Top 20 Cypress interview questions with answer

Question: What is Cypress?

Answer: Cypress is a JavaScript-based end-to-end testing framework that is used to automate browser testing. It provides a simple and intuitive API for interacting with web elements and performing various testing operations.

Question: What are the advantages of using Cypress for testing?

Answer: Some advantages of using Cypress for testing are:

• Easy setup and installation.
• Powerful built-in assertions and test runners.
• Automatic waiting and retries for handling asynchronous behavior.
• Real-time reloading and time-travel debugging for faster test development.
• Supports modern web technologies and frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.

Question: How does Cypress differ from other testing frameworks like Selenium?

Answer: Cypress differs from Selenium in the following ways:

• Cypress runs directly in the browser and can access everything on the browser’s JavaScript runtime, providing better control and visibility into the application under test.
• Cypress has a simpler and more expressive API for writing tests compared to Selenium.
• Cypress eliminates the need for flaky and unreliable XPath or CSS selectors by allowing you to directly interact with elements using functions like cy.get().

Question: What are some common Cypress commands used for element selection?

Answer: Some common Cypress commands for element selection are:

• cy.get() - Selects an element based on a CSS selector.
• cy.contains() - Selects an element based on its text content.
• cy.find() - Selects an element within a parent element.
• cy.get().as() - Assigns an alias to an element for later use.

Question: How do you handle asynchronous operations in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress automatically waits for commands and assertions to complete before moving on to the next step. However, for certain scenarios, you can use explicit wait commands like cy.wait() or use the should() function to chain assertions to handle asynchronous behavior.

Question: What is a fixture in Cypress?

Answer: A fixture in Cypress is a way to load external data into your tests. It allows you to define and load test data from JSON files, CSV files, or other file formats. Fixtures can be used to simulate various test scenarios and test data sets.

Question: How can you handle test environment configurations in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress allows you to define different configuration files for different test environments (e.g., development, staging, production). You can create separate configuration files like cypress.dev.json or cypress.prod.json and use the Cypress.env() function to access environment-specific values.

Question: How do you perform API testing in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress provides a built-in way to perform API testing using the cy.request() command. It allows you to send HTTP requests, inspect responses, and make assertions on the API responses within your Cypress tests.

Question: How do you handle authentication in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress provides several ways to handle authentication, such as:

• Using the cy.request() command to authenticate before running the tests.
• Setting cookies or local storage values manually using the cy.setCookie() or cy.setLocalStorage() commands.
• Using custom commands or Cypress plugins to handle authentication flows.

Question: How do you handle browser alerts or pop-ups in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress provides the cy.on() command to listen for browser events, including alerts and pop-ups. You can use this command to intercept and handle alerts or pop-ups and perform actions or assertions accordingly.

Question: How do you run Cypress tests in a headless mode?

Answer: Cypress supports running tests in headless mode, which means running the tests without opening the Cypress Test Runner GUI. You can use the --headless flag when running Cypress from the command line to execute tests in headless mode.

Question: What are custom commands in Cypress?

Answer: Custom commands in Cypress allow you to define reusable commands that can be used across multiple tests. They can be created in the commands.js file or in separate files within the support folder. Custom commands help in keeping test code clean, readable, and maintainable.

Question: How can you generate test reports in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress generates a detailed test report in the Test Runner GUI. Additionally, you can generate test reports in other formats using third-party plugins like mochawesome or cypress-xunit-reporter. These plugins provide customizable test reports with enhanced features like screenshots, video recordings, and more.

Question: What is Cypress Test Retries?

Answer: Cypress Test Retries is a built-in feature that allows you to automatically retry failed tests. You can configure the number of retries and conditions for retrying the tests in the Cypress configuration file (cypress.json).

Question: How do you handle file uploads in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress allows you to simulate file uploads by interacting with the file input element using the cy.fixture() and cy.get().attachFile() commands. You can use the cy.fixture() command to load the file from a fixture and then attach it to the file input element using the cy.get().attachFile() command.

Question: How can you configure Cypress to work with TypeScript?

Answer: To use TypeScript with Cypress, you need to install TypeScript and configure it with Cypress. You can create a tsconfig.json file in the project root, install Cypress TypeScript definitions, and use TypeScript syntax for writing Cypress tests.

Question: How do you handle test data cleanup in Cypress?

Answer: Cypress does not have built-in test data cleanup functionality. However, you can use custom commands or hooks like beforeEach() or afterEach() to perform test data cleanup by making API requests or interacting with the application to delete or reset the test data.

Question: What are some best practices for writing Cypress tests?

Answer: Some best practices for writing Cypress tests include:

• Keep tests focused, short, and readable.
• Use descriptive test and assertion names.
• Use custom commands or page objects to avoid code duplication.
• Make tests resilient to changes by using data attributes or unique selectors.
• Use fixtures for test data and avoid hardcoding data in test files.

Question: What are some limitations or drawbacks of using Cypress?

Answer: Some limitations or drawbacks of using Cypress include:

• Limited browser support (primarily focused on modern Chrome browsers).
• Inability to test across multiple tabs or windows simultaneously.
• Difficulty in testing scenarios that involve file downloads or handling third-party integrations.
• Limited support for testing on mobile devices.

Question: How can you integrate Cypress with a continuous integration (CI) system?

Answer: Cypress can be integrated with popular CI systems like Jenkins, Travis CI, or CircleCI. You can configure your CI system to install dependencies, run Cypress tests in headless mode, and generate test reports. Additionally, Cypress provides its own dashboard service for parallel test execution and advanced reporting.

For more articles consider making a follow on my account. Thanks…