HSBC Playwright Testing Interview Questions & Answers

Set extraHTTPHeaders in the config or pass headers per request, for example Authorization: Bearer token fetched in a setup step.

Wait for the popup event with const [popup] = await Promise.all([page.waitForEvent('popup'), page.click('a')]), then interact with popup.

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

Log in once in a setup project, save storageState to a file and reuse it in other projects or tests.

Define projects for chromium, firefox and webkit in playwright.config.ts, set workers, then run: npx playwright test

waitForSelector is a lower-level wait; locator assertions are preferred as they retry and are more readable.

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

Scripts that run once before or after the whole run, for seeding data, starting services or creating authentication state.

Use page.frameLocator('#frame').getByRole(...) so actions work inside the iframe with auto-waiting.

Use --debug or the Inspector, page.pause(), UI mode, the trace viewer and headed runs with slowMo.

Use try-catch with await, or .catch() on promises, and make sure rejected promises are never left unhandled.

string, number, boolean, null, undefined, symbol, bigint and object (including arrays and functions).

Declarations of var and functions are moved to the top of their scope at compile time; let and const are hoisted but stay in the temporal dead zone until declared.

Playwright supports multiple browsers, tabs, languages and has auto-waiting and tracing; Selenium has the widest ecosystem; Cypress runs in-browser with a great UI but has more limits across tabs.

Use a library such as zod or ajv to define the expected schema and parse the response to fail on missing or wrongly typed fields.

Capture the download event, save it with download.saveAs, then read the file in Node and assert on name, size or content.

Cover happy path, validation errors, auth and permissions, boundary values, idempotency, schema, performance and data cleanup.

Before acting, Playwright waits for the element to be attached, visible, stable, enabled and able to receive events — so manual waits are rarely needed.

Use timeout and expect.timeout in config, test.setTimeout() for one test and test.slow() for known slower tests.

test.step groups actions into named steps in reports; annotations such as test.skip, test.fixme and test.slow communicate intent and adjust behaviour.

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.

Use page.route to intercept the call and fulfil it with fixed JSON so tests do not depend on external systems.

A function that remembers variables from its outer scope even after that scope has finished. They are used for private state and factory helpers.

npm is the Node package manager. package.json lists the project's dependencies and scripts, such as the command that runs the tests.

Both describe the shape of data. Interfaces are extendable and suit object contracts; type aliases can also model unions and primitives.

Workflow: checkout → setup-node → npm ci → npx playwright install --with-deps → npx playwright test → upload playwright-report as an artifact.

Fixtures set up and tear down test dependencies. Extend with test.extend({ loggedInPage: async ({ page }, use) => { ...; await use(page); } }).

Files run in parallel by default; set workers in the config and use test.describe.configure({ mode: 'parallel' }) for tests inside a file.

A short function syntax that does not have its own this and arguments, taking them from the surrounding scope.

TypeScript + POM + custom fixtures, environment configs, API helpers for test data, tags like @smoke, sharding across CI machines, retries with traces, HTML/Allure reports, lint and review rules.

var is function-scoped and hoisted. let and const are block-scoped; const can't be reassigned (though an object it points to can change). Prefer const, then let.

await page.route('**/api/users', route => route.fulfill({ status: 200, json: [{ id: 1, name: 'Test' }] }) );

An open-source end-to-end testing framework from Microsoft that automates Chromium, Firefox and WebKit through one API, in multiple languages.

Send invalid payloads or missing auth and assert 400, 401 or 404 codes and the error message bodies.

await request.post('/api/users', { data: { name: 'Asha' } }) automatically sets JSON headers and serialises the payload.

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

Both describe object shapes. Interfaces can be extended and merged; type aliases can also describe unions and primitives. Use interfaces for page or test-data shapes, types for unions.

Run in parallel with sharding, reuse authentication state, set up data through APIs, avoid unnecessary waits, run smoke on every commit and the full suite nightly.

Read the next page link or IDs from earlier responses, loop until done and assert counts and uniqueness; pass IDs between calls in the same test.

setInputFiles on the input for uploads; for downloads wait on page.waitForEvent('download') and save or inspect the file.

Reusable setup/teardown units injected into tests (page, context, request). You can extend test with custom fixtures such as loggedInPage.

Log in with request.post, call request.storageState(), and create a browser context using that state.

Playwright locators pierce open shadow roots by default, so getByRole and CSS locators work without special handling.

Use the official Playwright image which contains browsers and dependencies, mount the project and run npx playwright test for consistent CI environments.

undefined means a variable has not been assigned; null is an intentional empty value.

Tag tests (in the title or with { tag: '@smoke' }) and run: npx playwright test --grep @smoke (use --grep-invert to exclude).

all waits for every promise and rejects on the first failure; allSettled waits for all and reports each outcome; race settles with the first one to finish.

Create test data through API calls, verify it in the UI and clean up via API, which makes UI tests faster and more reliable.

beforeEach runs the same code before every test in scope; fixtures are lazy, composable and only set up what a test uses.

Assertions like expect(locator).toBeVisible() that retry until they pass or time out, unlike one-off checks.

An object describing how to find an element, re-evaluated on every action so it always targets the current DOM.

Use dotenv files per environment, read them in playwright.config and set baseURL and credentials from variables, selecting with an ENV flag.

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

Auto-waiting, a built-in test runner, Chromium/Firefox/WebKit with one API, network interception, the trace viewer and parallel runs out of the box — usually faster and less flaky.

Integrate axe-core through @axe-core/playwright, run an analysis on the page and assert that there are no violations.

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

Set retries in the config or CLI and failed tests re-run in a fresh context, with trace recorded on first retry to diagnose flakiness.

Add retries with backoff for the API step, set a suitable timeout, and use mocks for non-critical dependencies.

Log in once in global setup, save storageState to a JSON file and set use.storageState in the config so every test starts logged in.

await expect.soft(locator).toHaveText('...') records the failure but lets the test continue, so you see every mismatch in one run.

Placeholders for types that make reusable code type-safe, for example a helper function returning the same type of item that it receives.

TypeScript adds static types on top of JavaScript and compiles to it. Types catch errors early and give better autocomplete, which helps in larger test suites.

It records screenshots, DOM snapshots, network calls and actions per step so you can replay a failed run and see exactly what happened.

Assert the status with expect(res.status()).toBe(200), parse res.json() and check fields, using schema validation for the structure.

A class receives page in its constructor, stores locators as properties and exposes actions like login(user, pass). Tests call page objects, not raw locators.

JavaScript runs one call stack and uses queues for async work; the event loop pushes callbacks from the microtask (promises) and task queues when the stack is empty.

Syntax over Promises: an async function returns a Promise and await pauses until it resolves. Every Playwright action returns a Promise, so you await each step.

await expect(page).toHaveScreenshot('home.png') compares against a baseline image; tune maxDiffPixels and mask dynamic areas like dates.

locator.hover() and locator.dragTo(target) perform these actions, with auto-waiting for actionability.

Use environment variables or .env files, a baseURL in config, API calls for setup and cleanup, and unique data per run.

Use the request fixture: const res = await request.get('/api/users'); expect(res.ok()).toBeTruthy(); const body = await res.json();

POST the query and variables as JSON to the single endpoint and assert both data and errors fields in the response.

Click to open the control, then use getByRole('option') or a text locator for the target item, instead of relying on fragile index-based selectors.

obj?.a?.b safely reads nested properties and returns undefined instead of throwing if something in the chain is missing.

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

npx playwright codegen records user actions and generates test code with suggested locators, handy for starting tests.