, Pick, Omit and Record used for?

Save to ▾
Show answer
They are built-in utility types. Partial<User> makes all fields optional, handy for override objects in test data builders. Pick<User, 'id' | 'email'> keeps chosen fields, and Omit<User, 'password'> removes some. Record<Role, string> maps every key of a union to a value type, for example storing a credentials file path per role.
03

How do you return a fake JSON response that depends on the request body?

Save to ▾
Show answer
await page.route('**/api/quote', async (route) => { const body = route.request().postDataJSON(); const price = body.plan === 'pro' ? 999 : 299; await route.fulfill({ status: 200, json: { plan: body.plan, price }, }); });
04

How do you send authentication headers?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Set extraHTTPHeaders in the config or pass headers per request, for example Authorization: Bearer token fetched in a setup step.
05

How do you mock WebSocket traffic in Playwright?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Use page.routeWebSocket with a URL pattern. The handler gets a WebSocketRoute: you can reply to messages with ws.onMessage and ws.send without any server, or call connectToServer() to sit in the middle and change messages in both directions. This lets you test live dashboards and chat apps, for example pushing a fake price update.
06

Retries make the build green, but nobody notices flaky tests. How do you surface them?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Playwright already marks tests that passed on retry as flaky in the HTML and JSON reports. Read the JSON report in a small script after each run, post flaky test names to the team channel, and fail the build if the flaky count crosses a threshold. Over time you can track trends per test and per area.
07

Write a test that updates a user with PUT and verifies the change.

Save to ▾
Show answer
test('update user', async ({ request }) => { const res = await request.put('/api/users/12', { data: { name: 'Neha', city: 'Jaipur' }, }); expect(res.status()).toBe(200); const get = await request.get('/api/users/12'); expect(await get.json()).toMatchObject({ name: 'Neha', city: 'Jaipur' }); });
08

A third-party analytics script makes tests slow and flaky. What do you do?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Block it in tests with context.route on its domain and route.abort, or fulfill it with an empty script. Analytics is not what you are testing, and blocking it removes delays and random network errors. If tracking events matter, write a few separate tests that capture the requests with waitForRequest and assert their parameters.
09

How do you publish the Playwright HTML report from a CI pipeline?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Keep the html reporter in the config. After the test step, add an upload-artifact step that runs even when tests fail, using a condition like always(), and upload the playwright-report folder with a retention period. Team members download and open it with npx playwright show-report. Some teams also publish it to static hosting for direct links.
10

How do you test file downloads and verify their content?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Capture the download event, save it with download.saveAs, then read the file in Node and assert on name, size or content.
11

How do you tag and filter tests?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Add tags in the title (@smoke) or use the tag option, and run with --grep @smoke or --grep-invert.
12

Images load lazily and are sometimes missing from full-page screenshots. How do you make them stable?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Scroll the content into view or remove loading=lazy for the test, then wait until every image has loaded, for example with expect.poll checking that all img elements report complete and a natural width above zero. Serving images from mocked routes removes network timing too. Only after that call toHaveScreenshot, which then waits for two identical frames.
13

How do you test a component that reads from a global state store?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Wrap the mounted component in the store provider inside beforeMount, and use hooksConfig to choose the initial state for each test, such as a logged-in user or an empty cart. Build the store in the browser side of index.tsx, not in the test file. Then interact with the component and assert on the rendered output rather than reading store internals.
14

Tests pass with one worker but fail with eight. How do you debug this?

Save to ▾
Show answer
This usually means tests share something: the same user account, the same records or a global server setting. Run the failing file with --workers=8 and --repeat-each to reproduce it. Look at which tests run at the same time in the report. Fix it by giving each test unique data, using workerIndex in names, or isolating shared settings per worker.
15

Why use readonly and as const for test data?

