Q #1) What is Automation Testing?

Automation testing or Test Automation is a process of automating the manual

process to test the application/system under test. Automation testing involves use
to a separate testing tool which lets you create test scripts which can be executed
repeatedly and doesnt require any manual intervention.
Q #2) What are the benefits of Automation Testing?
Benefits of Automation testing are:
1. Supports execution of repeated test cases
2. Aids in testing a large test matrix
3. Enables parallel execution
4. Encourages unattended execution
5. Improves accuracy thereby reducing human generated errors
6. Saves time and money
Q #3) Why should Selenium be selected as a test tool?
Selenium
1. is free and open source
2. have a large user base and helping communities
3. have cross Browser compatibility (Firefox, chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari
etc.)
4. have great platform compatibility (Windows, Mac OS, Linux etc.)
5. supports multiple programming languages (Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Pearl
etc.)
6. has fresh and regular repository developments
7. supports distributed testing
Q #4) What is Selenium? What are the different Selenium components?
Selenium is one of the most popular automated testing suites. Selenium is designed
in a way to support and encourage automation testing of functional aspects of web
based applications and a wide range of browsers and platforms. Due to its existence
in the open source community, it has become one of the most accepted tools
amongst the testing professionals.

Selenium is not just a single tool or a utility, rather a package of several testing
tools and for the same reason it is referred to as a Suite. Each of these tools is
designed to cater different testing and test environment requirements.
The suite package constitutes of the following sets of tools:

Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Selenium IDE is

a record and playback tool. It is distributed as a Firefox Plugin.

Selenium Remote Control (RC) Selenium RC is a server that allows user

to create test scripts in a desired programming language. It also allows
executing test scripts within the large spectrum of browsers.

Selenium WebDriver WebDriver is a different tool altogether that has

various advantages over Selenium RC. WebDriver directly communicates with
the web browser and uses its native compatibility to automate.

Selenium Grid Selenium Grid is used to distribute your test execution on

multiple platforms and environments concurrently.

Q #5) What are the testing types that can be supported by Selenium?
Selenium supports the following types of testing:
1. Functional Testing
2. Regression Testing
Q #6) What are the limitations of Selenium?
Following are the limitations of Selenium:

Selenium supports testing of only web based applications

Mobile applications cannot be tested using Selenium

Captcha and Bar code readers cannot be tested using Selenium

Reports can only be generated using third party tools like TestNG or Junit.

As Selenium is a free tool, thus there is no ready vendor support though the
user can find numerous helping communities.

User is expected to possess prior programming language knowledge.

Q #7) What is the difference between Selenium IDE, Selenium RC and

WebDriver?

Feature

Selenium
IDE

Selenium RC

WebDriver

Browser
Compatibility

Selenium IDE
comes as a
Firefox
plugin, thus it
supports only
Firefox

Selenium RC
supports a
varied range
of versions of
Mozilla
Firefox,
Google
Chrome,
Internet
Explorer and
Opera

WebDriver
supports a
varied range
of versions of
Mozilla
Firefox,
Google
Chrome,
Internet
Explorer and
Opera.
Also supports
HtmlUnitDrive
r which is a
GUI less or
headless
browser.

Record and
Playback

Selenium IDE
supports
record and
playback
feature

Selenium RC
doesn't
supports
record and
playback
feature

WebDriver
doesn't
support
record and
playback
feature

Server
Requirement

Selenium IDE
doesn't
require any
server to be
started
before
executing the
test scripts

Selenium RC
requires
server to be
started before
executing the
test scripts

WebDriver
doesn't
require any
server to be
started before
executing the
test scripts

Architecture

Selenium IDE
is a Javascript
based

Selenium RC
is a JavaScript
based

WebDriver
uses the
browser's

Selenium
IDE

Selenium RC

WebDriver

framework

Framework

native
compatibility
to automation

Object
Oriented

Selenium IDE
is not an
object
oriented tool

Selenium RC
is semi object
oriented tool

WebDriver is
a purely
object
oriented tool

Dynamic
Finders
(for locating
web elements
on a
webpage)

