Cucumber Interview Questions

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Contents

Cucumber Interview Questions for Freshers

1.   What is Cucumber? Explain the need of using Cucumber.
2.   What is Gherkin Language?
3.   What is the principle of Behaviour Driven Development?
4.   What are the primary keywords in Cucumber?
5.   Which language is used in Cucumber?
6.   What do you mean by scenario in Cucumber Testing?
7.   What do you mean by Scenario Outline?
8.   What do you mean by feature in Cucumber?
9.   What are the basic requirements to run Cucumber Web test cases?
10.   What are the advantages of using Cucumber?
11.   What are Step Definitions in the context of Cucumber?
12.   What are annotations in Cucumber?
13.   Enlist the files needed in the Cucumber framework.
14.   How do you comment the code in Cucumber? What is the importance of
comments?
15.   What are hooks in Cucumber?
16.   What are tags in Cucumber and why are they important?
17.   What is Cucumber Dry Run?
18.   What do you mean by profile in Cucumber?
19.   What programming languages are used by Cucumber?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

Cucumber Interview Questions for Experienced

20.   Explain briefly how Behavioral Driven Development works?
21.   What is a test harness in the context of Cucumber?
22.   What is the difference between RSpec and Cucumber?
23.   Difference between Selenium and Cucumber.
24.   Why do we need to use Cucumber with Selenium?
25.   In a feature file, what is the maximum number of scenarios?
26.   What do you mean by Test Driven Development (TDD)?
27.   Difference between TDD and BDD.
28.   What is the use of the Options tag in the Cucumber Framework?
29.   How does the execution start in Cucumber?
30.   What is grouping in the context of Cucumber?
31.   How can you run Cucumber tests parallelly?
32.   What are some of the prerequisites that you should consider while building a
Selenium Cucumber automation application?
33.   Difference between JBehave and Cucumber.
34.   How can you run a selected test from a group of tests in Cucumber?

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Let's get Started
Cucumber is a behavior-driven development (BDD) testing tool. It provides a method
for writing tests that anyone, regardless of technical knowledge, can comprehend.
We can write test scripts from both the developer's and the customer's perspectives
with Behavior Driven Development. 
The Ruby programming language was originally used in the creation of the Cucumber
framework. Cucumber now supports a variety of programming languages, including
Java and JavaScript, through several implementations. SpecFlow is the name of the
open-source Cucumber port for .Net.
In this article, we will cover the most frequently asked interview questions on
Cucumber.

Cucumber Interview Questions for Freshers

1.   What is Cucumber? Explain the need of using Cucumber.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

Cucumber is a behavior-driven development (BDD) testing tool. The BDD

framework's major goal is to bring together a variety of project responsibilities, such
as quality assurance, developers, and business analysts, to understand the
application without diving too deeply into the technical components.
Testers use Cucumber to create test cases for evaluating program behaviour. It is an
important tool to automate acceptance tests written in logical language that
customers can understand. It's primarily used to develop acceptance tests for web
apps based on their features' behaviour.

2.   What is Gherkin Language?

Gherkin is a readable business language that allows you to define business activity
without getting bogged down in implementation specifics. It's a domain-specific
language for defining specs tests in Cucumber format. It describes use cases in plain
English and helps users to remove logic elements from behaviour testing.

3.   What is the principle of Behaviour Driven Development?

Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) is a synthesis and refinement of practices
stemming from Test Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test-Driven
Development (ATDD). BDD augments TDD and ATDD by
applying the “Five Why’s” principle to each proposed user story so that its purpose is
clearly related to business outcomes. Five Why's is an iterative interrogative
approach for uncovering the cause-and-effect links at the root of a problem. The
main purpose of this technique is to uncover the core cause of a flaw or problem by
asking "Why?" repeatedly. Each response serves as the foundation for the next
question.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

4.   What are the primary keywords in Cucumber?

Following are the primary keywords in Cucumber:-
Feature: The Feature keyword's aim is to collect relevant scenarios and provide
a high-level description of a so ware feature.
Rule: The Rule keyword is used to express a single business rule that should be
followed. It adds to the information about a feature.
Example: This is a practical illustration of a business rule. It comprises a series of
steps.
Given: The given steps are used to describe the system's initial context - the
scenario's scene. It usually refers to an event that occurred in the past.
When: When describing an occurrence or an action, When is employed. It could
be a user interacting with the system or an event generated by another system.
Then: Then steps are employed to indicate an anticipated outcome, or result.
Background: A background helps you to give the situations that follow it some
context. It can have one or more Given steps, which are executed prior to each
scenario but a er any Before hooks.

