Your First Selenium Test Script in Python

Introduction

Selenium is one of the most popular tools for automating web applications.
With Selenium and Python, you can control a browser just like a human user.

In this article, you'll:

✅ Set up your environment
✅ Install Selenium
✅ Write your first script
✅ Run a real browser test

Let’s get started! 🚀

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Step 1: What Is Selenium?

Selenium is an open-source automation tool used to:

• Test web applications

• Automate browser actions like clicking, typing, scrolling, etc.

• Run tests on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and more

We’ll use the Selenium WebDriver with Python to automate a browser.

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Step 2: Prerequisites

Make sure you have:

✅ Python installed (version 3.6 or above)
✅ A code editor (VS Code or any IDE)
✅ Internet access
✅ Google Chrome browser installed

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Step 3: Install Selenium

Open your terminal or command prompt and type:

pip install selenium

This installs the Selenium library.

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Step 4: Download ChromeDriver

ChromeDriver is needed to control Chrome using Selenium.

1. Go to: https://chromedriver.chromium.org/downloads

2. Download the version that matches your Chrome browser

3. Extract the file

4. Note the path where chromedriver.exe is saved (Windows) or chromedriver (Mac/Linux)

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Step 5: Your First Script – Open Google and Search

Now let’s write a simple test to:

• Open Chrome

• Go to Google

• Type "Selenium tutorial"

• Click Search

• Print the title of the results page

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Full Script:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
import time

# Set up the driver (replace path with your own ChromeDriver path)
driver_path = "C:/path/to/chromedriver.exe"  # Windows
# driver_path = "/usr/local/bin/chromedriver"  # Mac/Linux

# Create browser object
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path)

# Maximize window
driver.maximize_window()

# Step 1: Open Google
driver.get("https://www.google.com")

# Wait for page to load
time.sleep(2)

# Step 2: Find the search box
search_box = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "q")

# Step 3: Type the search keyword
search_box.send_keys("Selenium tutorial")

# Step 4: Press Enter
search_box.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

# Step 5: Wait and get the title
time.sleep(3)
print("Page Title:", driver.title)

# Step 6: Close browser
driver.quit()

---

Output:

Page Title: Selenium tutorial - Google Search

Congratulations! 🎉 You just ran your first Selenium test!

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Step 6: Explanation

Line	Purpose
from selenium...	Import Selenium classes
webdriver.Chrome	Launch Chrome browser
driver.get()	Open a URL
find_element()	Locate input box
send_keys()	Type and press Enter
time.sleep()	Pause so page loads
driver.quit()	Close the browser

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Step 7: Common Errors and Fixes

1. WebDriverException: driver not found

• Solution: Check if chromedriver path is correct and executable.

2. DeprecationWarning

• Solution: Always use By.NAME, By.ID, etc. (not old find_element_by_* methods)

3. Browser closes too fast

• Solution: Add time.sleep() or use input("Press enter to exit...") at the end.

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Step 8: Best Practices

✅ Always use explicit waits (WebDriverWait) instead of time.sleep()
✅ Keep driver path in a config file or environment variable
✅ Use Page Object Model (POM) for large projects
✅ Use virtual environments for Python projects
✅ Handle exceptions properly

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Step 9: Use Explicit Wait (Better Way)

Here’s a cleaner way using WebDriverWait:

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

# Wait up to 10 seconds for search box
search_box = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
    EC.presence_of_element_located((By.NAME, "q"))
)

This method is more reliable than using time.sleep().

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Step 10: Try More Selenium Actions

Explore more things you can do:

• Click buttons: element.click()

• Select from dropdown: Select(element).select_by_visible_text("Option")

• Get element text: element.text

• Take screenshot: driver.save_screenshot("screenshot.png")

• Scroll page: driver.execute_script("window.scrollTo(0, 500)")

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Conclusion

Selenium with Python is a powerful combo for browser automation.
In this article, you learned how to:

✅ Set up Selenium
✅ Install ChromeDriver
✅ Write and run your first test
✅ Search on Google automatically
✅ Use waits and best practices

You’re now ready to explore more advanced test cases and frameworks like PyTest, Behave, or Robot Framework.

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