Selenium IDE
doesn't
support
dynamic
finders

Selenium RC
doesn't
support
dynamic
finders

WebDriver
supports
dynamic
finders

Handling
Alerts,
Navigations,
Dropdowns

Selenium IDE
doesn't
explicitly
provides aids
to handle
alerts,
navigations,
dropdowns

Selenium RC
doesn't
explicitly
provides aids
to handle
alerts,
navigations,
dropdowns

WebDriver
offers a wide
range of
utilities and
classes that
helps in
handling
alerts,
navigations,
and
dropdowns
efficiently and
effectively.

WAP
(iPhone/Andro
id) Testing

Selenium IDE
doesn't
support
testing of
iPhone/Andrio
d

Selenium RC
doesn't
support
testing of
iPhone/Andrio
d applications

WebDriver is
designed in a
way to
efficiently
support
testing of

Feature

Feature

Selenium
IDE

Selenium RC

applications

WebDriver

iPhone/Androi
d
applications.
The tool
comes with a
large range of
drivers for
WAP based
testing.
For example,
AndroidDriver
,
iPhoneDriver

Listener
Support

Selenium IDE
doesn't
support
listeners

Selenium RC
doesn't
support
listeners

WebDriver
supports the
implementati
on of
Listeners

Speed

Selenium IDE
is fast as it is
plugged in
with the webbrowser that
launches the
test. Thus,
the IDE and
browser
communicate
s directly

Selenium RC
is slower than
WebDriver as
it doesn't
communicate
s directly with
the browser;
rather it
sends
selenese
commands
over to
Selenium
Core which in
turn
communicate
s with the

WebDriver
communicate
s directly with
the web
browsers.
Thus making
it much
faster.

Feature

Selenium
IDE

Selenium RC

WebDriver

browser.
Q #8) When should I use Selenium IDE?
Selenium IDE is the simplest and easiest of all the tools within the Selenium
Package. Its record and playback feature makes it exceptionally easy to learn with
minimal acquaintances to any programming language. Selenium IDE is an ideal tool
for a nave user.
Q #9) What is Selenese?
Selenese is the language which is used to write test scripts in Selenium IDE.
Q #10) What are the different types of locators in Selenium?
Locator can be termed as an address that identifies a web element uniquely within
the webpage. Thus, to identify web elements accurately and precisely we
have different types of locators in Selenium:

ID

ClassName

Name

TagName

LinkText

PartialLinkText

Xpath

CSS Selector

DOM

Q #11) What is difference between assert and verify commands?

Assert: Assert command checks whether the given condition is true or false. Lets
say we assert whether the given element is present on the web page or not. If the
condition is true then the program control will execute the next test step but if the
condition is false, the execution would stop and no further test would be executed.

Verify: Verify command also checks whether the given condition is true or false.
Irrespective of the condition being true or false, the program execution doesnt halts
i.e. any failure during verification would not stop the execution and all the test steps
would be executed.
Q #12) What is an Xpath?
Xpath is used to locate a web element based on its XML path. XML stands for
Extensible Markup Language and is used to store, organize and transport arbitrary
data. It stores data in a key-value pair which is very much similar to HTML tags.
Both being markup languages and since they fall under the same umbrella, Xpath
can be used to locate HTML elements.
The fundamental behind locating elements using Xpath is the traversing between
various elements across the entire page and thus enabling a user to find an element
with the reference of another element.
Q #13) What is the difference between / and // in Xpath?
Single Slash / Single slash is used to create Xpath with absolute path i.e. the
xpath would be created to start selection from the document node/start node.
Double Slash // - Double slash is used to create Xpath with relative path i.e. the
xpath would be created to start selection from anywhere within the document.
Q #14) What is Same origin policy and how it can be handled?
The problem of same origin policy disallows to access the DOM of a document from
an origin that is different from the origin we are trying to access the document.
Origin is a sequential combination of scheme, host and port of the URL. For
example, for a URL http:// http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/resources/, the origin
is a combination of http, softwaretestinghelp.com, 80 correspondingly.
Thus the Selenium Core (JavaScript Program) cannot access the elements from an
origin that is different from where it was launched. For Example, if I have launched
the JavaScript Program from http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com, then I would be
able to access the pages within the same domain such as
http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/resources or
http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/istqb-free-updates/. The other domains like
google.com, seleniumhq.org would no more be accessible.
So, In order to handle same origin policy, Selenium Remote Control was introduced.
Q #15) When should I use Selenium Grid?