5.   Which language is used in Cucumber?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

Cucumber understands Gherkin. It's a straightforward English representation of the

app's functionality. It is used for defining test cases. It is intended to be non-technical
and human-readable, and it describes use cases for a so ware system as a whole. It's
a domain-specific (DSL), business-friendly language.

6.   What do you mean by scenario in Cucumber Testing?

Scenario is a fundamental Gherkin structure. Every scenario begins with the keyword
"Scenario:" (or a localized version of it) and ends with a scenario title. Every feature
can have one or more scenarios, each of which has one or more steps. 
As an example of a scenario, consider the following:

Scenario − Verify My Orders Functionality.

Explanation: When a user clicks on the My Orders option he/ she should be taken to
the My Orders page.

7.   What do you mean by Scenario Outline?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

Consider the situation when we need to run a test scenario multiple times. Assume
we need to ensure that the login feature is functional for all types of subscribers. This
necessitates repeating the login functionality scenario. Copying and pasting the
identical instructions to just re-run the code does not appear to be a good approach.
Gherkin adds another framework, the scenario outline, to help with this. The
scenario outline is similar to scenario, with the exception that several inputs are
provided.
Example:-

Scenario Outline - Sign In Feature for a website.

Explanation: The website can have multiple users and so we need to consider all the
users while implementing the sign-in functionality.

8.   What do you mean by feature in Cucumber?

A project's feature can be described as a stand-alone unit or functionality. A list of
scenarios to test for a feature is frequently included 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.
The feature file must have the extension ".feature." You can make as many feature
files as you want.
Here's an example:-
For an e-commerce website, we can have the following features:-
User registers and signs up on the website.
User tries to log in to their account using their credentials.
Users add a product to their cart.
User clicks on checkout now.
User pays for their items.
User logs out from the website.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

All these are different features. The website will have many such features. All these
features will have a separate Feature File.

9.   What are the basic requirements to run Cucumber Web test

cases?
We need the following minimum requirements to successfully run a Cucumber Web
test case:-
1. The compiler and the development kit for the programming language we will be
using. Example: JDK and JRE for using Java as our programming language.
2. An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) wherein we can write our code.
Example: Eclipse.
3. Build tools so as to do tasks such as compiling code, packaging code to a jar,
creating source code. Example: Maven, Gradle.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

10.   What are the advantages of using Cucumber?

Following are the advantages of using Cucumber:-
Cucumber supports a variety of programming languages, including Java.net and
Ruby.
It serves as a link between commercial and technical language. This can be done
by writing a test case in plain English text.
It enables the test script to be developed without any prior knowledge of
programming, as well as the participation of non-programmers.
Unlike other tools, it functions as an end-to-end test framework.
Cucumber allows for code reuse thanks to its simple test script architecture.

11.   What are Step Definitions in the context of Cucumber?

Step definitions connect 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. A step definition carries out the action
that should be performed by the step. So step definitions hard-wire the specification
to the implementation.

12.   What are annotations in Cucumber?

An annotation is a type of text that has been pre-defined and has a specified
meaning. It tells the compiler/interpreter what to do when the program runs. The
annotations on Cucumber are as follows:

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

Given: It specifies the requirements for running the test.

Example: Given I have an account on Interviewbit.
When: It establishes the starting point for any test scenario.
Example: When I log in to Interviewbit.
Then: It contains the expected result of the test which is to be executed.
Example: Then registration should be successful.
And: Between any two statements, it gives the logical AND condition. AND can
be combined with the GIVEN, WHEN, and THEN statements.
Example: When I enter my account number AND CVV.
But: It denotes a logical OR relationship between two propositions. OR can be
combined with the GIVEN, WHEN, and THEN statements.
Example: Then I should be logged in BUT I must enter the OTP.

13.   Enlist the files needed in the Cucumber framework.

The following are the files required for a Cucumber framework:
Feature File: It has plain text descriptions of single or numerous test situations.
Keywords like Then, When, Background, Scenario Outline, Feature, And, But,
and so on are used in the tests. As a result, it's a file that keeps track of features
and their descriptions.
Step Definition File: It has the extension .java. It essentially acts as a translator
between the test scenario steps provided in the feature file and the automation
code. Cucumber searches the step definition file and executes the relevant
functions that are assigned to that step when it runs a step described in the
feature file.
TestRunner: .java is the file extension for this file. It connects the feature file and
the step definition file. It allows the user to run one or more feature files at the
same time. It contains the locations of the step definition and feature files.

