Selenium Cheat Sheet

Updated 2026-04-29

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Selenium is an open-source browser automation framework that enables programmatic control of web browsers across multiple platforms and languages. Originally created in 2004, it has evolved into the de facto standard for web application testing and automation, with Selenium WebDriver conforming to the W3C WebDriver specification since 2018. At its core, Selenium allows you to locate elements on a page, interact with them just as a user would, and verify behavior—making it indispensable for end-to-end testing, web scraping, and repetitive browser tasks. The key mental model: Selenium doesn't "see" the page like a human does; it navigates the DOM tree, so mastering locators and understanding how pages load asynchronously are essential to writing robust, non-flaky automation.

What This Cheat Sheet Covers

This topic spans 22 focused tables and 218 indexed concepts, 120 flashcards. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.

Table 1: WebDriver Initialization and SetupTable 2: Locator StrategiesTable 3: Element Interaction MethodsTable 4: Wait StrategiesTable 5: Actions Class (Mouse, Keyboard, and Scroll)Table 6: Select Class (Dropdown Handling)Table 7: JavaScript ExecutorTable 8: Navigation CommandsTable 9: Window and Frame HandlingTable 10: Alert HandlingTable 11: Browser Options and CapabilitiesTable 12: TimeoutsTable 13: Screenshots, Logs, and PrintTable 14: File UploadTable 15: Cookies and StorageTable 16: Selenium GridTable 17: Shadow DOMTable 18: Common ExceptionsTable 19: BiDirectional API (BiDi) and CDPTable 20: Page Object Model (POM) PatternTable 21: Best PracticesTable 22: Virtual Authenticator (WebAuthn Testing)

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Table 1: WebDriver Initialization and Setup

Every Selenium script begins by spinning up a driver for a specific browser, and getting this layer right removes the single most common source of early frustration—mismatched driver versions. Since Selenium 4.6, Selenium Manager handles driver downloads automatically, so most of these one-liners just work; the rest cover remote/Grid sessions and the cleanup calls (quit() vs close()) you should never forget in teardown.

Method	Example	Description
ChromeDriver	`from selenium import webdriver` `driver = webdriver.Chrome()`	• Launches a Chrome browser instance • Selenium Manager auto-downloads the matching ChromeDriver since 4.6+.
FirefoxDriver	`driver = webdriver.Firefox()`	• Launches Firefox using GeckoDriver • supports full Selenium features.
EdgeDriver	`driver = webdriver.Edge()`	• Launches Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) • requires matching EdgeDriver version.
SafariDriver	`driver = webdriver.Safari()`	• Launches Safari on macOS using built-in safaridriver • enable first with `safaridriver --enable` in terminal.
Selenium Manager	Automatic in Selenium 4.6+	• Automatically downloads and manages browser drivers without manual setup • enabled by default in Selenium 4.6+.
Remote WebDriver	`driver = webdriver.Remote(` `command_executor='http://hub:4444/wd/hub',` `options=chrome_options)`	• Connects to a remote Selenium server or Grid • enables distributed and parallel execution.
WebDriverManager (Java)	`WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();` `driver = new ChromeDriver();`	• Third-party Java library that auto-resolves and downloads drivers • eliminates manual driver management.
webdriver-manager (Python)	`from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager` `driver = webdriver.Chrome(ChromeDriverManager().install())`	• Python library for automatic driver installation • simplifies setup across platforms.
quit()	`driver.quit()`	• Closes all browser windows/tabs and ends the WebDriver session • always call in teardown.
close()	`driver.close()`	• Closes only the current browser window • session stays active if other windows are open.

Table 2: Locator Strategies

Locators are how you point Selenium at a specific element in the DOM, and choosing the right strategy is the difference between a robust test and a flaky one. ID and CSS selectors are fast and stable, XPath is the most flexible but slower, and Selenium 4's relative locators let you find elements by their visual position—above, below, or near another element—which holds up far better when layouts shift than brittle absolute paths.

Strategy	Example	Description
ID	`driver.find_element(By.ID, "username")`	Locates by `id` attribute — fastest and most reliable when IDs are unique.

The rest of this section is part of the full cheat sheet

Table 3: Element Interaction Methods

Once you've located an element, these are the methods that actually do something with it—clicking, typing, clearing, and reading back its text, state, and geometry. Note the shift in Selenium 4.27: the old get_attribute() is deprecated in favor of get_dom_attribute() for static HTML attributes and get_dom_property() for live values like a field's current text or a checkbox's checked state.

Method	Example	Description
click()	`element.click()`	• Simulates a left mouse click • element must be visible and enabled.

The rest of this section is part of the full cheat sheet

Table 4: Wait Strategies

Modern web pages load content asynchronously, so the element you want often isn't there the instant the page "loads"—and waits are how you handle that without flaky tests. Explicit waits paired with expected conditions are the gold standard: they poll until a precise condition is met (clickable, visible, text present) rather than blindly sleeping, which keeps tests both fast and reliable.

Wait	Example	Description
Explicit Wait	`WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(` `EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.ID, "btn")))`	• Waits for a specific condition to be true — most precise wait strategy • preferred over implicit wait.

The rest of this section is part of the full cheat sheet

Table 1: WebDriver Initialization and Setup

Method	Example	Description
ChromeDriver	`from selenium import webdriver` `driver = webdriver.Chrome()`	• Launches a Chrome browser instance • Selenium Manager auto-downloads the matching ChromeDriver since 4.6+.
FirefoxDriver	`driver = webdriver.Firefox()`	• Launches Firefox using GeckoDriver • supports full Selenium features.
EdgeDriver	`driver = webdriver.Edge()`	• Launches Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) • requires matching EdgeDriver version.
SafariDriver	`driver = webdriver.Safari()`	• Launches Safari on macOS using built-in safaridriver • enable first with `safaridriver --enable` in terminal.
Selenium Manager	Automatic in Selenium 4.6+	• Automatically downloads and manages browser drivers without manual setup • enabled by default in Selenium 4.6+.
Remote WebDriver	`driver = webdriver.Remote(` `command_executor='http://hub:4444/wd/hub',` `options=chrome_options)`	• Connects to a remote Selenium server or Grid • enables distributed and parallel execution.
WebDriverManager (Java)	`WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();` `driver = new ChromeDriver();`	• Third-party Java library that auto-resolves and downloads drivers • eliminates manual driver management.
webdriver-manager (Python)	`from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager` `driver = webdriver.Chrome(ChromeDriverManager().install())`	• Python library for automatic driver installation • simplifies setup across platforms.
quit()	`driver.quit()`	• Closes all browser windows/tabs and ends the WebDriver session • always call in teardown.
close()	`driver.close()`	• Closes only the current browser window • session stays active if other windows are open.

Table 2: Locator Strategies

Strategy	Example	Description
ID	`driver.find_element(By.ID, "username")`	Locates by `id` attribute — fastest and most reliable when IDs are unique.

Table 3: Element Interaction Methods

Method	Example	Description
click()	`element.click()`	• Simulates a left mouse click • element must be visible and enabled.

Table 4: Wait Strategies

Wait	Example	Description
Explicit Wait	`WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(` `EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.ID, "btn")))`	• Waits for a specific condition to be true — most precise wait strategy • preferred over implicit wait.