Top Selenium Interview Questions and Answers

Selenium interview questions are designed to assess your knowledge of automating web applications, web-based administration tasks, and browsers for the purpose of testing. The demand for Selenium web testers is increasing and is projected to continue to grow rapidly in the future. To exceed the competition, you should be capable of using Selenium to ensure high-quality web apps.

Selenium has become an integral part of many of the world's leading browsers. Many browser automation tools, APIs, and frameworks use it as their core technology. For software test engineer interviews, having a good understanding of Selenium interview questions is essential.

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You must practice these Selenium interview questions to start your tech interview prep. In this article, we’ll cover:

• Top Selenium Interview Questions and Answers
• Selenium Interview Questions for Experienced Developers
• Selenium Interview Questions on TestNG
• Selenium Interview Questions on WebDriver
• Basic Java Interview Questions for Selenium
• Some Additional Selenium Interview Questions for Practice
• FAQs on Selenium Questions Asked in Interviews

Top Selenium Interview Questions and Answers

You should be well-versed with the components of Selenium, its commands, and its various uses to ace Selenium interview questions. Here is a list of some important Selenium interview questions and answers that will help you in your next tech interview prep.

Q1. What are the advantages of automation testing?

Automation testing allows you to automate the manual testing process of a system or an application by using testing tools. The advantages of automated testing are as follows:

• It assists in optimal performance and functional testing of a system or an application.
• These testing tools allow you to create scripts and execute them repeatedly to generate detailed test reports of the system or application under test.
• It facilitates the parallel execution of the test cases.
• You can improve the accuracy of the system with automated testing as it reduces the manual intervention of humans in test case generation processes.
• It allows you to test a large-scale test matrix.
• You can save valuable time and money with automated testing.

Q2. What are the components of the Selenium suite?

Selenium offers a package of several testing tools that cater to different testing requirements. The components of the Selenium suite are:

• Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE): It is a Chrome/Firefox plugin developed to speed up the process of creating automation scripts. IDE records the user actions on the web browser and exports them as a reusable script.
• Selenium Remote Control (RC): This server service enables you to generate test scripts in the programming language of your choice. RC takes commands from the test scripts and sends them as Selenium core JavaScript commands to the browser.
• Selenium WebDriver: This programming interface helps you create and run test cases by communicating directly with the web browser. It allows you to use its native compatibility to automate.
• Selenium Grid: It enables parallel execution of tests on different operating systems and browsers by distributing commands to various machines simultaneously.

Q3. What makes Selenium an ideal choice as an automation tool?

This Selenium interview question explores your understanding of the various key features of the Selenium framework. If you are a tester, the following features will make Selenium an ideal choice for you:

• Open-Source: Selenium is an open-source, portable tool. You can download it for free and access its community-based help.
• Languages: It supports Java, Ruby, Perl, Python, C#, Groovy, JavaScript, and other languages in addition to its own script.
• OS Compatibility: It is compatible with various operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and UNIX. It allows you to write test cases in an operating system, say Windows and run them on another such as a Linux system, with ease.
• Browser Compatibility: It is compatible with various web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. You can run tests and test them across multiple browsers simultaneously.
• Framework Support: You can use Selenium with various programming languages and frameworks such as ANT or Maven frameworks for code writing. You can use it to test apps and generate reports with the TestNG framework. It integrates well with Jenkins, Hudson, and other open-source tools to offer other functionalities.
• Mobile Automation Testing: You can use the Selenium test automation to automate mobile web applications testing on Android, iPhone, and Blackberry.  
• Regular Updates: Selenium allows for frequent updates and upgrades that are simple to install.  
• Resourceful and Cost-effective: It is easy to use and does not require a lot of professional expertise. It is more than just a single tool or utility. The Selenium suite has various tools for specific testing needs and test environment constraints.
• Easy to Implement: Selenium offers a user-friendly interface making it simple to develop and perform tests.

Q4. What are the limitations of using Selenium as a testing tool?

