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If you’ve ever struggled with flaky UI tests or slow browser automation, it might be time to try Playwright—a modern testing library built by Microsoft that makes end-to-end testing easier, faster, and more reliable.

🎯 What is playwright?

Playwright is an open-source Node.js library that lets you automate browsers (Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit) with a single API. It’s designed for end-to-end testing of web applications—across all modern browsers and devices.

It works headless or in full browser mode and supports JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java, and .NET.

🧪 What can you test with playwright?

You can use Playwright to:

✅ Test full user flows (e.g., login, checkout, dashboards)
✅ Run tests in parallel across multiple browsers
✅ Simulate mobile devices and geolocation
✅ Record videos, screenshots, and network logs
✅ Handle complex UI events like file uploads, drag-and-drop, and more

⚙️ How playwright works

At its core, Playwright launches a browser instance and lets you control it programmatically. It interacts with your app like a real user—clicking buttons, typing text, scrolling, etc.

Example test in JavaScript:

const { test, expect } = require('@playwright/test');

test('homepage loads', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  await expect(page).toHaveTitle(/Example/);
});

This test launches a browser, visits a page, and checks its title—simple and readable.

🧰 Key features that make playwright shine

Feature	Description
🌐 Cross-browser	Chromium, Firefox, WebKit—all with one API
📸 Tracing & debugging	Screenshots, videos, execution trace
📱 Device emulation	Test on iPhones, Android, tablets, etc.
🌍 Network mocking	Intercept and stub network requests
🧪 Test isolation	Auto-creates a new browser context per test
💬 Auto-waiting	Waits for elements to be ready before interacting

🧱 Playwright vs selenium vs cypress

Feature	Selenium	Cypress	Playwright
Language Support	Many	JS only	JS, Python, Java, .NET
Browser Support	All major	Chrome only	All major (incl. WebKit)
Test Speed	Slow	Fast	Very fast
Parallel Execution	Manual	Paid (via Dashboard)	Built-in
Mobile Emulation	Limited	Limited	✅ Native
Headless Mode	✅	✅	✅

🚀 Getting started with playwright

Install via npm:

npm install -D @playwright/test
npx playwright install

Create a simple test:

text
// tests/example.spec.js
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('login flow', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://myapp.com/login');
  await page.fill('#username', 'user1');
  await page.fill('#password', 'password123');
  await page.click('button[type="submit"]');
  await expect(page).toHaveURL(/dashboard/);
});

Run the test:

npx playwright test

Add --headed to watch the test in a visible browser, or --debug to inspect step-by-step.

🧪 Bonus: record tests with codegen

Use the built-in recorder to generate test code automatically as you click through your app:

npx playwright codegen https://your-app.com

This opens a browser and generates the corresponding test code in real time.

✅ Best practices

✅ Use page.locator() instead of hardcoded selectors
✅ Run tests in parallel (npx playwright test --project=…)
✅ Use test.describe() to group related scenarios
✅ Enable tracing for flaky test debugging
✅ Keep tests isolated with fresh contexts per test

🧠 Conclusion

Playwright is a modern, end-to-end testing tool that offers cross-platform support, rapid automation, and advanced browser control. Its focus on stability, speed, and flexibility makes it a solid choice for teams needing to validate complete user flows in modern web applications.