Data cleanup approaches in Cypress - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

Why is data cleanup important in automated tests?

Imagine you run automated tests that create users in a system. Why should you clean up this test data after the tests finish?

A To make the test reports look nicer

B Because cleaning data makes tests run faster

C To avoid cluttering the database and causing false test results in future runs

D Because Cypress requires data cleanup to start tests

💡 Hint

Think about how leftover data might affect later tests.

Cleaning test data prevents leftover entries from interfering with future tests, ensuring tests run reliably and results stay accurate.

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What is the output of this Cypress test cleanup code?

Consider this Cypress command that deletes a user by ID after a test:

afterEach(() => {
  cy.request('DELETE', '/api/users/123')
    .then((response) => {
      cy.log(response.status)
    })
})

What will be logged if the user is successfully deleted?

Cypress

afterEach(() => {
  cy.request('DELETE', '/api/users/123')
    .then((response) => {
      cy.log(response.status)
    })
})

A 200

B 404

C 500

D undefined

💡 Hint

HTTP 200 means success for DELETE requests.

If the user exists and is deleted, the server responds with status 200, which is logged by cy.log.

❓ assertion

advanced

Which assertion correctly verifies test data cleanup?

You want to check that a user with ID 456 no longer exists after cleanup. Which Cypress assertion is correct?

Cypress

cy.request({ method: 'GET', url: '/api/users/456', failOnStatusCode: false })
  .its('status')
  .should(/* fill here */)

A .should('eq', 200)

B .should('be.null')

C .should('not.exist')

D .should('eq', 404)

💡 Hint

Think about the HTTP status code when a resource is not found.

A 404 status means the user was not found, confirming cleanup was successful.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this cleanup code fail to delete test data?

Look at this Cypress cleanup code snippet:

after(() => {
  return cy.request('DELETE', '/api/users/789')
})

Tests pass but data is not deleted. What is the likely cause?

A Cypress cannot send DELETE requests

B The after() hook runs after all tests, but the deletion request is asynchronous and not waited on

C The user ID 789 does not exist, so deletion silently fails

D The DELETE method is not supported by the API

💡 Hint

Consider how Cypress handles asynchronous commands in hooks.

after() runs once after all tests, but without returning or chaining the request, Cypress may finish before the request completes, so deletion might not happen.

❓ framework

expert

Which Cypress approach ensures reliable test data cleanup across multiple tests?

You have many tests creating users. You want to clean all test users after the test suite finishes. Which approach is best?

A Use an <code>after()</code> hook to send a single API request that deletes all test users by a shared tag

B Use <code>afterEach()</code> to delete users one by one after each test

C Manually delete users in the UI after tests finish

D Do not clean data; rely on database resets between test runs

💡 Hint

Think about efficiency and reliability for large test suites.

Using an after() hook with a single API call to delete all test users by a tag is efficient and ensures cleanup happens once after all tests.