Note: If you are new to java and selenium then start with selenium java training videos . I generally prefer CSS selectors over XPath when writing Selenium locators. CSS selectors are concise, readable, and usually provide everything I need. However, there are situations where XPath is a better fit—particularly when I need to navigate through an element's hierarchy, such as moving from an element to its parent, grandparent, or sibling. This post shows one such real-world example. The Problem I came across a situation where I needed to click a link based on the value of an input field. The HTML structure contained multiple similar groups of elements. The input field and the link I wanted to click were not directly related, but they shared a common parent structure. In the following example above, the input element is highlighted, and I need to click the corresponding anchor ( <a> ) element . The challenge is that there may be multiple similar structures on the page. I th...
Most automation suites don’t fail loudly. They fail silently. Green build. 100% tests passed. Pipeline successful. And production still breaks. That is the silent killer of test automation: false confidence . Let’s talk about why it happens — and how to prevent it. 1. Passing Tests That Don’t Test Anything This is more common than we admit. Examples: Assertions that check only page titles Tests that don’t verify business outcomes Mock-heavy tests that ignore real integrations UI tests that only validate element presence, not behavior If your test doesn’t fail when the feature breaks, it is not a test — it is decoration. Ask yourself: If I intentionally break this feature, will this test catch it? If the answer is “maybe”… it won’t. 2. Over-Reliance on UI Automation UI automation (Selenium, Playwright, Cypress) is powerful — but fragile. Common mistake: Testing everything through the UI Ignoring API-level verification Treating end-to-end tests as the main safety net UI tests should...