Types of Waits in Selenium and When to Use Each

When working with Selenium, there are three main types of waits that can be used to ensure that the tests wait for certain conditions to be met before proceeding:

1. Implicit Waits: Implicit waits are used to wait for a certain amount of time before throwing an exception if the element is not found. This type of wait is suitable for cases where elements might take some time to load.
2. Explicit Waits: Explicit waits are used to wait for a specific condition to be met before proceeding. This type of wait is ideal for situations where you want to wait for a specific element to become clickable, visible, or invisible.
3. Fluent Waits: Fluent waits are used to define custom polling intervals and exception handling. This type of wait is useful when you need more control over how often Selenium checks for the condition to be met.

It is essential to choose the appropriate type of wait based on the specific requirements of your test scenario. Implicit waits are suitable for general use cases, explicit waits are ideal for waiting for specific conditions, and fluent waits offer more flexibility for custom waiting behaviors.

Overall, understanding the differences between these wait types and knowing when to use each can help improve the reliability and efficiency of your Selenium tests.