1.What is Automation Testing?
Automation testing uses specialized tools to execute pre-scripted tests on software applications before they are released into production. The main goal is to automate repetitive and time-consuming test cases.
2.What are the benefits of Automation Testing?
Answer: Benefits include faster execution, reusability of test scripts, increased test coverage, early bug detection, and cost savings over time.
3.What types of tests should be automated?
Answer: Repetitive tests, data-driven tests, regression tests, smoke tests, and performance tests are ideal candidates for automation.
4.What are some popular automation testing tools?
Answer: Selenium, QTP/UFT, Appium, JUnit, TestNG, Cypress, Ranorex, and Postman are widely used tools.
5. Explain the difference between Selenium and QTP.
Answer: Selenium is open-source and primarily used for web applications; it supports various browsers and programming languages. QTP (now UFT) is a paid tool from Micro Focus, supports desktop and web applications, and uses VBScript for scripting.
6. What is a Test Automation Framework?
Answer: A test automation framework is a set of guidelines or rules for creating and designing test cases. Examples include Data-driven, Keyword-driven, Hybrid, and Page Object Model frameworks.
7.What is the Page Object Model (POM)?
Answer: POM is a design pattern in Selenium that creates an object repository for web elements, improving test maintenance and reducing code duplication.
8.What is Continuous Integration in the context of automation testing?
Answer: Continuous Integration (CI) is a practice where developers frequently integrate code into a shared repository. Automated tests are run each time code is committed to ensure it doesn’t break the build.
9. How do you handle dynamic web elements in Selenium?
Answer: Dynamic elements can be handled by using different strategies like XPath with dynamic attributes, using Wait commands (Implicit, Explicit, Fluent Wait), or identifying elements based on their parent or sibling elements.
10. What are implicit, explicit, and fluent waits in Selenium?
Answer:
Implicit Wait: Waits for a certain amount of time for an element to be found before throwing an exception.
Explicit Wait: Waits for a certain condition to occur before proceeding with the next step.
Fluent Wait: Similar to Explicit Wait but checks for the condition at regular intervals.
11. What are the challenges faced in Automation Testing?
Answer: Challenges include high initial cost, maintaining scripts as the application evolves, selecting the right test cases for automation, handling dynamic web elements, and dealing with flaky tests.
12. Explain the concept of Data-Driven Testing.
Answer: Data-Driven Testing involves running the same set of test scripts with different sets of input data. This approach helps test the application's behavior with various data inputs.
13.What is the difference between Verification and Validation in testing?
Answer:
Verification: Ensures the product is designed as per the specifications.
Validation: Ensures the product meets the user's needs and performs as expected.
14. Can you explain what a ‘flaky test’ is and how to deal with it?
Answer: A flaky test is one that occasionally passes and occasionally fails without any changes to the codebase. To deal with flaky tests, review the test script for timing issues, use waits effectively, and isolate the test to reduce dependencies.
15.What is Selenium WebDriver, and how does it differ from Selenium RC?
Answer: Selenium WebDriver is a browser automation tool that allows direct communication with the browser, making it faster and more reliable. Selenium RC is the predecessor to WebDriver, which used a JavaScript program to interact with the browser.
16.How do you perform database testing using automation tools?
Answer: Database testing can be automated by writing SQL queries in the test scripts, using tools like JDBC in Java or database connectors, and verifying the results against the expected data.
17. What are TestNG and JUnit, and how do they differ?
Answer: Both are testing frameworks for Java, but TestNG offers more features such as data-driven testing, parallel execution, and better annotations. JUnit is simpler and is primarily used for unit testing.
18. How do you handle pop-ups and alerts in automation testing?
Answer: Selenium provides methods like alert.accept(), alert.dismiss(), and alert.sendKeys() to handle JavaScript pop-ups. For window-based pop-ups, third-party tools like AutoIT may be needed.
19. What is a build tool, and how is it used in automation testing?
Answer: A build tool automates the process of building the executable code from source code. Tools like Maven or Gradle are used in automation testing to manage dependencies, compile the code, and execute tests.
20. How do you ensure the reusability of test scripts in automation?
Answer: Reusability can be ensured by using modular scripts, maintaining a repository of reusable functions, following coding standards, and implementing frameworks like POM.