Mastering Selectors/ Locators for Automation Testing!

Name: Mastering Selectors/ Locators for Automation Testing!
Rating: 4.5 (352 reviews)

Master XPath, CSS selectors and more! - A core skill for Selenium Webdriver and all other forms of automation testing!

Created byGianni Bruno

Last updated 8/2026

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Understand XPath and CSS Selectors in detail
The different types of of XPath and CSS Selectors
Full understand how to construct XPath and CSS Selector when there is no unique attribute available
How XPath and CSS Selectors are used in Selenium
The different types of methods available with XPath and CSS Selectors
The differences between CSS and XPath selectors

Course content

18 sections • 30 lectures • 3h 50m total length

Selectors & Test Automation Frameworks8:19
Develop effective selectors to power robust, efficient test automation frameworks across selenium, webdriver io, and cyprus, enabling reliable interaction with web elements such as buttons.

DOM & Elements - Part 1/211:55
Explore the document object model and html basics, then inspect elements with browser developer tools. Learn tags, opening and closing tags, classes, ids, and parent and child relationships for selectors.
DOM & Elements - Part 2/28:07
Explore how to use Chrome developer tools to inspect elements, view HTML source, and identify tags, classes, and IDs for precise selectors in automation testing.
DOM & Elements - Quiz

CSS vs XPath - Part 1/28:54
Compare CSS and XPath selectors for locating web elements, highlighting when to use id attributes and the trade-offs in traversal, performance, and browser consistency.
CSS vs XPath - Part 2/27:09
Explore practical XPath and CSS selectors in automation testing, using // and /, attributes, and ids to locate elements and build efficient, reliable selectors.
CSS vs XPath - Quiz

Descendant & Direct Descendant6:38
Explore descendant and direct descendant selectors with examples using ul and li, showing how to select all descendants under a parent or only direct children one level down.
Adjacent & Far Sibling6:39
Explore adjacent and far sibling selectors to locate web elements by sharing the same parent, using plus for adjacency and following for far siblings, with practical HTML examples.
Contains Both Classes7:12
Identify and locate elements containing two or more classes using dot notation, explore combining class and id selectors, and navigate nested elements to target forms and controls in automation testing.
CSS Combinators - Quiz

Disabled, Enabled & Checked4:36
Learn to locate web elements by state with selectors for disabled, enabled, and checked. The lecture shows radio buttons named vegetable and filtering by state to verify selections.
nth-child, nth-last-child & nth-of-type7:00
Explore how to locate web elements by order using nth-child, nth-last-child, and nth-of-type, applying even, odd, and last-child selectors to target list items and buttons.
first-child & last-child4:41
Apply first-child and last-child selectors to target web elements by class attributes, using contains checks to locate elements with beta in their class, enhancing automation testing precision.
CSS Pseudo Classes - Quiz

Requirements

Minimal HTML & CSS knowledge is an advantage (but not mandatory)
Minimal Selenium Webdriver or general automation knowledge would be an advantage (but not mandatory)

Description

Selectors/ locators is at the heart of automation testing. Learning how to identify them (without relying on tools) is a critical skill to becoming an automation tester.

Locators in Selenium, Cypress, WebdriverIO... can be referred to as one of the most critical components required to build effective and robust automaton tests, in turn making your tests become allot less Flaky. Its ideally the building block of all automation tests / scripts. It helps locate the GUI elements through which multiple user actions can be performed. These are one of the important parameters for scripting, and if they end up to be incorrect or brittle, they may lead to script failure. A good scripting base foundation requires elements to be located appropriately

Tools cannot be relied upon, as they do not often provide the most efficient selector/ locator available. Identifying selectors/ locators is also a common question asked in coding exercise during interviews.

This course teaches you:

How to identify selectors/ locators like a pro
Understand the difference between the different types of locators
The best approach to identify them
How to write your own custom locators
How to prepare for interview questions relating to selectors/ locators
How to gain confidence in writing selectors/ locators so you do not need to rely on tools
And more

By the end of this course you will be able to confidently identify and write your own custom locators without needing to rely on tools. This will provide you with the confidence and knowledge to write high quality Selenium test scripts.

Come master this core skill, today!

Who this course is for:

Complete beginners with no prior knowledge on XPath and CSS selectors
Manual Testers that would like to learn a core skill used by automation testers
Selenium testers that would like to improve their XPath and CSS knowledge
Selenium testers that would like to refresh their Xpath and CSS knowledge
Anyone that's wanting to learn how to identify elements using the conventional selector / locator approach

Mastering Selectors/ Locators for Automation Testing!

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction - Selectors & Test Automation Frameworks1 lecture • 8min

Why are Selectors / Locators so Important?1 lecture • 5min

System Under Test - (SUT)2 lectures • 2min

DOM & Elements2 lectures • 20min

CSS vs XPath2 lectures • 16min

Selector Tools1 lecture • 5min

CSS Selectors - Introduction1 lecture • 6min

CSS - Combinators3 lectures • 20min

CSS - Attribute Selectors1 lecture • 11min

CSS - Pseudo Classes3 lectures • 16min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: