Are you preparing for a Selenium WebDriver interview? Below are the most frequently asked Selenium interview questions with Java code examples. These cover real-time scenarios and will help both freshers and experienced testers gain confidence.
1. What is Selenium WebDriver?
Selenium WebDriver is a web automation tool used to automate browser actions like clicking, typing, navigating, etc. It provides a programming interface to create and run test cases.
Java Example:
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
driver.get("https://example.com");
driver.findElement(By.id("login")).click();
2. How do you launch a browser in Selenium?
Using the WebDriver interface and browser-specific driver classes like ChromeDriver or FirefoxDriver.
Java Example:
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path/to/chromedriver.exe");
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
driver.get("https://google.com");
3. How to locate elements in Selenium?
Using locators: id, name, className, cssSelector, xpath, linkText, tagName
Java Example:
driver.findElement(By.id("username")).sendKeys("admin");
driver.findElement(By.name("password")).sendKeys("admin123");
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//button[@type='submit']")).click();
4. What is the difference between findElement() and findElements()?
| findElement() | findElements() |
|---|---|
| Returns a single WebElement | Returns a list of WebElements |
| Throws NoSuchElementException if not found | Returns an empty list if not found |
5. How do you handle dropdowns in Selenium?
Using the Select class.
Java Example:
WebElement dropdown = driver.findElement(By.id("country"));
Select select = new Select(dropdown);
select.selectByVisibleText("India");
6. How to handle alerts in Selenium?
Java Example:
Alert alert = driver.switchTo().alert();
System.out.println(alert.getText());
alert.accept(); // or alert.dismiss();
7. How do you handle multiple windows in Selenium?
String parent = driver.getWindowHandle();
Set<String> allWindows = driver.getWindowHandles();
for (String window : allWindows) {
if (!window.equals(parent)) {
driver.switchTo().window(window);
driver.close();
}
}
driver.switchTo().window(parent);
8. How to perform mouse hover in Selenium?
Actions action = new Actions(driver);
WebElement menu = driver.findElement(By.id("menu"));
action.moveToElement(menu).perform();
9. How do you handle dynamic elements?
Use dynamic XPath or wait strategies like explicit wait.
Example using XPath:
//input[contains(@id, 'user')]
Example using Explicit Wait:
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));
WebElement element = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("username")));
10. What are Waits in Selenium?
- Implicit Wait – waits globally
- Explicit Wait – waits for specific conditions
- Fluent Wait – waits with a polling interval
Example – Implicit Wait:
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(10));
11. How do you take a screenshot in Selenium?
TakesScreenshot ts = (TakesScreenshot) driver;
File src = ts.getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);
FileUtils.copyFile(src, new File("screenshot.png"));
12. How do you handle frames?
driver.switchTo().frame("frameName");
// Perform actions inside frame
driver.switchTo().defaultContent();
13. How do you perform scrolling in Selenium?
JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
js.executeScript("window.scrollBy(0,500)");
14. How do you validate a page title or URL?
Assert.assertEquals(driver.getTitle(), "Expected Title");
Assert.assertTrue(driver.getCurrentUrl().contains("dashboard"));
15. What is Page Object Model (POM)?
POM is a design pattern where each web page is represented as a class. Elements are defined as variables, and actions are methods.
Example:
public class LoginPage {
WebDriver driver;
@FindBy(id="username") WebElement username;
@FindBy(id="password") WebElement password;
@FindBy(id="login") WebElement loginBtn;
public LoginPage(WebDriver driver) {
PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);
}
public void login(String user, String pass) {
username.sendKeys(user);
password.sendKeys(pass);
loginBtn.click();
}
}
16. How do you run tests in multiple browsers?
Use WebDriverManager and pass the browser as a parameter.
WebDriver driver;
if(browser.equals("chrome")){
WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();
driver = new ChromeDriver();
} else if(browser.equals("firefox")){
WebDriverManager.firefoxdriver().setup();
driver = new FirefoxDriver();
}
17. What is the difference between get() and navigate().to()?
get()– loads a new pagenavigate().to()– can be used to go forward/backward in history
18. What is the difference between driver.close() and driver.quit()?
- close() – closes current browser window
- quit() – closes all windows and ends session
19. How to handle file upload?
driver.findElement(By.id("upload")).sendKeys("C:\\path\\file.txt");
20. How to handle file download in Selenium?
File download requires browser settings using ChromeOptions or FirefoxProfile to set download paths.
---👋 Hi, I'm Suriya — QA Engineer with 4+ years of experience in manual, API & automation testing.
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