ServiceNow Playwright Testing Interview Questions & Answers

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.

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

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

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

Destructuring pulls values from arrays or objects into variables; spread expands an array or object into another, useful for copying and merging config.

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

Strings in backticks that allow embedded expressions like `Hello ${name}` and multi-line text, useful for building dynamic locators and URLs.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

A type alias describes a shape or union of values; an enum creates a named set of constants that exists at runtime.

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

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

Register page.on('dialog', d => d.accept()) before the action triggers the dialog.

Run npm init playwright@latest, which sets up config, example tests and browsers; execute with npx playwright test.

Separate tests, page objects, fixtures, utilities, test data and config; use tags, projects, shared auth setup, linting, code review and a CI pipeline with sharding and reports.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

page.screenshot() for captures and config options use: { screenshot: 'only-on-failure', video: 'retain-on-failure' } for automatic evidence.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

click simulates a real user click with actionability checks; dispatchEvent fires a DOM event directly without those checks.

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

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

The object behind the request fixture that holds base URL, headers and cookies, and can share cookies with a browser context.

Set them in the context options (geolocation, permissions, timezoneId, locale) to simulate users from other regions.

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

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.

test('login', async ({ page }) => { await page.goto('/login'); await page.getByLabel('Email').fill('a@b.com'); await page.getByLabel('Password').fill('secret'); await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Login' }).click(); await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { name: 'Dashboard' })).toBeVisible(); });

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.

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

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

Add tags in the title (@smoke) or use the tag option, and run with --grep @smoke or --grep-invert.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Use request.post with multipart: { file: { name, mimeType, buffer } } and assert the response and stored file details.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

map transforms each item, filter keeps items that match a condition, and reduce combines all items into a single value.

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

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.