14.   How do you comment the code in Cucumber? What is the

importance of comments?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

A comment is a chunk of code that is intended for documentation rather than

execution. To make it more legible and clear, whether it's a step definition file or a
feature file. As a result, it's critical to use/insert comments in the right places
throughout the file. This is also beneficial for troubleshooting the code. Comments
can be added to Cucumber feature files at any time. To add comments, simply begin
the statement with the “#” sign.
Different programming languages have different standards for commenting. Let's see
how Cucumber handles the situation:
For Step Definition File, if you're using Java as a platform, start your comments
with "/."
In the case of a feature file, we only need to type # before starting our comment.

15.   What are hooks in Cucumber?

Hooks are code blocks that execute before or a er each Cucumber scenario in the
execution cycle. This enables us to better control the development workflow 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 to bringing optimization.
Certain preconditions, such as executing the program, creating a database
connection, preparing the test data, and so on, may be required in some cases. There
are also several postconditions to be fulfilled, such as ending the database
connection, closing the browser, refreshing test data, and logging out of the
program. Cucumber handles all of these situations with the use of hooks.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

The methods @Before and @A er can be used to define hooks anywhere in the
project or step definition layers. Before hook is executed before any other test
situations, and a er the hook is executed a er all test scenarios have been
completed.

16.   What are tags in Cucumber and why are they important?

When we only have one, two, or maybe five situations in a feature file, it appears to
be simple. In reality, however, this does not occur. In a single feature file, we may
have 10, 20, or even more scenarios for each feature under test. They could reflect
various purposes (smoke test/regression test), perspectives (developer/QA/BA), and
statuses (ready for execution/work in progress).
Tags in cucumber provide a way to run scenarios in a specific sequence from a runner
file. Each situation can be labeled 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. Any relevant content a er "@" can be used to define your tag.
Example - ‘@InitialTest’ 

17.   What is Cucumber Dry Run?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

The purpose of the Cucumber dry run is to verify compilation faults and compile the
Step Definition and Feature files. Dry run's value might be either true or false. Dry run
has the value false by default and it is present in the Test Runner Class file.
If the dry run value is true, Cucumber will check all steps in the Feature file. Within
the Step Definition file, it will also check the implementation code of steps in the
Feature file.
If any of the steps in the Feature file is missing its implementation in the Step
Definition file, a message is thrown. The @CucumberOptions has a dry run parameter
that is used to configure the test parameters.

18.   What do you mean by profile in Cucumber?

When testing a feature, cucumber profiles make it simple to define groupings of tests
in a feature file so that we can choose to execute only a subset of them rather than all
of them. It was created to help people save time. In a cucumber.yml file, the user can
reuse commonly used cucumber flags.

19.   What programming languages are used by Cucumber?

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

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

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

Cucumber Interview Questions for Experienced

20.   Explain briefly how Behavioral Driven Development works?
There are majorly three steps in the working of BDD. They are as follows:-
Behaviour Description: We list down the features of our application first in the
feature file.
Making the Step Definition file: 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.
Testing and running: We run the test cases to check if we pass. In general, a lot
of failures are observed before achieving the final code.

21.   What is a test harness in the context of Cucumber?

The test harness in Cucumber helps in separating the task of establishing the context
and interacting with the browser from cleaning up the step definition files. It gathers
the stubs, drivers, and other tools needed to enable test execution automation in
testing.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

The following is the purpose of the test harness:-

To run a set of tests either within the framework or with the help of the test
harness
To enter data into the program being tested.
Debugging becomes more flexible and supported.
To record the outputs of the so ware under test
To keep track of the test results (pass/fail) for each test.
Aids developers in determining code coverage at the code level.
The advantages of the test harness are as follows:-
As a result of automation, productivity increases.
Improved so ware quality as a result of automation allows us to be more
productive.
Tests can be scheduled.
Can handle complex conditions that testers have a hard time simulating.