Selenium Grid can be used to execute same or different test scripts on multiple
platforms and browsers concurrently so as to achieve distributed test execution,
testing under different environments and saving execution time remarkably.
Q #16) What do we mean by Selenium 1 and Selenium 2?
Selenium RC and WebDriver, in a combination are popularly known as Selenium 2.
Selenium RC alone is also referred as Selenium 1.
Q #17) Which is the latest Selenium tool?
WebDriver
Q #18) How do I launch the browser using WebDriver?
The following syntax can be used to launch Browser:
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();
Q #19) What are the different types of Drivers available in WebDriver?
The different drivers available in WebDriver are:

FirefoxDriver

InternetExplorerDriver

ChromeDriver

SafariDriver

OperaDriver

AndroidDriver

IPhoneDriver

HtmlUnitDriver

Q #20) What are the different types of waits available in WebDriver?

There are two types of waits available in WebDriver:
1. Implicit Wait
2. Explicit Wait
Implicit Wait: Implicit waits are used to provide a default waiting time (say 30
seconds) between each consecutive test step/command across the entire test

script. Thus, subsequent test step would only execute when the 30 seconds have
elapsed after executing the previous test step/command.
Explicit Wait: Explicit waits are used to halt the execution till the time a particular
condition is met or the maximum time has elapsed. Unlike Implicit waits, explicit
waits are applied for a particular instance only.
Q #21) How to type in a textbox using Selenium?
User can use sendKeys(String to be entered) to enter the string in the textbox.
Syntax:
WebElement username = drv.findElement(By.id(Email));
// entering username
username.sendKeys(sth);
Q #22) How can you find if an element in displayed on the screen?
WebDriver facilitates the user with the following methods to check the visibility of
the web elements. These web elements can be buttons, drop boxes, checkboxes,
radio buttons, labels etc.
1. isDisplayed()
2. isSelected()
3. isEnabled()
Syntax:
isDisplayed():
boolean buttonPresence = driver.findElement(By.id(gbqfba)).isDisplayed();
isSelected():
boolean buttonSelected = driver.findElement(By.id(gbqfba)).isDisplayed();
isEnabled():
boolean searchIconEnabled = driver.findElement(By.id(gbqfb)).isEnabled();
Q #23) How can we get a text of a web element?
Get command is used to retrieve the inner text of the specified web element. The
command doesnt require any parameter but returns a string value. It is also one of
the extensively used commands for verification of messages, labels, errors etc
displayed on the web pages.
Syntax:
String Text = driver.findElement(By.id(Text)).getText();

Q #24) How to select value in a dropdown?

Value in the drop down can be selected using WebDrivers Select class.
Syntax:
selectByValue:
Select selectByValue = newSelect(driver.findElement(By.id(SelectID_One)));
selectByValue.selectByValue(greenvalue);
selectByVisibleText:
Select selectByVisibleText = new Select
(driver.findElement(By.id(SelectID_Two)));
selectByVisibleText.selectByVisibleText(Lime);
selectByIndex:
Select selectByIndex = newSelect(driver.findElement(By.id(SelectID_Three)));
selectByIndex.selectByIndex(2);
Q #25) What are the different types of navigation commands?
Following are the navigation commands:
navigate().back() The above command requires no parameters and takes back
the user to the previous webpage in the web browsers history.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().back();
navigate().forward() This command lets the user to navigate to the next web
page with reference to the browsers history.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().forward();
navigate().refresh() This command lets the user to refresh the current web page
there by reloading all the web elements.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().refresh();
navigate().to() This command lets the user to launch a new web browser window
and navigate to the specified URL.
Sample code:
driver.navigate().to(https://google.com);
Q #26) How to click on a hyper link using linkText?
driver.findElement(By.linkText(Google)).click();

