Skipping and focusing tests (.skip, .only) in Cypress - Build an Automation Script

Verify skipping and focusing tests using .skip and .only in Cypress

Preconditions (2)

Step 1: Write three test cases: one to check the page title, one to check the login form presence, and one to check the login button is disabled initially

Step 2: Mark the second test case with .skip to skip it during test execution

Step 3: Mark the third test case with .only to run only this test case

Step 4: Run the Cypress test suite

Step 5: Observe which tests run and which are skipped

✅ Expected Result: Only the third test case runs and passes; the second test case is skipped; the first test case does not run

Automation Requirements - Cypress

Assertions Needed:

Verify the page title is correct in the first test

Verify the login form exists in the second test

Verify the login button is disabled initially in the third test

Best Practices:

Use .skip and .only correctly to control test execution

Use descriptive test names

Use Cypress commands and assertions consistently

Avoid mixing .skip and .only in the same test suite except for demonstration

Automated Solution

Cypress

describe('Login Page Tests', () => {
  it('checks the page title', () => {
    cy.visit('http://localhost:3000/login');
    cy.title().should('eq', 'Login Page');
  });

  it.skip('checks the login form presence', () => {
    cy.get('form#loginForm').should('exist');
  });

  it.only('checks the login button is disabled initially', () => {
    cy.get('button#loginButton').should('be.disabled');
  });
});

This test suite has three tests for the login page.

The first test visits the login page and checks the title.

The second test is marked with .skip, so Cypress will skip it during the run.

The third test is marked with .only, so Cypress will run only this test and ignore others.

This demonstrates how to focus on or skip tests easily during development or debugging.

Common Mistakes - 3 Pitfalls

Using .only on multiple tests in the same suite

Forgetting to remove .skip or .only before final test runs

Using .skip on important tests without a good reason

Bonus Challenge

Add a test suite with three tests and use .only to run only the second test. Then switch to .skip on the first and third tests.

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