Playwright Interview Questions for Freshers (2026): 35+ Real Questions with Answers

Playwright is an open-source end-to-end testing framework from Microsoft that automates Chromium, Firefox and WebKit with a single API. It supports TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java and .NET.

Auto-waiting, built-in tracing, parallel execution, network interception, fixtures and a faster local feedback loop. See our Playwright vs Selenium comparison.

Chromium (Chrome, Edge), Firefox and WebKit (Safari engine) — all bundled with the install.

The Library is the raw browser automation API. Playwright Test is the test runner that adds fixtures, parallelism, reporters and the test()/expect() syntax. Freshers should always use Playwright Test.

npm init playwright@latest

This installs the runner, browsers and a sample config. Full walkthrough in our installation guide.

Project list (browsers), testDir, retries, workers, reporter, use options (baseURL, headless, viewport, trace, screenshot, video).

npx playwright test tests/login.spec.ts

npx playwright test --headed

Locators are lazy, auto-retrying handles to elements. The recommended API is role-based: page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Submit' }).

1. getByRole — accessibility-first, most resilient
2. getByLabel — forms
3. getByPlaceholder / getByText
4. getByTestId — your own data-testid
5. CSS / XPath — last resort

page.$() returns an ElementHandle immediately (no auto-wait). page.locator() is lazy and re-queries on every action — always prefer it.

Use role/text locators plus locator.filter() or nth(). Avoid brittle absolute XPaths.

Before any action (click, fill, check) Playwright waits for the element to be attached, visible, stable, enabled and to receive events. No explicit sleeps needed.

Assertions like expect(locator).toBeVisible() retry until the condition is met or the timeout expires. Never use page.waitForTimeout() in real suites.

await Promise.all([
  page.waitForURL('**/dashboard'),
  page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Login' }).click(),
]);

Browser actions happen over a WebSocket protocol — they're inherently asynchronous. Forgetting await causes flaky tests and silent failures.

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('login works', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/login');
  await page.getByLabel('Email').fill('a@b.com');
  await page.getByLabel('Password').fill('secret');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Sign in' }).click();
  await expect(page).toHaveURL(/dashboard/);
});

Reusable setup units. The built-in page, context, browser are fixtures. You can write custom ones, e.g. authenticatedPage.

await page.getByLabel('Upload').setInputFiles('resume.pdf');

const [download] = await Promise.all([
  page.waitForEvent('download'),
  page.getByText('Export').click(),
]);
await download.saveAs('out.csv');

const frame = page.frameLocator('#payment');
await frame.getByLabel('Card').fill('4242');

const [popup] = await Promise.all([
  context.waitForEvent('page'),
  page.getByText('Open docs').click(),
]);

await page.route('**/api/user', r => r.fulfill({ json: { id: 1 } }));

Log in once in globalSetup, save storageState to a JSON file and reuse it across tests via use: { storageState: 'auth.json' }.

npx playwright test --debug opens the Playwright Inspector. The trace viewer (npx playwright show-trace trace.zip) shows DOM snapshots, network and console for every step.

use: { screenshot: 'only-on-failure', video: 'retain-on-failure', trace: 'on-first-retry' }

Files run in parallel by default across workers. Use test.describe.configure({ mode: 'parallel' }) to parallelise tests within a file.

Add a GitHub Actions step that runs npx playwright install --with-deps then npx playwright test. Upload the HTML report as an artifact.

A class that wraps locators and actions for a page. Reduces duplication and centralises maintenance. See our Playwright framework setup with TypeScript.

Yes — expose POM instances as fixtures so every test gets a fresh, typed object.

Keep static data in fixtures/ JSON files, generate dynamic data with @faker-js/faker, and clean up via API calls — not the UI.

Yes — request fixture lets you make REST calls without a browser. Useful for setup, validation or pure API tests. See our API testing interview questions.

It emulates mobile viewports and user agents via device descriptors (devices['iPhone 14']). For real devices, use Appium.

A BrowserContext is an isolated profile (cookies, storage). A page is a tab inside that context. One context can hold many pages.

test.skip('wip', async () => { });
test.only('focus me', async () => { });