Handling StaleElementReferenceException in Selenium Java - Test Execution Trace

Test Overview

This test checks how to handle the StaleElementReferenceException in Selenium Java. It verifies that the test retries finding an element if it becomes stale after a page update.

Test Code - JUnit 5 with Selenium WebDriver

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.openqa.selenium.StaleElementReferenceException;
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 StaleElementHandlingTest {
    WebDriver driver;

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

    @AfterEach
    public void tearDown() {
        driver.quit();
    }

    @Test
    public void testHandleStaleElement() {
        WebElement dynamicText = driver.findElement(By.id("dynamic-text"));
        WebElement button = driver.findElement(By.id("refresh-btn"));
        button.click();

        int attempts = 0;
        while (attempts < 3) {
            try {
                String text = dynamicText.getText();
                assertEquals("Updated Text", text);
                break;
            } catch (StaleElementReferenceException e) {
                dynamicText = driver.findElement(By.id("dynamic-text"));
                attempts++;
            }
        }
    }
}

Execution Trace - 7 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts and Chrome browser opens	Browser opened at https://example.com/dynamic	-	PASS
2	Find element with id 'refresh-btn'	Button element located on page	-	PASS
3	Click the 'refresh-btn' button to update page content	Page content starts updating dynamically	-	PASS
4	Try to find element with id 'dynamic-text' and get its text	Element may be stale due to page update	Check if element text equals 'Updated Text'	FAIL
5	Catch StaleElementReferenceException and retry finding element	Element reference refreshed after retry	Check if element text equals 'Updated Text'	PASS
6	Assertion passes confirming text is 'Updated Text'	Test confirms updated page content	assertEquals("Updated Text", text)	PASS
7	Test ends and browser closes	Browser closed	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: The element 'dynamic-text' remains stale after all retry attempts

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What causes the StaleElementReferenceException in this test?

A The element locator is incorrect

B The element was removed or refreshed after the page update

C The browser failed to open the page

D The assertion text is wrong

Key Result

Always re-locate web elements after page updates to avoid stale element exceptions. Use retry logic or explicit waits to handle dynamic page changes gracefully.