You should be aware of the limitations Selenium has as a testing tool. It is one of the most commonly asked Selenium interview questions, and you must be concise in your answer. The major limitations are as follows:

• You can test web applications only, and you cannot use Selenium for captcha and barcode readers unless you integrate it with third-party tools like Appium and TestNG.
• It does not have a built-in reporting and test management facility: You will have to use third-party tools like TestNG or JUnit to generate reports.
• Selenium is an open-source tool, and it does not have dedicated support for user issues.
• You require knowledge of programming languages.

Q5. Can you use Selenium to launch web browsers?

You can use Selenium to launch web browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and others. You can use the following commands to launch web browsers using Selenium:

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();

Q6. What is Selenese?

This is one of the most frequently asked Selenium interview questions for software tester positions. Selenese is the language you use to write test scripts in Selenium IDE. It refers to a set of commands that you use to test your web application or system.

Q7. What are the different categories of Selenium commands?

The three main categories of Selenium commands are as follows:

• Actions are the commands that you use to interact directly with web applications.
• Accessor commands allow you to store values to a user-defined variable.
• Assertions commands enable a comparison of the current state of the application with its expected state.

Q8. What is XPath in Selenium?

You use XPath or an XML-Path (Extensible Markup Language Path) as a language to query XML documents and provide functionalities such as locating elements in Selenium by iterating through each element in a webpage. Your data is stored in a key-value pair format similar to an HTML tag in XPath.

Q9. What is the difference between "/" and "//" in XPath?

XPath uses a single slash ('/) for creating an absolute path. The XPath will start with the document node or start node. Contrastingly, a double slash ('//') is for creating a relative path for an element to be located on a webpage. Here XPath can start the selection from anywhere on the page.

Q10. What are the significant upgrades in various Selenium versions?

The various Selenium version offered the following key upgrades:

• Selenium v1.0: It was the initial release of Selenium that included three tools – Selenium IDE, Selenium RC, and Selenium Grid.
• Selenium v2.0: This version introduced the Selenium WebDriver while replacing Selenium RC.
• Selenium v3: The latest Selenium 3 includes Selenium IDE, Selenium WebDriver, and Selenium Grid.

Selenium Interview Questions for Experienced Developers

If you are preparing for senior test engineer interviews, you should prepare the following Selenium interview questions for experienced individuals.

Q1. Why would you choose Selenium RC over IDE?

You must consider the following point while answering such Selenium interview questions. Selenium RC can diminish certain limitations of Selenium IDE in terms of browser support and language support.

• IDE supports only HTML, and thus it does not support functions like logging, conditional statements, iterations, test case results reporting, and more. Contrastingly, you can use Selenium RC to communicate with other languages like Perl, Python, and more.
• IDE is an add-on that is only supported by Firefox, while RC is an API that supports Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari, and much more.

Q2. Why would you choose Webdriver over Selenium RC?

This is one of the most important Selenium interview questions that require you to compare the two services. You must elaborate on the following points while answering this question:

• WebDriver is faster than Selenium RC as it has a simpler architecture.
• WebDriver directly connects to the browser, unlike Selenium RC, which requires the help of the RC Server to do so.
• WebDriver's API is more concise than that of Selenium RC.
• Unlike RC, WebDriver supports Htmlunit.

Q3. How would you work with multiple windows in Selenium?

You can use the selectWindow() command in Selenium to switch among the working windows. The title of the window is the distinguishing factor among all the windows.  

Q4. How would you verify the specific position of a web element?

You can use the verifyElementPositionLeft and verifyElementPositionTop commands to verify the specific position of a web element. These commands use pixel comparison by identifying the position of the element from the top and the left of the web page.

Q5. How can you detect broken links in Selenium?

You must check for broken links on your website and ensure that the visitor does not end up on an error page. You can find broken links in Selenium by the following steps:

• You must use the <a> (anchor) tag to collect all of the links on a web page.
• You will have to send an HTTP request for each link.  
• You must ensure that the HTTP response code is correct.
• Next, you will determine whether the link is genuine or not based on the HTTP response code.
• You should repeat the procedure for all of the links collected in the first step.

