Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Cucumber Interview Questions for Freshers
2.1.
1) What is Cucumber?
2.2.
2) What is the underlying principle behind the Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) paradigm?
2.3.
3) What basic concepts must one know while working with Cucumber?
2.4.
4) What is a scenario in Cucumber Testing?
2.5.
5) What is Gherkin Language?
2.6.
6) What is a Scenario Outline in the Cucumber framework?
2.7.
7) What is a ‘feature’ in Cucumber?
2.8.
8) What are the functions of cucumbers?
2.9.
9) How to test API in Cucumber?
2.10.
10) What is debugging in Cucumber?
2.11.
11) What are the Steps in the context of Cucumber?
2.12.
12) What are annotations with respect to Cucumber?
2.13.
13) What are hooks in Cucumber? How can they be used in Cucumber?
2.14.
14) What are tags in Cucumber, and why are they important?
2.15.
15) What is a Dry Run in Cucumber?
2.16.
16) What are Cucumber parameters?
2.17.
17) What is meant by a Cucumber profile?
3.
Cucumber Interview Questions for Experienced
3.1.
18) How does a Cucumber test execution start?
3.2.
19)  How can one run a set of Cucumber tests parallelly?
3.3.
20)  What are the 2 important files in the cucumber framework?
3.4.
21) Name a few files that serve as a data source for various Selenium frameworks.
3.5.
22) What are some of a few prerequisites that one should consider using while building a Selenium Cucumber automation application?
3.6.
23) When working with Selenium Automation, what challenges does one face?
3.7.
24) What is Automation Testing?
3.8.
25) How can one run a specific test from a group of tests in Cucumber?
3.9.
26) What does one mean by the Test Driven Development (TDD) approach to testing?
3.10.
27) Why do we need to use Cucumber with Selenium?
3.11.
28) What is the concept of grouping in the context of Cucumber?
3.12.
29) what is the suggested number of scenarios that one should maintain in a feature file as the best practice?
3.13.
30) What programming languages are supported in which one can use Cucumber?
3.14.
31) How does Cucumber facilitate collaboration between developers and non-technical stakeholders in the software development process?
3.15.
32) What are the advantages of using Cucumber for test automation compared to other testing frameworks?
3.16.
33) How can you handle data-driven testing in Cucumber? Explain with an example.
3.17.
34) What is the purpose of Cucumber hooks, and how are they used in test execution?
3.18.
35) Explain the difference between Scenario Outline and Examples in Cucumber.
4.
Conclusion
Last Updated: May 6, 2024
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Cucumber Interview Questions and Answers

Author Dhruv Sharma
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Introduction

This blog will discuss the most asked Cucumber interview questions (which is a Behaviour Driven Development Tool) and their answers. Cucumber has testing tools for automating test cases such that one can comprehend those easily irrespective of the stakeholder's technical expertise. Cucumber offers a script-based design pattern that can create tests which both developers and customers can follow easily. In the beginning, developers used Ruby to create the Cucumber test framework, making test case maintenance easier by reducing code duplication.

Every feature in an application is a feature file that one must create with a ".feature" extension. These feature files are the sources where the details, descriptions and definitions of various features are stored.

Cucumber Interview Questions

Let us discuss the most asked Cucumber interview questions now.

Cucumber Interview Questions for Freshers

1) What is Cucumber?

Cucumber is a testing framework/tool that follows a behaviour-driven development (BDD) testing paradigm. A Behaviour Driven Development strategy majorly aims to aggregate various types of responsibilities of a project like business requirements, business logic and its technical implementations, Q.A. and various project stakeholders such as business analysts, developers, customers etc. to build an understanding of the system without requiring in-depth knowledge of the technical details and components. 

Testers use it to create test cases to help evaluate the program's behaviour. It is a tool that one can utilise to automate acceptance tests written in logical language that customers can also understand. It's most frequently used to develop and write acceptance tests for web apps based on their features' behaviour.

2) What is the underlying principle behind the Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) paradigm?

The Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) paradigm is a transformed approach that stems from best practices from Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) and Test Driven Development (TDD). BDD simulates TDD and ATDD by

applying the "Five Why's" principles to each proposed set of user stories so that its purpose is related to the business outcomes. The Five Why's principles are a set of iterative interrogative approaches for uncovering the cause-and-effect of the root of a problem. The primary use of this technique is to unravel the core cause of an issue or a problem by asking "Why?" repeatedly. Each response serves as the foundation for the next set of questions.

