Getting Started with Selenium

Learn how to set up Selenium WebDriver and write your first automated test in Java, Python, JavaScript, or C#.

Selenium 3 & 4 Stable

Selenium WebDriver is the most widely-used tool for automating web browsers. In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up your environment and write your first test.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

A modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari)
A code editor (VS Code, IntelliJ, PyCharm, etc.)
The programming language runtime for your choice of language

Installation

Step 1: Install the Selenium Library

First, add Selenium to your project:

Install Selenium

Selenium 3 & 4

// Add to pom.xml (Maven)
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
  <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
  <version>4.18.1</version>
</dependency>

// Or add to build.gradle (Gradle)
implementation 'org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-java:4.18.1'

# Using pip
pip install selenium

# Or using pip3
pip3 install selenium

# Verify installation
python -c "import selenium; print(selenium.__version__)"

// Using npm
npm install selenium-webdriver

// Or using yarn
yarn add selenium-webdriver

// Verify installation
node -e "console.log(require('selenium-webdriver/package.json').version)"

// Using NuGet Package Manager
Install-Package Selenium.WebDriver

// Or using .NET CLI
dotnet add package Selenium.WebDriver

// Verify in your .csproj
<PackageReference Include="Selenium.WebDriver" Version="4.18.1" />

Step 2: Download WebDriver

Selenium 4 includes Selenium Manager, which automatically downloads the correct WebDriver for your browser. For Selenium 3, you’ll need to download the driver manually.

Browser	Driver	Download
Chrome	ChromeDriver	chromedriver.chromium.org
Firefox	GeckoDriver	github.com/mozilla/geckodriver
Edge	EdgeDriver	developer.microsoft.com
Safari	SafariDriver	Built into macOS

Your First Test

Let’s write a simple test that opens Google and verifies the page title:

First Selenium Test

Selenium 4 Stable

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

public class FirstTest {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
      // Selenium 4 auto-manages drivers
      WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

      try {
          // Navigate to Google
          driver.get("https://www.google.com");

          // Get the page title
          String title = driver.getTitle();
          System.out.println("Page title: " + title);

          // Verify the title
          if (title.contains("Google")) {
              System.out.println("Test passed!");
          } else {
              System.out.println("Test failed!");
          }
      } finally {
          // Always close the browser
          driver.quit();
      }
  }
}

from selenium import webdriver

# Selenium 4 auto-manages drivers
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

try:
  # Navigate to Google
  driver.get("https://www.google.com")

  # Get the page title
  title = driver.title
  print(f"Page title: {title}")

  # Verify the title
  if "Google" in title:
      print("Test passed!")
  else:
      print("Test failed!")
finally:
  # Always close the browser
  driver.quit()

const { Builder } = require('selenium-webdriver');

async function firstTest() {
  // Selenium 4 auto-manages drivers
  const driver = await new Builder().forBrowser('chrome').build();

  try {
      // Navigate to Google
      await driver.get('https://www.google.com');

      // Get the page title
      const title = await driver.getTitle();
      console.log(`Page title: ${title}`);

      // Verify the title
      if (title.includes('Google')) {
          console.log('Test passed!');
      } else {
          console.log('Test failed!');
      }
  } finally {
      // Always close the browser
      await driver.quit();
  }
}

firstTest();

using OpenQA.Selenium;
using OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome;

class FirstTest
{
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
      // Selenium 4 auto-manages drivers
      IWebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

      try
      {
          // Navigate to Google
          driver.Navigate().GoToUrl("https://www.google.com");

          // Get the page title
          string title = driver.Title;
          Console.WriteLine($"Page title: {title}");

          // Verify the title
          if (title.Contains("Google"))
          {
              Console.WriteLine("Test passed!");
          }
          else
          {
              Console.WriteLine("Test failed!");
          }
      }
      finally
      {
          // Always close the browser
          driver.Quit();
      }
  }
}

Key Concepts

WebDriver Instance

The WebDriver interface is your main point of interaction with the browser. Each browser has its own driver implementation:

ChromeDriver for Chrome
FirefoxDriver for Firefox
EdgeDriver for Microsoft Edge
SafariDriver for Safari

Use these methods to navigate:

Method	Description
`get(url)`	Navigate to a URL
`navigate().back()`	Go back in browser history
`navigate().forward()`	Go forward in browser history
`navigate().refresh()`	Refresh the current page

Cleanup

Always call driver.quit() when you’re done. This:

Closes all browser windows
Ends the WebDriver session
Frees up system resources

Important: Use quit() not close(). The close() method only closes the current window, while quit() properly terminates the session.

Next Steps

Now that you have Selenium working, learn about:

Finding Elements - Locate elements on the page
Browser Options - Configure headless mode and browser settings
Basic Interactions - Click, type, and interact with elements
Explicit Waits - Handle dynamic content reliably
Project Structure - Organize your test codebase