The command finds the element using link text and then click on that element and
thus the user would be re-directed to the corresponding page.
The above mentioned link can also be accessed by using the following command.
driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText(Goo)).click();
The above command find the element based on the substring of the link provided in
the parenthesis and thus partialLinkText() finds the web element with the specified
substring and then clicks on it.
Q #27) How to handle frame in WebDriver?
An inline frame acronym as iframe is used to insert another document with in the
current HTML document or simply a web page into a web page by enabling nesting.
Select iframe by id
driver.switchTo().frame(ID of the frame);
Locating iframe using tagName
driver.switchTo().frame(driver.findElements(By.tagName(iframe).get(0));
Locating iframe using index
frame(index)
driver.switchTo().frame(0);
-----------frame(Name of Frame)
driver.switchTo().frame(name of the frame);
frame(WebElement element)
Select Parent Window
driver.switchTo().defaultContent();
Q #28) When do we use findElement() and findElements()?
findElement(): findElement() is used to find the first element in the current web
page matching to the specified locator value. Take a note that only first matching
element would be fetched.
Syntax:
WebElement element
=driver.findElements(By.xpath(//div[@id=example]//ul//li));
findElements(): findElements() is used to find all the elements in the current web

page matching to the specified locator value. Take a note that all the matching
elements would be fetched and stored in the list of WebElements.
Syntax:
List <WebElement> elementList
=driver.findElements(By.xpath(//div[@id=example]//ul//li));
Q #29) How to find more than one web element in the list?
At times, we may come across elements of same type like multiple hyperlinks,
images etc arranged in an ordered or unordered list. Thus, it makes absolute sense
to deal with such elements by a single piece of code and this can be done using
WebElement List.
Sample Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

// Storing the list

List <WebElement> elementList =
driver.findElements(By.xpath("//div[@id='example']//ul//li"));
// Fetching the size of the list
int listSize = elementList.size();
for (int i=0; i<listSize; i++)
{
// Clicking on each service provider link
serviceProviderLinks.get(i).click();
// Navigating back to the previous page that stores link to service providers
driver.navigate().back();
}

Q #30) What is the difference between driver.close() and driver.quit

command?
close(): WebDrivers close() method closes the web browser window that the user is
currently working on or we can also say the window that is being currently accessed
by the WebDriver. The command neither requires any parameter nor does is return
any value.
quit(): Unlike close() method, quit() method closes down all the windows that the
program has opened. Same as close() method, the command neither requires any
parameter nor does is return any value.

Q #31) Can Selenium handle windows based pop up?

Selenium is an automation testing tool which supports only web application testing.
Therefore, windows pop up cannot be handled using Selenium.
Q #32) How can we handle web based pop up?
WebDriver offers the users with a very efficient way to handle these pop ups using
Alert interface. There are the four methods that we would be using along with the
Alert interface.

void dismiss() The accept() method clicks on the Cancel button as soon as
the pop up window appears.

void accept() The accept() method clicks on the Ok button as soon as the
pop up window appears.

String getText() The getText() method returns the text displayed on the alert
box.

void sendKeys(String stringToSend) The sendKeys() method enters the

specified string pattern into the alert box.

Syntax:
// accepting javascript alert
Alert alert = driver.switchTo().alert();
alert.accept();
Q #33) How can we handle windows based pop up?
Selenium is an automation testing tool which supports only web application testing,
that means, it doesnt support testing of windows based applications. However
Selenium alone cant help the situation but along with some third party
intervention, this problem can be overcome. There are several third party tools
available for handling window based pop ups along with the selenium like AutoIT,
Robot class etc.
Q #34) How to assert title of the web page?
//verify the title of the web page
assertTrue(The title of the window is incorrect.,driver.getTitle().equals(Title of the
page));
Q #35) How to mouse hover on a web element using WebDriver?
WebDriver offers a wide range of interaction utilities that the user can exploit to
automate mouse and keyboard events. Action Interface is one such utility which
simulates the single user interactions.

