Closing browser (close vs quit) in Selenium Java - Test Execution Compared

Test Overview

This test demonstrates the difference between driver.close() and driver.quit() in Selenium Java. It verifies that close() closes the current browser window, while quit() closes all windows and ends the WebDriver session.

Test Code - JUnit 5 with Selenium WebDriver

Selenium Java

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
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.*;

public class CloseVsQuitTest {
    WebDriver driver;

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

    @Test
    public void testCloseClosesCurrentWindow() {
        String originalWindow = driver.getWindowHandle();
        driver.close();
        // After close, driver should throw exception when switching to window
        Exception exception = assertThrows(org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchWindowException.class, () -> {
            driver.switchTo().window(originalWindow);
        });
        assertNotNull(exception);
    }

    @Test
    public void testQuitClosesAllWindowsAndEndsSession() {
        driver.quit();
        Exception exception = assertThrows(org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchSessionException.class, () -> {
            driver.getTitle();
        });
        assertNotNull(exception);
    }

    @AfterEach
    public void tearDown() {
        try {
            driver.quit();
        } catch (Exception ignored) {
        }
    }
}

Execution Trace - 4 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts and ChromeDriver instance is created	Browser window opens and navigates to https://example.com	-	PASS
2	testCloseClosesCurrentWindow: driver.close() is called to close current window	Browser window closes, WebDriver session still active	Attempt to switch to closed window throws NoSuchWindowException	PASS
3	testQuitClosesAllWindowsAndEndsSession: driver.quit() is called to close all windows and end session	All browser windows closed, WebDriver session ended	Calling driver.getTitle() throws NoSuchSessionException	PASS
4	tearDown method calls driver.quit() to ensure cleanup	No browser windows open, session ended	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: If driver.close() does not close the current window or driver.quit() does not end the session

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does driver.close() do in Selenium WebDriver?

A Closes the current browser window

B Closes all browser windows and ends the session

C Minimizes the browser window

D Refreshes the current page

Key Result

Always use driver.quit() in cleanup to close all browser windows and properly end the WebDriver session, preventing resource leaks.