3) What basic concepts must one know while working with Cucumber?

One must be aware of the following set of primary jargon in Cucumber:-

Feature: ‘Feature’ represents the collection of a relevant set of scenarios and provides a high-level description of any software feature.

Rule: 'Rule' is used to express any single business rule/requirement that one should follow. It adds to the information about a set feature.

Example: It is a practical illustration of a required business rule. It comprises a series of steps.

Given: 'Given' depicts the steps one can use to describe the system's initial context - the scenario's scene. It usually refers to an event that has occurred in the past.

When: 'When' is to describe an occurrence or an action in a system, and 'When' is employed to represent a user interacting with the system or an event generated by another system.

Then: 'Then' are steps employed to indicate an anticipated outcome or result.

Background: A 'Background' helps one give the situations that follow some context. It can have one or more Given steps executed before each scenario but after any Before hooks.

4) What is a scenario in Cucumber Testing?

A 'Scenario' is a fundamental Gherkin structure in which every scenario begins with the "Scenario:" keyword (or a localised version) and ends with a scenario title. Every feature has one or more scenarios, each of which has one or more steps. 

An example of a scenario can be illustrated by considering the following:

‘Scenario’ − Verify a user’s Cart Functionality.

Explanation: When a user clicks on the My Cart option, one should take them to the My Cart page.

5) What is Gherkin Language?

'Gherkin' is a readable business language that allows one to define business activities without getting too caught up in implementation specifics. It's a domain-specific language for defining a set of spec tests using Cucumber. It describes various use cases in plain English and helps users remove logic elements from a behaviour testing requirement.

6) What is a Scenario Outline in the Cucumber framework?

To understand Scenario Outline better, one can consider a situation when the customer is required to run a test scenario repeatedly. Assuming one needs to ensure that the login feature is functional for all kinds of subscribers. This necessitates executing the login functionality scenario consequently and continuously. Redundtly copying and pasting an identical set of instructions to just a re-run scenario is not a practical approach. Gherkin supports another framework here, i.e. the scenario outline, to help with this. Here, the scenario outline is similar to a scenario, with the only exception being several inputs provided.

Example:-

Scenario Outline - Registering Feature for a website.

Explanation: The website can have different users, which one must consider while implementing the registering functionality.


7) What is a ‘feature’ in Cucumber?

A 'Feature' in a cucumber project can be described as a stand-alone unit or functionality. A feature frequently includes a specific list of scenarios to test for with it. The Feature File is a file in which we store features, descriptions of features, and situations to be evaluated. For each feature under test, it is recommended that a separate feature file be created. A feature file has a ".feature" extension. One can make and add as many feature files as required.

Example of the same:-

For an e-commerce website, one can have the following set of features:-

Users can register/sign up on the website.

Users can sign in to their accounts using their credentials.

Users can add products to their cart.

Users can check out products that they added to their carts.

Users can pay for their items.

Users can sign out from the website.

8) What are the functions of cucumbers?

Various tasks are performed by cucumbers in the software development process, mainly when behaviour-driven development (BDD) is used.

  • Testing: By converting Gherkin scenarios into test stages, Cucumber aids automated testing, ensuring the software performs as intended.
     
  • Collaboration: By offering a single language (Gherkin) for specifying and confirming requirements, it fosters collaboration amongst stakeholders, developers, and testers.
     
  • Specification: Cucumber's support for Gherkin syntax for authoring executable specifications makes describing and recording intended software behaviour simple.
     
  • Integration: Cucumber is adaptable to multiple development environments since it integrates with various programming languages and testing frameworks.

9) How to test API in Cucumber?

Follow the following steps to test API using Cucumber:

  • Create feature files detailing the behaviour of the API with Gherkin scenarios.
  • To perform API calls and assertions, implement step definitions in the programming language of your choice (for instance, Java).
  • Use HTTP client libraries to send API calls and check results, such as RestAssured.
  • To arrange and run particular API test suites, tag scenarios.
  • Run Cucumber tests with a test runner like JUnit or TestNG, then examine the outcomes.

10) What is debugging in Cucumber?

In Cucumber, debugging entails finding and fixing problems with your step definitions, feature files, or entire test suite. Typical debugging methods include:

  • Printing Debug Information: To understand programme flow and variable values, use print statements or logging to produce information at various places in your step definitions.
  • Using an integrated development environment (IDE), add breakpoints in your code to halt execution while debugging and allow you to view variables.
  • Cucumber frequently offers a "dry run" option that examines the syntax of your step definitions without running tests, assisting in detecting potential problems.
  • Reviewing Error Messages: To determine where errors and exceptions occurred, look over error messages and stack traces.
    Review feature files to ensure that Gherkin syntax and scenario definitions are correct.