Selenium Interview Questions on TestNG

You might often integrate TestNG with Selenium for functional and Regression Testing. Here are a few Selenium interview questions that check your fundamental knowledge of TestNG and its usage.

1. Why should you use TestNG?
2. What are the primary features of the TestNG framework?
3. How do TestNG hard and soft assertions differ?
4. What is the use of the "TestNG.XML" File?
5. How would you pass a string value to a test using the "TestNG.XML" file?
6. How can you run multiple TestNG tests in parallel?
7. How would you block a test method from execution in TestNG?

Selenium Interview Questions on WebDriver

You must also practice answering the following Selenium interview questions for your upcoming tech interview.

1. What are the different waiting methods in Selenium WebDriver?
2. What are the different types of drivers in WebDriver?
3. State the different types of mobile testing drivers supported in WebDriver.
4. What programming languages can you use to write the test cases in WebDriver?
5. What is the difference between asserting and verifying commands in Selenium Web Driver?
6. What are the various types of annotations used in Selenium WebDriver?
7. How would you handle an Authentication Pop-up using Selenium WebDriver?

Basic Java Interview Questions for Selenium

The following Java coding interview questions for automation developers will help you stand out in the coding interview rounds.

1. Given an array, write a program in Java to find out the first two max values from an array?
2. Find the longest substring from a given string that doesn't contain any duplicate characters.
3. What code would you use to filter duplicate elements from an array and print them as a list?
4. Write code in Java to sort the list of strings using Java collection?
5. Write a function in Java to reverse a given number.
6. Write a method in Java to check a prime number.
7. Write a code in Java to remove multiple spaces from a string.
8. Write a program in Java to identify a number as Palindrome.

Some Additional Selenium Interview Questions for Practice

1. What can be done for a Selenium script that runs in Chrome but not in IE?
2. Can you do responsive web design testing using Selenium?
3. Can you perform database testing with Selenium?
4. What is the significance of assertions in Selenium? What are the types of assertions?
5. What testing types does Selenium support?
6. How would you use the implicit waiting method and explicit waiting method in your script?
7. How would you check whether a particular element is visible on the page or not?
8. How would you modify test cases in Selenium IDE?
9. What is the significance of JUnit in the Selenium testing tool?
10. How are the quit () and the close () methods different from each other in Selenium?

This completes the list of selenium questions asked in interviews. You must practice these and take a few mock interviews to uplevel your next tech interview prep. You can also look at some QA Automation Interview Questions on testing, coding, and architecture.

FAQs on Selenium Interview Questions

Q1. How to prepare for Selenium interview questions?

You must focus on the most frequently asked Selenium interview questions and practice answering them. You can enroll for mock interviews to develop effective strategies for your interview prep and the final day.  

Q2. Do interviewers cover TestNG in Selenium interview questions?

You should be prepared for a few TestNG questions along with Selenium interview questions. While Selenium specifically tests the UI of the application and how it behaves on the browser, the use of TestNG helps to test the unit, functional, E2E, integration testing of the application. Therefore, TestNG is often covered as an important topic in Selenium interview questions.

Q3. What are the important topics for Selenium interview questions?

You should be thorough with automation testing, installation of Selenium WebDriver, the procedure to create Selenium Webdriver script using Java, WebDriver commands, navigation commands, WebElement commands, TestNG for Selenium interview questions.

Q4. Is Java important for Selenium?

You must know that up to 77% of Selenium testers use Java as it makes knowledge sharing easy and quick. It is important for Selenium because there are abundant readily available frameworks, APIs, plugins, and libraries that support Java for test automation.

Q5. Is coding important for Selenium interview rounds?

You should be well-prepared for coding interview questions as Selenium requires you to write test scripts in languages such as Java, Ruby, NodeJS, PHP, Perl, Python, and C#. The interviewers will check your coding capabilities in the various interview rounds.

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