E2E Testing Patterns

Comprehensive Playwright patterns for building stable, fast, and maintainable E2E test suites.

Test File Organization

tests/
├── e2e/
│   ├── auth/
│   │   ├── login.spec.ts
│   │   ├── logout.spec.ts
│   │   └── register.spec.ts
│   ├── features/
│   │   ├── browse.spec.ts
│   │   ├── search.spec.ts
│   │   └── create.spec.ts
│   └── api/
│       └── endpoints.spec.ts
├── fixtures/
│   ├── auth.ts
│   └── data.ts
└── playwright.config.ts

Page Object Model (POM)

import { Page, Locator } from '@playwright/test'

export class ItemsPage {
  readonly page: Page
  readonly searchInput: Locator
  readonly itemCards: Locator
  readonly createButton: Locator

  constructor(page: Page) {
    this.page = page
    this.searchInput = page.locator('[data-testid="search-input"]')
    this.itemCards = page.locator('[data-testid="item-card"]')
    this.createButton = page.locator('[data-testid="create-btn"]')
  }

  async goto() {
    await this.page.goto('/items')
    await this.page.waitForLoadState('networkidle')
  }

  async search(query: string) {
    await this.searchInput.fill(query)
    await this.page.waitForResponse(resp => resp.url().includes('/api/search'))
    await this.page.waitForLoadState('networkidle')
  }

  async getItemCount() {
    return await this.itemCards.count()
  }
}

Test Structure

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test'
import { ItemsPage } from '../../pages/ItemsPage'

test.describe('Item Search', () => {
  let itemsPage: ItemsPage

  test.beforeEach(async ({ page }) => {
    itemsPage = new ItemsPage(page)
    await itemsPage.goto()
  })

  test('should search by keyword', async ({ page }) => {
    await itemsPage.search('test')

    const count = await itemsPage.getItemCount()
    expect(count).toBeGreaterThan(0)

    await expect(itemsPage.itemCards.first()).toContainText(/test/i)
    await page.screenshot({ path: 'artifacts/search-results.png' })
  })

  test('should handle no results', async ({ page }) => {
    await itemsPage.search('xyznonexistent123')

    await expect(page.locator('[data-testid="no-results"]')).toBeVisible()
    expect(await itemsPage.getItemCount()).toBe(0)
  })
})

Playwright Configuration

import { defineConfig, devices } from '@playwright/test'

export default defineConfig({
  testDir: './tests/e2e',
  fullyParallel: true,
  forbidOnly: !!process.env.CI,
  retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0,
  workers: process.env.CI ? 1 : undefined,
  reporter: [
    ['html', { outputFolder: 'playwright-report' }],
    ['junit', { outputFile: 'playwright-results.xml' }],
    ['json', { outputFile: 'playwright-results.json' }]
  ],
  use: {
    baseURL: process.env.BASE_URL || 'http://localhost:3000',
    trace: 'on-first-retry',
    screenshot: 'only-on-failure',
    video: 'retain-on-failure',
    actionTimeout: 10000,
    navigationTimeout: 30000,
  },
  projects: [
    { name: 'chromium', use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] } },
    { name: 'firefox', use: { ...devices['Desktop Firefox'] } },
    { name: 'webkit', use: { ...devices['Desktop Safari'] } },
    { name: 'mobile-chrome', use: { ...devices['Pixel 5'] } },
  ],
  webServer: {
    command: 'npm run dev',
    url: 'http://localhost:3000',
    reuseExistingServer: !process.env.CI,
    timeout: 120000,
  },
})

Flaky Test Patterns

Quarantine

test('flaky: complex search', async ({ page }) => {
  test.fixme(true, 'Flaky - Issue #123')
  // test code...
})

test('conditional skip', async ({ page }) => {
  test.skip(process.env.CI, 'Flaky in CI - Issue #123')
  // test code...
})

Identify Flakiness

npx playwright test tests/search.spec.ts --repeat-each=10
npx playwright test tests/search.spec.ts --retries=3

Common Causes & Fixes

Race conditions:

// Bad: assumes element is ready
await page.click('[data-testid="button"]')

// Good: auto-wait locator
await page.locator('[data-testid="button"]').click()

Network timing:

// Bad: arbitrary timeout
await page.waitForTimeout(5000)

// Good: wait for specific condition
await page.waitForResponse(resp => resp.url().includes('/api/data'))

Animation timing:

// Bad: click during animation
await page.click('[data-testid="menu-item"]')

// Good: wait for stability
await page.locator('[data-testid="menu-item"]').waitFor({ state: 'visible' })

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