11) What are the Steps in the context of Cucumber?

'Step' in Cucumber connects Gherkin steps to programming code. The mapping between each step of the scenario defined in the feature file and a code of the function to be executed is stored in the steps definition file. Step definitions carry out the actions that that step should perform. Step definitions hard-wire various specifications to their respective implementations.

12) What are annotations with respect to Cucumber?

Annotations are specific types of texts that have been pre-defined and have a specified meaning in Cucumber. It instructs the compiler/interpreter on what to do when the program runs. There is the following set of annotations that are defined and can be used in Cucumber:

Given: ‘Given’ specifies the various requirements for running a test.

Ex - Given I have an account on code studio.

When: ‘When’ establishes the beginning/starting point for any test scenario.

Ex - When I log in to code studio.

Then: 'Then' contains the expected results of a test to be executed.

Ex - Then registration should be successful.

And: 'And' is used Between any two statements to specify the logical AND condition. It can be combined with GIVEN, WHEN, and THEN statements.

Ex - When I enter my account number AND CVV.

But: ‘Or’ denotes a logical OR relationship between two propositions. OR can also be combined with GIVEN, WHEN, and THEN statements.

Ex - Then I should be logged in BUT I must enter the OTP.

13) What are hooks in Cucumber? How can they be used in Cucumber?

Hooks are sets of instruction statements that execute before or after every Cucumber scenario in an execution cycle. It enables one to control the development workflow better and decrease code redundancy. Setting up the web driver and terminating the web driver session resembles a test setup. When dealing with different scenarios, it's best to do the setup and clean up only once. Hooks are used for adding optimisations in Cucumber tests.

Certain preconditions, such as executing a program, creating/setting up a database connection, preparing test data, etc., may sometimes be required. Several postconditions could also be needed, such as ending/closing the database connections, closing the browser, refreshing test data, logging out of the program etc. Cucumber handles all of these situations using hooks.

One can use the @Before and @After methods to define hooks anywhere in the project or the step definition layers. One can define hooks to get executed before any other test situations and after all test scenarios have been completed.

14) What are tags in Cucumber, and why are they important?

It appears to be simple when one only has one, two, or maybe five situations in a feature file. Practically, however, this does not occur. In a single feature file, one may have 10, 20, or even more scenarios for each feature under test. Tags could reflect various purposes (smoke test/regression test), perspectives (developer/QA/BA), and statuses (ready for execution/work in progress).

Tags in Cucumber provide one with a way to run scenarios in a specific sequence from a runner file. One can label each situation with a useful tag. Later, in the runner file, we may specify which tag (and hence which scenario(s)) Cucumber should run. "@" is the first character in a tag. One can use any relevant content after "@" to define your tag. Example - '@InitialTest' 

15) What is a Dry Run in Cucumber?

The primary goal of a Cucumber dry run is to verify compilation faults in a series of written instructions and compile the Step Definitions and Feature files. A dry run's value might change and can be toggled between true and false. A Dry run has the value false by default and is present in the Test Runner Class file.

Suppose the value of a dry run is defined as true; then, as a result, Cucumber will check all the steps in the Feature file. Inside the Step Definition file, it will also check the implementation instructions/statements of the steps in the Feature file.

If any defined steps in the Feature file are missing their implementations, then a message would be thrown. The @CucumberOptions has a dry run parameter that provides options to configure the test parameters.

16) What are Cucumber parameters?

You can provide dynamic values to your step definitions using cucumber parameters, which are also known as placeholders or variables in Gherkin scenarios. They are denoted by angle brackets (< >) and serve as placeholders for actual data when running tests. Parameters enhance reusability and flexibility in your scenarios. For example, <username> and <password> can be parameters for logging into different accounts. In step definitions, you can capture and use these values for testing.

17) What is meant by a Cucumber profile?

While testing a feature using Cucumber, cucumber profiles make it simple to define groupings of the tests that are present in the feature files so that one can choose to execute only a subset of those rather than all. It was created and added in Cucumber to help people save time. A user can reuse commonly used cucumber flags defined in the cucumber.yml file.

Cucumber Interview Questions for Experienced

18) How does a Cucumber test execution start?