Thus, In the following scenario, we have used Action Interface to mouse hover on a
drop down which then opens a list of options.
Sample Code:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

// Instantiating Action Interface

Actions actions=new Actions(driver);
// howering on the dropdown
actions.moveToElement(driver.findElement(By.id("id of the
dropdown"))).perform();
// Clicking on one of the items in the list options
WebElement subLinkOption=driver.findElement(By.id("id of the sub link"));
subLinkOption.click();

Q #36) How to retrieve css properties of an element?

The values of the css properties can be retrieved using a get() method:
Syntax:
driver.findElement(By.id(id)).getCssValue(name of css attribute);
driver.findElement(By.id(id)).getCssValue(font-size);
Q #37) How to capture screenshot in WebDriver?
1

import org.junit.After;

import org.junit.Before;

import org.junit.Test;

import java.io.File;

import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;

import org.openqa.selenium.OutputType;

import org.openqa.selenium.TakesScreenshot;

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;

10

import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;

11

12

public class CaptureScreenshot {

13

WebDriver driver;

14

@Before

15

public void setUp() throws Exception {

16

driver = new FirefoxDriver();

17

driver.get("https://google.com");

18

19

@After

20

public void tearDown() throws Exception {

21

driver.quit();

22

23
24

@Test

25

public void test() throws IOException {

26

// Code to capture the screenshot

27

File scrFile = ((TakesScreenshot)driver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);

28

// Code to copy the screenshot in the desired location

29

FileUtils.copyFile(scrFile, new File("C:\\CaptureScreenshot\\google.jpg"));

30

31

Q #38) What is Junit?

Junit is a unit testing framework introduced by Apache. Junit is based on Java.
Q #39) What are Junit annotations?
Following are the Junit Annotations:

@Test: Annotation lets the system know that the method annotated as @Test
is a test method. There can be multiple test methods in a single test script.

@Before: Method annotated as @Before lets the system know that this
method shall be executed every time before each of the test method.

@After: Method annotated as @After lets the system know that this method
shall be executed every time after each of the test method.

@BeforeClass: Method annotated as @BeforeClass lets the system know

that this method shall be executed once before any of the test method.

@AfterClass: Method annotated as @AfterClass lets the system know that

this method shall be executed once after any of the test method.

@Ignore: Method annotated as @Ignore lets the system know that this
method shall not be executed.

Q #40) What is TestNG and how is it better than Junit?

TestNG is an advance framework designed in a way to leverage the benefits by both
the developers and testers. With the commencement of the frameworks, JUnit
gained an enormous popularity across the Java applications, Java developers and
Java testers with remarkably increasing the code quality. Despite being easy to use
and straightforward, JUnit has its own limitations which give rise to the need of
bringing TestNG into the picture. TestNG is an open source framework which is
distributed under the Apache software License and is readily available for download.
TestNG with WebDriver provides an efficient and effective test result format that can
in turn be shared with the stake holders to have a glimpse on the
products/applications health thereby eliminating the drawback of WebDrivers
incapability to generate test reports. TestNG has an inbuilt exception handling
mechanism which lets the program to run without terminating unexpectedly.
There are various advantages that make TestNG superior to JUnit. Some of them
are:

Added advance and easy annotations

Execution patterns can set

Concurrent execution of test scripts

Test case dependencies can be set

Q #41) How to set test case priority in TestNG?

Setting Priority in TestNG
Code Snippet
1

package TestNG;

import org.testng.annotations.*;

public class SettingPriority {

@Test(priority=0)

public void method1() {

@Test(priority=1)

public void method2() {

10

@Test(priority=2)

11

public void method3() {

12

13

Test Execution Sequence:

1. Method1
2. Method2
3. Method3
Q #42) What is a framework?
Framework is a constructive blend of various guidelines, coding standards,
concepts, processes, practices, project hierarchies, modularity, reporting
mechanism, test data injections etc. to pillar automation testing.
Q #43) What are the advantages of Automation framework?
Advantage of Test Automation framework

Reusability of code

Maximum coverage

Recovery scenario

Low cost maintenance

Minimal manual intervention

Easy Reporting

Q #44) What are the different types of frameworks?

