Selenium Interview Questions 2025

Selenium is the world’s leading open-source tool for web automation testing. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced tester, cracking Selenium interviews requires understanding locators, WebDriver, waits, POM, Selenium Grid, and real-world testing scenarios.

1. What is Selenium?

Selenium is an open-source automation tool used to test web applications across browsers and platforms.

Components:

• Selenium IDE – Record & playback tool

• Selenium WebDriver – Browser automation API

• Selenium Grid – Parallel test execution

• Selenium RC – Legacy tool (deprecated)

2. Selenium Locators

Locators identify web elements.

Types: ID, Name, Class Name, Tag Name, Link Text, Partial Link Text, CSS Selector, XPath

Example:

WebElement username = driver.findElement(By.id("username"));
username.sendKeys("admin");

3. driver.close() vs driver.quit()

4. Handling Checkboxes

WebElement checkbox = driver.findElement(By.id("subscribe"));
if(!checkbox.isSelected()){
    checkbox.click();
}

5. Handling Dropdowns

Select dropdown = new Select(driver.findElement(By.id("options")));
dropdown.selectByVisibleText("Option 1");
dropdown.selectByValue("1");
dropdown.selectByIndex(0);

6. findElement() vs findElements()

• findElement() → Returns first element, throws exception if not found

• findElements() → Returns list, empty if none found

7. Opening a Webpage

driver.get("https://example.com");      
driver.navigate().to("https://example.com");

8. Selenium WebDriver

WebDriver automates browsers directly without a server.

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
driver.get("https://example.com");

9. Absolute vs Relative XPath

10. Mouse Actions

Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.moveToElement(element).click().build().perform();
actions.contextClick(element).perform();
actions.doubleClick(element).perform();

Medium Questions (11–20) <a name="medium-questions"></a>

11. Selenium Waits

• Implicit Wait: Global wait

• Explicit Wait: Wait for specific condition

• Fluent Wait: Polling frequency and exceptions

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 10);
WebElement loginBtn = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.id("login")));
loginBtn.click();

12. Handling Alerts

Alert alert = driver.switchTo().alert();
alert.accept();
alert.dismiss();
alert.getText();

13. Multiple Windows

String mainWindow = driver.getWindowHandle();
Set<String> windows = driver.getWindowHandles();
for(String win : windows){
    driver.switchTo().window(win);
}

14. Handling Frames

driver.switchTo().frame("frameName");
driver.switchTo().defaultContent();

15. Keyboard Actions

Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER).perform();
actions.keyDown(Keys.CONTROL).sendKeys("a").keyUp(Keys.CONTROL).perform();

16. Screenshots

File src = ((TakesScreenshot)driver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);
FileUtils.copyFile(src, new File("screenshot.png"));

17. Scrolling Using JS

JavascriptExecutor js = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
js.executeScript("window.scrollBy(0,500)");
js.executeScript("arguments[0].scrollIntoView();", element);

18. Page Object Model (POM)

public class LoginPage {
    WebDriver driver;
    By username = By.id("username");
    By password = By.id("password");

    public void login(String user, String pass){
        driver.findElement(username).sendKeys(user);
        driver.findElement(password).sendKeys(pass);
    }
}

19. Dynamic Elements

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[contains(@id,'user')]"));

20. Selenium Grid

• Parallel execution across browsers and OS

• Reduces total execution time

Diagram suggestion: Grid hub + nodes layout

Hard Questions (21–30) <a name="hard-questions"></a>

21. AJAX Elements

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 20);
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("ajaxElement")));

22. File Upload

driver.findElement(By.id("fileUpload")).sendKeys("C:\\path\\file.txt");

23. Headless Mode

ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.addArguments("--headless");
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

24. SSL Certificate Handling

ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.setAcceptInsecureCerts(true);
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

25. Console Logs

LogEntries logs = driver.manage().logs().get(LogType.BROWSER);
for(LogEntry entry : logs){
    System.out.println(entry.getMessage());
}

26. Drag & Drop

Actions actions = new Actions(driver);
actions.dragAndDrop(sourceElement, targetElement).perform();

27. Dynamic Tables

List<WebElement> rows = driver.findElements(By.xpath("//table/tbody/tr"));
for(WebElement row : rows){
    System.out.println(row.getText());
}

28. Assert vs Verify

• assert → Stops test execution if fails

• verify → Logs failure, continues execution

29. Selenium Limitations

• Cannot automate desktop applications

• Limited support for Captcha & images

• No built-in reporting

30. Integration with TestNG/JUnit

@Test
public void loginTest(){
    driver.get("https://example.com");
}

• TestNG annotations: @Test, @BeforeMethod, @AfterMethod

• Enables parallel execution and detailed reports