A Cucumber test execution starts at the support level. During support, it first loads the env.rb file, then it loads the hooks.rb, and at last, it starts executing the feature file that then starts the scenarios and runs the steps for the scenarios.

19)  How can one run a set of Cucumber tests parallelly?

A Cucumber JVM Parallel Plugin can be used with Serenity BDD for conducting parallel tests in Cucumber. This plugin looks in the src/test/resources directory for feature files. After which, it creates runners for each file.

20)  What are the 2 important files in the cucumber framework?

The Cucumber framework contains two crucial files:

Feature file: This file contains the test scenarios written in Gherkin, a straightforward English dialect that both technical and non-technical stakeholders may easily understand. The feature name, description, and scenarios are all contained in the feature file. The terms Given, When, Then, And, and But are used to define the steps in each scenario.
File containing step definitions: This file contains the programme code used to carry out the steps specified in the feature file. The programming language used to create the step definition file is either Java, Python, or Ruby.

21) Name a few files that serve as a data source for various Selenium frameworks.

They can be an XML, Excel, CSV, or even a Text file.

22) What are some of a few prerequisites that one should consider using while building a Selenium Cucumber automation application?

One can consider the following before working on building a Selenium Cucumber automation application:-

  • Determine the type of application one will be testing (i.e. whether it is a Web or a mobile, or a desktop application)?
  • Would there be a need for testing a backend? (i.e. Databases or SDKs, for example.)
  • Would there be a necessity to run the app through an internationalisation test?
  • Should it include a report that allows one to track down a problem with minimal effort?
  • Should it be able to generate parametrisation tests automatically?
  • Does it require any setup-related settings or global attributes which would be defined in the config file?
  • Would it require segregating the functionality? ( Which can be done using abstraction at every level ).

23) When working with Selenium Automation, what challenges does one face?

Maintaining code is usually the biggest challenge an automation engineer faces.

This may affect your code, especially if the source frequently changes the HTML elements of the page and adds new components.

Synchronisation is another challenge when using Selenium.

24) What is Automation Testing?

Software or applications are tested using an automation testing tool to find defects. By using automation tools, test scripts are executed automatically, and results are generated.

25) How can one run a specific test from a group of tests in Cucumber?

One may execute a single test from a set of tests in the Cucumber framework using the tags approach offered in Cucumber. These can be found in the TestRunner file's @CucumberOptions section present in it. With the use of the @t<agname> keyword, one may tag a scenario inside a feature file. Since scenarios can have one or more tags within the feature file, one can separate test scenarios using tagging. For this, one must pass the <tagname> value within the tags argument to execute a selected test in Cucumber while initiating the tests, and one must pass the <~tagname> value within the tags parameter to exclude any test from running.

26) What does one mean by the Test Driven Development (TDD) approach to testing?

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a development practice in which the test cases are created first, followed by the program-based implementations of the business requirements that underpins the test cases. TDD may also be used in automation testing. The TDD approach takes longer to develop due to the fact that it generates fewer flaws in the developed implementation. The TDD development practice results in increased quality of code, which is also much more reusable and flexible. TDD also aids developers in achieving high test coverage, ranging from 90% to 100%. The sole overhead of the TDD approach of testing for developers is that they must build the test cases before producing code.

27) Why do we need to use Cucumber with Selenium?

Both Cucumber and Selenium are two of the most widely used testing frameworks and technologies. Selenium is widely used for functional testing by a lot of organisations. They use Cucumber in conjunction with Selenium as that makes the application flow much simpler to read and comprehend. The most crucial advantage of combining Cucumber and Selenium is that it allows developers to build test cases in simple feature files that the managers, non-technical stakeholders, and business analysts can easily understand. It allows one to develop tests in Gherkin, a human-readable and comprehensible programming language. Java,.NET, PHP, Python, Perl, and other programming languages are also supported by the Selenium-Cucumber framework.

28) What is the concept of grouping in the context of Cucumber?

Cucumber is complacent about the names of one's step definition files or the order in which they place them, and instead of maintaining all of the steps in a single file, one can create steps.rb file for each major action/feature which is referred as a grouping.

29) what is the suggested number of scenarios that one should maintain in a feature file as the best practice?

A feature file in Cucumber should include a maximum of 10 scenarios. This quantity can differ from one project to the next and from one organisation to the other. It's still advisable to keep the number of scenarios in the feature file to a minimum as a best practice.

