Supporting track

CI/CD for Automation

Pipelines, containers and notifications that run the suite without you.

What this track covers

Git & branchingMaven build lifecycleJenkins declarative pipelineGitLab CIDocker & GridScheduled executionParameterised runsReport publishingSlack/Teams notifications

Dockerised Grid in the pipeline

Spin the browser infrastructure up per run so CI and local execution are identical.

Why it is required: It eliminates the entire 'works on my machine' class of failures.

Example: docker compose up a Selenium Grid, run the suite against it, tear it down.

yaml

1services:
2  selenium-hub:
3    image: selenium/hub:4.27
4    ports: ["4444:4444"]
5  chrome:
6    image: selenium/node-chrome:4.27
7    shm_size: 2gb
8    depends_on: [selenium-hub]
9    environment:
10      - SE_EVENT_BUS_HOST=selenium-hub
11      - SE_NODE_MAX_SESSIONS=4
12    deploy:
13      replicas: 4

Expected result

16 parallel session slots available at http://localhost:4444.

Common mistakes

Forgetting shm_size (Chrome crashes)
thread-count higher than available session slots
Not tearing the Grid down in post { always { } }

How do you scale automation execution without buying more machines?

Related interview questions

Open bank

Describe your Jenkins pipeline for the automation suite.
Declarative pipeline: checkout → build → parallel test stages (smoke/api/ui) → publish reports → notify, parameterised by browser and environment.
Difference between git merge and git rebase in an automation repo?
Merge preserves history with a merge commit; rebase replays your commits on top of the target for a linear history. Rebase local branches, merge shared ones.
How do you run a specific TestNG suite from Maven in CI?
Configure maven-surefire-plugin with suiteXmlFiles and override it with -D at runtime.
Describe a Jenkins pipeline for an automation suite.
Declarative Jenkinsfile: checkout, build, parallel smoke/API stages on agents, publish JUnit and Allure reports, gate the deploy on results, and notify Slack with a report link.
What are the Maven lifecycle phases that matter for a test project?
validate → compile → test-compile → test → package → verify → install → deploy; running a later phase runs every earlier phase in that lifecycle.
How do dependency scopes work, and which scope should test libraries use?
compile is the default and leaks to consumers, provided is supplied at runtime by the container, runtime is not needed to compile, and test is only on the test classpath — Selenium, TestNG and REST Assured all belong in test scope.

Quick reference available

Open the matching cheat sheet for last-minute revision.