Playwright Testing Interview Questions: Ace Your Next Automation Interview
In the fast-evolving world of automation testing, Playwright has become a go-to tool for many companies. Developed by Microsoft, Playwright supports testing across multiple browsers, platforms, and programming languages. If you’re preparing for an automation testing interview, mastering Playwright can give you a solid edge.
In this blog post, we’ll cover the most frequently asked Playwright testing interview questions, categorized by experience level. We’ve also included a helpful FAQ section to address common queries about Playwright.
Why Playwright for Automation Testing?
Before diving into questions, let’s understand why Playwright is favored in the automation testing space:
Supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit
Cross-platform and cross-language (JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, C#, Java)
Built-in wait mechanisms and auto-waiting
Supports headless and headed modes
Seamless parallel execution
Basic Playwright Interview Questions (0–2 Years Experience)
1. What is Playwright?
Playwright is an open-source automation library developed by Microsoft that enables reliable end-to-end testing for modern web applications. It supports multiple browsers and languages.
2. How do you install Playwright in a Node.js project?
npm init -y
npm install -D @playwright/test
npx playwright install
3. What browsers does Playwright support?
Playwright supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit out of the box.
4. What is the difference between Playwright and Selenium?
Playwright is faster, more modern, and supports auto-waiting and context isolation. Selenium is more mature and widely adopted but may require additional configurations for advanced features.
5. How do you launch a browser using Playwright?
const { chromium } = require(‘playwright’);
(async () => {
const browser = await chromium.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto(‘https://example.com’);
await browser.close();
})();
Intermediate Playwright Interview Questions (2–5 Years Experience)
6. What is the Playwright Test Runner?
The Playwright Test Runner is a built-in testing framework provided with Playwright for structuring and executing tests with features like parallel execution, test fixtures, retries, and screenshots.
7. What is a browser context?
A browser context is an isolated environment within a browser instance. It allows you to simulate multiple sessions in a single test run.
8. How do you perform parallel testing in Playwright?
Playwright enables parallel testing at the worker and test file levels using the built-in test runner:
npx playwright test– workers=4
9. What is auto-waiting in Playwright?
Playwright automatically waits for elements to be ready before interacting with them, reducing the need for explicit waits.
10. How do you handle alerts and pop-ups in Playwright?
Use the page.on('dialog') event to handle alerts:
page.on(‘dialog’, async dialog => {
console.log(dialog.message());
await dialog.accept();
});
Advanced Playwright Interview Questions (5+ Years Experience)
11. How do you handle authentication in Playwright?
You can use browser context storage or manually log in once and save the authentication state:
await page.context().storageState({ path: ‘auth.json’ });
12. Can Playwright be integrated with CI/CD tools?
Yes. Playwright integrates smoothly with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Azure Pipelines.
13. What are fixtures in Playwright?
Fixtures are reusable pieces of code or configurations used to set up test environments. They improve modularity and test clarity.
14. How do you debug Playwright tests?
You can:
Use
--debugmodeAdd
page.pause()In your testUse
npx playwright codegento generate test scripts interactively
15. What is the use of tracing in Playwright?
Tracing records test execution steps, including screenshots, DOM snapshots, and network logs. It helps debug failed tests.
await page.context().tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true });
await page.context().tracing.stop({ path: ‘trace.zip’ });
Conclusion
Mastering Playwright is a valuable skill for anyone in the automation testing domain. These Playwright interview questions cover key concepts, real-world scenarios, and technical implementations to help you confidently approach interviews.
Whether you’re a fresher or a seasoned QA engineer, understanding Playwright’s architecture, features, and capabilities can set you apart from other candidates.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Is Playwright better than Cypress?
Playwright supports multiple browsers, languages, and mobile emulation, which gives it an edge over Cypress for cross-browser testing.
Q2. Can Playwright test mobile apps?
Not native mobile apps, but it supports mobile emulation for responsive testing on web apps.
Q3. Does Playwright support API testing?
Yes. Playwright can send HTTP requests using its APIRequestContext feature.
Q4. What languages can I use with Playwright?
Playwright supports JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, C#, and Java.
Q5. Is Playwright free to use?
Yes. Playwright is open-source and free under the Apache 2.0 license.