30) What programming languages are supported in which one can use Cucumber?

Cucumber supports a range of programming languages, including Java,.NET, Ruby, and others. It can also be used with other tools such as Capybara and Selenium.

The Gherkin text serves as a skeleton for your automated tests and serves as documentation. Gherkin is based on a TreeTop Grammar, which is used in more than 37 languages. As a result of which, one can write their Gherkin in more than 37 different spoken languages.

31) How does Cucumber facilitate collaboration between developers and non-technical stakeholders in the software development process?

Cucumber is a tool used in software development that facilitates collaboration between developers and non-technical stakeholders. It is done by following a method called behavior-driven development (BDD). Cucumber allows product owners or business analysts to write scenarios using a user-friendly language called Gherkin. These scenarios describe the desired behavior of the software from the user's perspective

32) What are the advantages of using Cucumber for test automation compared to other testing frameworks?

Cucumber offers several advantages for test automation compared to other testing frameworks. Here are some advantages:

  • Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) Approach: Cucumber follows a BDD approach, which focuses on the desired behavior of the software in a human-readable format. This approach promotes collaboration between technical and non-technical stakeholders. It helps to ensure the software meets the specified behavior. 
     
  • Readable and Understandable Tests: Cucumber tests are easy to read and understand because they are written in Gherkin syntax, a structured, natural language format. Easy language and a standardized format make it accessible to non-technical stakeholders, like product owners, business analysts, and domain experts. This allows them to review and provide feedback on the tests. It improves the overall quality of the test suite.
     
  • Test Reusability: Cucumber promotes the reuse of test scenarios and steps. The same steps can be executed across multiple scenarios by defining reusable steps in the feature files. This improves maintainability, reduces duplication, and improves the efficiency of the test suite. 
     
  • Cross-platform Support: Cucumber supports various programming languages, like Ruby, Java, JavaScript, etc. This allows teams to choose their preferred programming language for test automation. The cross-platform support makes it adaptable and flexible to different technology stacks and development environments.
     
  • Living Documentation: Cucumber tests are living documentation that remains up-to-date throughout development. The tests are written in a human-readable format. They can be easily understood and maintained even by non-technical individuals. This documentation helps share knowledge and clearly understand the software's behavior over time.

33) How can you handle data-driven testing in Cucumber? Explain with an example.

You can use data tables or scenario outlines to handle data-driven testing in Cucumber. With the help of examples, we can see how to use data-driven testing in Cucumber.

Scenario Outline: User Registration
Given the user is on the registration page
When you enter the "<username>", "<email>", and "<password>"
And click the register button
Then you should see a "<successMessage>"
Examples:
| username | email          | password | success message      |
| user1    | user1@cn.com   | pass1    | Welcome, User 1!     |
| user2    | user2@cn.com   | pass2    | Welcome, User 2!     |
| user3    | user3@ecn.com  | pass3    | Registration failed. |
You can also try this code with Online Python Compiler
Run Code


In this example, the scenario outline captures the steps for the user registration process. The placeholders "<username>," "<email>," "<password>," and "<successMessage>" represent the variables that will be replaced with specific values.

The table contains multiple rows, each representing a different user with their respective username, email, password, and the expected success or failure message upon registration. The cucumber will execute the scenario for each row and substitute the placeholders with the corresponding values. By utilizing data-driven testing, you can efficiently test the registration process with different user details within a single scenario. This approach helps validate the registration functionality across various user inputs. It ensures a robust and reliable system.

34) What is the purpose of Cucumber hooks, and how are they used in test execution?

Cucumber hooks are code blocks used for setup tasks in test execution. They help set up the test environment, handle errors, and ensure reusability. Hooks are defined with annotations or similar constructs and executed at specific points during the test lifecycle, such as before or after scenarios, features, or the entire test run. They allow you to perform actions like setting up test data,  initializing resources, cleaning up after execution, and handling exceptions. Hooks provide flexibility and consistency in managing and executing the test environment.

35) Explain the difference between Scenario Outline and Examples in Cucumber.

 The Scenario Outline acts as a blueprint. It is a template that defines the steps and structure of a scenario, including placeholders for data. On the other hand, examples in cucumber provide the actual data sets that will replace the placeholders in the Scenario Outline. It allows creating multiple concrete scenarios by specifying different combinations of input values.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have discussed most asked Cucumber interview questions and their answers. These Cucumber interview questions are enough for someone as a beginner looking to prepare to decently crack an interview.

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