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

Test Overview

This test opens a browser, navigates to a page, opens a new tab, then closes the current tab using close() and finally quits the entire browser session using quit(). It verifies the behavior difference between close() and quit().

Test Code - Selenium

Selenium Python

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
import time

def test_close_vs_quit():
    driver = webdriver.Chrome()
    driver.get('https://example.com')
    
    # Open a new tab
    driver.execute_script("window.open('https://example.com', '_blank');")
    time.sleep(1)  # Wait for tab to open
    
    # Switch to the new tab
    driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[1])
    
    # Close current tab (should close the second tab)
    driver.close()
    
    # Switch back to first tab
    driver.switch_to.window(driver.window_handles[0])
    
    # Verify only one tab remains
    assert len(driver.window_handles) == 1
    
    # Quit entire browser session
    driver.quit()

Execution Trace - 9 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts and Chrome browser opens	Browser window is open, no page loaded yet	-	PASS
2	Navigate to 'https://example.com'	Browser displays example.com homepage	-	PASS
3	Execute JavaScript to open a new tab with 'https://example.com'	Two tabs open, both showing example.com	-	PASS
4	Wait 1 second for new tab to load	Two tabs fully loaded	-	PASS
5	Switch to the new tab (second tab)	Focus on second tab showing example.com	-	PASS
6	Close current tab (the second tab)	Second tab closed, first tab remains open	-	PASS
7	Switch to first tab	Focus on first tab showing example.com	Verify only one tab remains open	PASS
8	Assert number of open tabs is 1	One tab open	assert len(driver.window_handles) == 1	PASS
9	Quit entire browser session	All browser windows and tabs closed, WebDriver session ended	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: If the test tries to switch to a tab that was already closed or if quit() is not called properly

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the driver.close() command do in this test?

A Closes the current browser tab only

B Closes all browser tabs and ends the session

C Switches to the first tab

D Opens a new browser tab

Key Result

Use driver.close() to close only the current tab or window, and use driver.quit() to close all browser windows and end the WebDriver session cleanly.