Mastering Playwright: Essential Interview Questions & Answers
Introduction
Playwright has emerged as a leading automation testing tool due to its speed, reliability, and versatility. Whether you're preparing for a Playwright interview or looking to deepen your understanding, this guide covers essential Playwright interview questions with detailed explanations and easy-to-remember tricks.
1. What makes Playwright a powerful automation tool?
Playwright is a robust testing framework that supports:
Cross-browser automation (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit, and Edge).
Smart waiting mechanisms, reducing flaky tests.
Reliable locators for stable element selection.
Mobile emulation for testing across different devices.
Built-in tracing and debugging tools like screenshots, video recording, and PDF generation.
💡 Trick to Remember: Think of Playwright as a "Swiss Army Knife" 🛠️ for automation—it includes everything from cross-browser support to debugging superpowers!
2. How can authentication be handled in Playwright?
Playwright provides multiple ways to handle authentication:
Basic Authentication: Use
context.setHTTPCredentials()to pass login credentials.User-Based Authentication: Simulate login steps using
page.click()andpage.waitForNavigation()to ensure successful authentication.
💡 Trick to Remember: Think of authentication like entering a gated community 🚪—you either show a pass (basic auth) or ring the bell and wait for the gate to open (user interaction-based auth)!
3. What is tracing in Playwright, and why is it beneficial?
Tracing captures all actions performed during test execution, including:
Network requests.
Console logs.
Screenshots at each step.
DOM snapshots.
This feature helps in debugging by allowing testers to analyze test failures step by step.
💡 Trick to Remember: Think of tracing as a CCTV camera for your tests—it records everything, so you can rewind and check what went wrong! 🎥
4. How do you handle file uploads and downloads in Playwright?
File Upload: Use
setInputFiles()to attach files to an input field.File Download: Use
page.waitForEvent('download')to detect downloads andcontext.setDownloadPath()to specify the destination folder.
💡 Trick to Remember: Upload = setInputFiles() (you "set" the file), Download = waitForEvent('download') (you "wait" for the file).
5. What is the Playwright Inspector, and how do you use it?
The Playwright Inspector is a built-in debugging tool that lets you:
Inspect the DOM.
Perform interactions.
Generate Playwright scripts.
💡 Trick to Remember: Think of the Playwright Inspector as Google Chrome DevTools on steroids! 🚀
6. What types of locators are available in Playwright?
Playwright supports several locator strategies:
Text Locators:
page.getByText("Login")CSS Selectors:
page.locator(".button")XPath Locators:
page.locator("//button[@id='submit']")ID-based Locators:
page.locator("#username")Data Test ID Locators:
page.getByTestId("submit-button")
💡 Trick to Remember: Locators are like addresses—each element has a unique way to be found! 🏠
7. How do you handle iframes and nested frames in Playwright?
Single iframe: Use
frame()to switch to an iframe.Nested iframes: Use
frameLocator()for handling multiple levels of frames.
💡 Trick to Remember: Frame = Picture Frame! If your element is inside a frame, you need to look inside it first before interacting with it. 🖼️
8. What are the different types of assertions available in Playwright?
Assertions help verify expected behaviors. Commonly used ones include:
toHaveText()– Ensures an element contains expected text.toHaveValue()– Checks input field values.toHaveAttribute()– Verifies element attributes.toHaveClass()– Confirms applied CSS classes.toBeChecked()– Ensures checkboxes/radio buttons are selected.
💡 Trick to Remember: Assertions are quality checkers 🕵️—each one verifies a different aspect of the webpage.
9. How do you generate reports in Playwright?
Playwright supports:
Built-in tracing for detailed test execution logs.
Third-party reporting tools like Allure for visual reports.
💡 Trick to Remember: Tracing = CCTV recording of your test 📹—you can replay every action to find out what went wrong and generate reports!
10. Explain the concept of context and page in Playwright.
Context: Represents an independent browser session (like a separate user profile).
Page: Represents a tab or window inside a context.
💡 Trick to Remember: Think of a browser context as a house 🏠 and pages as rooms inside it. Each house (context) can have multiple rooms (pages), but what happens in one house stays within that house!
