Verify navigation using XPath axes on a sample HTML table

Preconditions (2)

Step 1: Open the web page at http://example.com/tablepage

Step 2: Locate the cell with text 'Row 2' in the first column

Step 3: Using XPath parent axis, find the parent row element of this cell

Step 4: Using XPath following-sibling axis, find the next row after the parent row

Step 5: Using XPath preceding axis, find the previous row before the parent row

Step 6: Verify the text in the first column of the following sibling row is 'Row 3'

Step 7: Verify the text in the first column of the preceding row is 'Row 1'

✅ Expected Result: The parent row is correctly identified, the following sibling row contains 'Row 3', and the preceding row contains 'Row 1' in the first column

Automation Requirements - Selenium WebDriver with Java

Assertions Needed:

Assert that the parent row element is not null

Assert that the following sibling row's first column text equals 'Row 3'

Assert that the preceding row's first column text equals 'Row 1'

Best Practices:

Use explicit waits to ensure elements are present before interacting

Use By.xpath with clear and maintainable XPath expressions

Avoid absolute XPath; use relative XPath with axes

Use Page Object Model pattern for element locators if expanding test suite

Automated Solution

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.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;
import java.time.Duration;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;

public class XPathAxesTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path/to/chromedriver");
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
        WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));
        try {
            driver.get("http://example.com/tablepage");

            // Wait for the table cell with text 'Row 2' in first column
            WebElement cellRow2 = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(
                By.xpath("//table//td[text()='Row 2']")
            ));

            // Find parent row of this cell using parent axis
            WebElement parentRow = cellRow2.findElement(By.xpath("parent::tr"));
            assertNotNull(parentRow, "Parent row should not be null");

            // Find following sibling row using following-sibling axis
            WebElement followingSiblingRow = parentRow.findElement(By.xpath("following-sibling::tr[1]"));
            String followingSiblingText = followingSiblingRow.findElement(By.xpath("td[1]")).getText();
            assertEquals("Row 3", followingSiblingText, "Following sibling row first column text should be 'Row 3'");

            // Find preceding row using preceding axis
            WebElement precedingRow = parentRow.findElement(By.xpath("preceding-sibling::tr[1]"));
            String precedingRowText = precedingRow.findElement(By.xpath("td[1]")).getText();
            assertEquals("Row 1", precedingRowText, "Preceding row first column text should be 'Row 1'");

            System.out.println("Test passed: XPath axes navigation works correctly.");
        } finally {
            driver.quit();
        }
    }
}

This test script uses Selenium WebDriver with Java to automate the manual test case.

First, it opens the target URL and waits explicitly for the table cell containing 'Row 2' to appear.

Then it uses the parent::tr XPath axis to find the row containing that cell.

Next, it finds the following sibling row using following-sibling::tr[1] and verifies the first column text is 'Row 3'.

Similarly, it finds the preceding sibling row using preceding-sibling::tr[1] and verifies the first column text is 'Row 1'.

Assertions ensure the test fails if any expected condition is not met.

Finally, the driver quits to close the browser.

Common Mistakes - 3 Pitfalls

{'mistake': 'Using absolute XPath like /html/body/table/tr[2]/td instead of relative XPath with axes', 'why_bad': 'Absolute XPath is brittle and breaks easily if page structure changes.', 'correct_approach': "Use relative XPath with axes like //td[text()='Row 2']/parent::tr for maintainability."}

Not using explicit waits before locating elements

Using findElement without checking if element exists, causing exceptions

Bonus Challenge

Now add data-driven testing with 3 different row texts: 'Row 2', 'Row 3', and 'Row 4' to verify their parent, following sibling, and preceding sibling rows.

Show Hint