Save to ▾
Show answer
readonly and as const stop test data from being changed by accident, for example one test editing a shared user object and breaking the next. as const also keeps literal types, so ['admin', 'viewer'] as const gives the type 'admin' | 'viewer'. That lets TypeScript reject invalid roles at compile time instead of during a run.
16

How would you handle a very flaky element that appears after an animation?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Rely on auto-waiting plus a web-first assertion on the final state, disable animations in config for tests and avoid fixed timeouts.
17

How do you record a trace manually with the tracing API?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Call await context.tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true }) before the steps, and await context.tracing.stop({ path: 'trace.zip' }) after them. This is useful in scripts that use the library without the test runner, or when you want a trace of only part of a flow. tracing.group can label sections of steps.
18

What is the blob reporter and why does it exist?

Save to ▾
Show answer
The blob reporter writes a compact archive of everything about a run, including results, attachments and traces, into the blob-report folder. It is meant for machines rather than people. Each shard produces one blob, and npx playwright merge-reports later combines them into a single HTML, JUnit or JSON report. Without it, every shard would produce its own separate HTML report.
19

A setup fixture creates expensive test data and suite time has doubled. How do you redesign it?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Measure first with the report timings. Then create data through the API instead of the UI, move read-only shared data into a worker-scoped fixture, and seed common reference data once in a setup project. Keep per-test data only for things a test changes. Cache login with storageState. This usually cuts setup time sharply without losing isolation.
20

What is the difference between click and dispatchEvent?

Save to ▾
Show answer
click simulates a real user click with actionability checks; dispatchEvent fires a DOM event directly without those checks.
21

How do you test a file download?

Save to ▾
Show answer
const [download] = await Promise.all([ page.waitForEvent('download'), page.getByText('Export').click(), ]); await download.saveAs('reports/file.csv');
22

How would you type the response of an API call in TypeScript?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Define an interface for the payload, cast or validate the parsed JSON to it (for example with zod), and use that type in assertions to catch shape changes.
23

How do you mock network requests?

Save to ▾
Show answer
page.route('**/api/items', route => route.fulfill({ json: [...] })) intercepts and replies with test data; route.abort() simulates failures.
24

A component test passes alone but fails when the full component suite runs. What do you check?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Look for state that leaks between mounts: global stores or singletons created at module level in index.tsx, timers or listeners not cleaned up on unmount, and shared mock data mutated by one test. Make the providers create fresh state in beforeMount each time and reset mocks per test. Running with --repeat-each and a single worker often reproduces the leak quickly.
25

Visual tests pass on developers' laptops but fail in CI with tiny font differences. Why, and how do you fix it?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Font rendering, anti-aliasing and installed fonts differ between Windows, macOS and Linux, so the same page produces slightly different pixels. The fix is to generate and compare baselines in one fixed environment, usually the official Playwright Docker image used in CI. Developers update baselines by running that container locally or through a CI job, not from their own machines. Loosening thresholds should be the last resort.
26

Write an API test with the request fixture.

Save to ▾
Show answer
test('get user', async ({ request }) => { const res = await request.get('/api/users/1'); expect(res.ok()).toBeTruthy(); expect((await res.json()).id).toBe(1); });
27

How do you listen to all network requests on a page?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Subscribe to events: page.on('request', r => ...), page.on('response', r => ...) and page.on('requestfailed', r => ...). You can log URLs, collect API calls or count failures. Unlike route, listeners only observe and cannot change traffic. They are handy for checks like 'no request returned a 5xx status during this flow'.
28

How do you run tests on mobile viewports?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Use device descriptors such as devices['iPhone 13'] in a project config to emulate viewport, user agent and touch.
29

How do you shard tests across machines?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Use npx playwright test --shard=1/4 in each CI job and merge reports afterwards to reduce total run time.
30

How do you wait for a network response in Playwright?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Use page.waitForResponse(res => res.url().includes('/api/orders') && res.ok()) together with the action that triggers it.
31

Baselines are always rendered in Docker, yet the repo has separate Windows and Linux image files. How do you keep one baseline per browser?

