findElement by linkText in Selenium Java - Test Execution Trace

Test Overview

This test opens a web page, finds a link by its visible text using Selenium's findElement(By.linkText()) method, clicks the link, and verifies that the navigation was successful by checking the page title.

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 LinkTextTest {
    private WebDriver driver;

    @BeforeEach
    public void setUp() {
        driver = new ChromeDriver();
    }

    @Test
    public void testFindElementByLinkText() {
        driver.get("https://example.com");
        WebElement link = driver.findElement(By.linkText("More information..."));
        link.click();
        String expectedTitle = "IANA — IANA-managed Reserved Domains";
        assertEquals(expectedTitle, driver.getTitle());
    }

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

Execution Trace - 6 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts and Chrome browser opens	Chrome browser window is open and ready	-	PASS
2	Navigate to https://example.com	Browser displays the Example Domain homepage with a link labeled 'More information...'	-	PASS
3	Find the link element by visible link text 'More information...'	Link element is located on the page	Verify element is found without exception	PASS
4	Click the found link element	Browser navigates to the linked page	-	PASS
5	Check the page title matches 'IANA — IANA-managed Reserved Domains'	Browser shows the IANA reserved domains page	Assert that actual title equals expected title	PASS
6	Close the browser and end the test	Browser window is closed	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: The link with text 'More information...' is not found on the page

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

Which Selenium method is used to find a link by its visible text?

A findElement(By.id())

B findElement(By.linkText())

C findElement(By.className())

D findElement(By.cssSelector())

Key Result

Always use the exact visible text when using findElement(By.linkText()) to avoid NoSuchElementException and ensure reliable element location.