Absolute vs relative XPath in Selenium Java - Test Execution Compared

Test Overview

This test opens a web page and locates the same element using both absolute and relative XPath. It verifies that both locators find the element and that the element's text matches the expected value.

Test Code - JUnit

Selenium Java

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;

public class XPathTest {
    WebDriver driver;

    @BeforeEach
    public void setUp() {
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
        driver.get("https://example.com/testpage");
    }

    @Test
    public void testAbsoluteAndRelativeXPath() {
        // Absolute XPath locator
        WebElement elementAbsolute = driver.findElement(By.xpath("/html/body/div[2]/div[1]/h1"));
        // Relative XPath locator
        WebElement elementRelative = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//div[@class='header']/h1"));

        String expectedText = "Welcome to Testing";

        assertEquals(expectedText, elementAbsolute.getText(), "Absolute XPath text mismatch");
        assertEquals(expectedText, elementRelative.getText(), "Relative XPath text mismatch");
    }

    @AfterEach
    public void tearDown() {
        if (driver != null) {
            driver.quit();
        }
    }
}

Execution Trace - 7 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts and Chrome browser opens	Browser window is open and ready	-	PASS
2	Navigates to https://example.com/testpage	Page loads with header containing <h1>Welcome to Testing</h1>	-	PASS
3	Finds element using absolute XPath /html/body/div[2]/div[1]/h1	Element located with text 'Welcome to Testing'	Element is found and text is retrievable	PASS
4	Finds element using relative XPath //div[@class='header']/h1	Element located with text 'Welcome to Testing'	Element is found and text is retrievable	PASS
5	Asserts element text from absolute XPath equals 'Welcome to Testing'	Text matches expected value	assertEquals passes	PASS
6	Asserts element text from relative XPath equals 'Welcome to Testing'	Text matches expected value	assertEquals passes	PASS
7	Test ends and browser closes	Browser window closed	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: Element not found using absolute XPath due to page structure change

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

Which XPath type is more fragile to page structure changes?

A Absolute XPath

B Relative XPath

C Both are equally fragile

D Neither is fragile

Key Result

Using relative XPath is a better practice because it is less likely to break when the page layout changes, making tests more reliable.