Save to ▾
Show answer
The default file name includes the platform, so a developer who updated baselines on Windows created a second set. Set snapshotPathTemplate in the config without the {platform} token, for example '{testDir}/__screenshots__/{testFilePath}/{arg}-{projectName}{ext}', delete the stray files and only update baselines through the Docker command or a CI job. Document the rule so it does not happen again.
32

How do you add or change request headers for only some requests?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Register a route for the matching URLs and call route.continue({ headers: { ...route.request().headers(), 'x-test-mode': 'true' } }). Other requests are untouched. For headers on every request, use extraHTTPHeaders in the config instead. This is useful for feature toggles, tenant ids or bypass tokens that only certain endpoints accept.
33

Show a config with a setup project and a browser project that reuses its login.

Save to ▾
Show answer
projects: [ { name: 'setup', testMatch: /auth\.setup\.ts/ }, { name: 'chromium', use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'], storageState: '.auth/user.json' }, dependencies: ['setup'], }, ],
34

What happens if you forget an await?

Save to ▾
Show answer
The action runs without waiting, so the next step may run first — causing flaky failures or 'Target closed' errors. The @typescript-eslint/no-floating-promises rule catches it.
35

How do you decide how many shards a suite should use?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Start from the target wall-clock time and the total test time per machine. If one machine with its workers takes 40 minutes and the goal is under 10, you need about four or five shards, plus some margin for setup like installing browsers. Past a point each shard spends more time on setup than on tests, and the app or test data may become the bottleneck, so measure each change.
36

How do you create test data through the API before a UI test?

Save to ▾
Show answer
In a fixture or beforeEach, call the API (request.post) to create the user or order, use it in the UI test, then delete it in teardown. It is faster and more reliable than creating data through the UI.
37

A test fails only in WebKit. How do you investigate?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Run it alone with --project=webkit --headed and record a trace. Compare it with the Chromium trace to see where behaviour differs, such as date input format, scrolling, font rendering or a missing browser API. Check the app's support matrix. If it is a real product bug, raise it, and skip the test for WebKit with a linked ticket until it is fixed.
38

How do you design a locator strategy for a team so tests survive UI redesigns?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Set a written priority order: role with name, then label, placeholder or text, then test id, and CSS or XPath only as a last resort. Agree with developers to add data-testid on complex widgets. Keep locators inside page objects so a change is fixed in one place. Add a lint rule or review check against long CSS chains and nth-child selectors.
39

Tests are flaky in CI. How do you debug them?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Turn on trace: 'on-first-retry', open the trace viewer, check network and timing, replace hard waits with web-first assertions, isolate test data and check for sharding conflicts.
40

How do you handle shadow DOM?

Save to ▾
Show answer
Playwright locators pierce open shadow roots by default, so getByRole and CSS locators work without special handling.

Tips to crack the Expedia Group Playwright Testing interview

  • Practise DSA problems and be ready to discuss time and space complexity of your solutions in clear terms.
  • Prepare for design questions on systems like hotel search, booking or pricing, focusing on scale, caching and reliability.
  • Use the STAR method for behavioural questions and show curiosity about travel technology and customer experience.
  • 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; Expedia Group interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.

Frequently asked questions

How many rounds are there in the Expedia Group Playwright Testing interview?

Candidates usually go through 4 stages: Online coding assessment; Technical round 1 (DSA); Technical round 2 (system design or domain); Hiring manager and behavioural 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 Expedia Group Playwright Testing interview?

This practice set leans on Network Mocking (7), Framework Design and CI/CD (6), Debugging and Trace Viewer (4), JavaScript and TypeScript (4). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most Expedia Group interviewers ask you to walk through real work.

Are these the exact questions asked at Expedia Group?

No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in product interviews like Expedia Group's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.

Where does Expedia Group hire Playwright Testing professionals in India?

Expedia Group has large teams in Gurugram, Bengaluru. Openings and locations change often, so check the Expedia Group careers page and filter by city and experience.

Playwright Testing questions for similar companies