Below are the different types of frameworks:
1. Module Based Testing Framework: The framework divides the entire
Application Under Test into number of logical and isolated modules. For
each module, we create a separate and independent test script. Thus, when
these test scripts taken together builds a larger test script representing more
than one module.
2. Library Architecture Testing Framework: The basic fundamental behind
the framework is to determine the common steps and group them into
functions under a library and call those functions in the test scripts whenever
required.
3. Data Driven Testing Framework: Data Driven Testing Framework helps the
user segregate the test script logic and the test data from each other. It lets
the user store the test data into an external database. The data is
conventionally stored in Key-Value pairs. Thus, the key can be used to
access and populate the data within the test scripts.
4. Keyword Driven Testing Framework: The Keyword driven testing
framework is an extension to Data driven Testing Framework in a sense that it
not only segregates the test data from the scripts, it also keeps the certain
set of code belonging to the test script into an external data file.
5. Hybrid Testing Framework: Hybrid Testing Framework is a combination of
more than one above mentioned frameworks. The best thing about such a
setup is that it leverages the benefits of all kinds of associated frameworks.
6. Behavior Driven Development Framework: Behavior Driven
Development framework allows automation of functional validations in easily
readable and understandable format to Business Analysts, Developers,
Testers, etc.
Q #45) How can I read test data from excels?
Test data can efficiently be read from excel using JXL or POI API.See detailed tutorial
here.
Q #46) What is the difference between POI and jxl jar?

# JXL jar

POI jar

1 JXL supports .xls format i.e.

binary based format. JXL doesnt
support Excel 2007 and .xlsx
format i.e. XML based format

POI jar supports all of

these formats

2 JXL API was last updated in the

year 2009

POI is regularly
updated and released

3 The JXL documentation is not as

comprehensive as that of POI

POI has a well

prepared and highly
comprehensive
documentation

4 JXL API doesnt support rich text

formatting

POI API supports rich

text formatting

5 JXL API is faster than POI API

POI API is slower than

JXL API

Q #47) What is the difference between Selenium and QTP?

Quick Test
Professional (QTP)

Feature

Selenium

Browser
Compatibili
ty

Selenium supports
almost all the popular
browsers like Firefox,
Chrome, Safari,
Internet Explorer,
Opera etc

QTP supports Internet

Explorer, Firefox and
Chrome. QTP only
supports Windows
Operating System

Distribution

Selenium is distributed
as an open source tool
and is freely available

QTP is distributed as
a licensed tool and is
commercialized

Application
under Test

Selenium supports
testing of only web
based applications

QTP supports testing

of both the web
based application and

Feature

Selenium

Quick Test
Professional (QTP)
windows based
application

Object
Repository

Object Repository
needs to be created as
a separate entity

QTP automatically
creates and
maintains Object
Repository

Language
Support

Selenium supports
multiple programming
languages like Java,
C#, Ruby, Python, Perl
etc

QTP supports only VB

Script

Vendor
Support

As Selenium is a free
tool, user would not
get the vendors
support in
troubleshooting issues

Users can easily get

the vendors support
in case of any issue

Q #48) Can WebDriver test Mobile applications?

WebDriver cannot test Mobile applications. WebDriver is a web based testing tool,
therefore applications on the mobile browsers can be tested.
Q #49) Can captcha be automated?
No, captcha and bar code reader cannot be automated.
Q #50) What is Object Repository? How can we create Object Repository in
Selenium?
Object Repository is a term used to refer to the collection of web elements
belonging to Application Under Test (AUT) along with their locator values. Thus,
whenever the element is required within the script, the locator value can be
populated from the Object Repository. Object Repository is used to store locators in
a centralized location instead of hard coding them within the scripts.
In Selenium, objects can be stored in an excel sheet which can be populated inside
the script whenever required.