Flaky test management in Testing Fundamentals - Test Execution Trace

Test Overview

This test checks if a login button is clickable and leads to the dashboard page. It verifies the button presence and page navigation to catch flaky behavior caused by timing or element loading issues.

Test Code - Selenium with unittest

Testing Fundamentals

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
import unittest

class TestLoginButton(unittest.TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        self.driver = webdriver.Chrome()
        self.driver.get('https://example.com/login')

    def test_login_button_click(self):
        driver = self.driver
        wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
        # Wait until login button is clickable to avoid flaky failure
        login_button = wait.until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.ID, 'login-btn')))
        login_button.click()
        # Wait for dashboard page element to confirm navigation
        dashboard_header = wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'dashboard-header')))
        self.assertTrue(dashboard_header.is_displayed())

    def tearDown(self):
        self.driver.quit()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

Execution Trace - 5 Steps

Step	Action	System State	Assertion	Result
1	Test starts and Chrome browser opens	Browser is open at 'https://example.com/login' page	-	PASS
2	Wait until login button with ID 'login-btn' is clickable	Login page fully loaded, login button visible and enabled	Check that login button is clickable	PASS
3	Click the login button	Login button clicked, browser navigates to dashboard page	-	PASS
4	Wait until dashboard header with ID 'dashboard-header' is present	Dashboard page loaded with header element visible	Verify dashboard header is displayed	PASS
5	Test ends and browser closes	Browser closed, test complete	-	PASS

Failure Scenario

Failing Condition: Login button is not clickable within 10 seconds due to slow page load or overlay blocking it

Execution Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the test wait for before clicking the login button?

A The dashboard header to be visible

B The login button to be clickable

C The page title to be 'Dashboard'

D The login button to be present in the DOM

Key Result

Use explicit waits to ensure elements are ready before interacting. This reduces flaky test failures caused by timing or loading delays.