22.   What is the difference between RSpec and Cucumber?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

RSpec and Cucumber are two examples of testing frameworks. Traditional Unit
Testing is used by RSpec. It refers to the practice of testing a section of an application
separately from the remaining part of the application. As a result, your model
performs what it's expected to do, the controller does what it's expected to do, and
so on. Both RSpec and Cucumber are used for Acceptance Testing, also known as
ATDD, BDD, and other terms.
The following are the major differences between RSpec and Cucumber:-
The fundamental distinction between RSpec and Cucumber is the element of
business readability.
Unit testing is the primary purpose of RSpec. Cucumber, on the other hand, is
primarily utilized in behavior-driven development. It can be used for System and
Integration Testing as well.
Cucumber separates the specs or features from the test code, allowing product
owners to provide or review the specification without having to walk through
the code.
RSpec includes a similar method, but instead of elaborating a step with a
Describe, it executes the statement using the business specification. This
method is easier for developers to use, but a little more difficult for non-
technical people.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

23.   Difference between Selenium and Cucumber.

Open-source testing tools, Selenium and Cucumber are both used for functional
testing. However, there are some distinctions between them.
Here are some key distinctions between Selenium and Cucumber:
Cucumber is a behavior-driven development automation tool that may be used
with Selenium. Selenium is a web browser automation tool for web projects (or
Appium).
Cucumber is used for acceptance testing, while Selenium is used for automated
UI testing.
Technical teams (SDETs/programmers) favour Selenium, while non-technical
teams o en choose Cucumber (business stakeholders and testers).
Cucumber isn't required for Selenium to work. Cucumber's step-definition
implementation is based on Selenium or Appium.
The script creation with Selenium is complicated, whereas Cucumber is
straightforward.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

24.   Why do we need to use Cucumber with Selenium?

Cucumber and Selenium are two widely used testing frameworks and technologies.
Selenium is widely used for functional testing in many organizations. These
companies use Cucumber in conjunction with Selenium because Cucumber makes
the application flow easier to read and comprehend. The most important advantage
of combining Cucumber and Selenium is that it allows developers to build test cases
in simple feature files that managers, non-technical stakeholders, and business
analysts can understand. It allows you to develop tests in Gherkin, a human-readable
programming language. Java,.NET, PHP, Python, Perl, and other programming
languages are supported by the Selenium-Cucumber framework.

25.   In a feature file, what is the maximum number of scenarios?

A feature file in Cucumber can include a maximum of 10 scenarios. This quantity can
differ from one project to the next and from one organization to the next. It's
advisable to keep the number of scenarios in the feature file to a minimum.

26.   What do you mean by Test Driven Development (TDD)?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

TDD is an abbreviation that stands for Test-Driven Development. This is a

development practice in which the test cases are created first, followed by the code
that underpins the test cases. TDD may also be used to construct automation testing.
TDD takes longer to develop due to the fact that it finds fewer flaws. The TDD
development practice has increased the quality of code, which is more reusable and
flexible as a result. TDD also aids developers in achieving high test coverage, ranging
from 90% to 100%. The sole disadvantage of TDD for developers is that they must
build test cases before producing code.

The following is a list of the TDD methodology's basic six-step process:

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

First, all the test cases are written. Based on your requirements, you must create
an automated test case.
Carry out all of the tests: Carry out these automated test cases on the code that
has been developed so far.
Modify the code for that test case: You must develop the code to make that test
casework as intended if it fails throughout this step.
Rerun the test cases: Now you must rerun the test cases to ensure that all of the
previously developed test cases have been implemented.
Modularize your code as follows: This is a step that can be skipped. However,
refactoring your code to make it more readable and reusable is recommended.
That is why it is necessary.
For new test scenarios, repeat steps 1–5: This is the final phase in the process.
You must now repeat the process for the remaining test cases till all of them
have been implemented.

27.   Difference between TDD and BDD.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

TDD BDD

Test-Driven Development
(TDD) is a method of
developing so ware that BDD is an acronym for behavior-
is driven by tests. This driven development. It's a
means that the behavior-based development
developers must first approach.
write the test cases
before writing the code.

TDD tests are developed

Given-When-Then steps are used
in a variety of
to write BDD tests in a human-
programming languages,
readable fashion. Non-technical
including Java,.NET,
people may read and
Python, Ruby, and
comprehend these tests as well.
others.

The scope is the key

distinction between TDD
BDD, on the other hand, is a
and BDD. TDD is a
collaborative methodology.
development
methodology.

When a test fails because Creating an executable

the specified function specification that fails because
does not exist, TDD the feature isn't available, then
recommends writing the writing the simplest code
simplest code possible to possible to make the spec pass in
pass the test, then BDD. This process is repeated
reworking to remove until a release candidate is ready
duplication, and so on. to be delivered.

Users or testers write automated

The test cases are
specifications in BDD, which are
written by the
then wired to the code under
developers in TDD.
test by developers
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 Cucumber Interview Questions

28.   What is the use of the Options tag in the Cucumber

Framework?
The Options tag is a part of the TestRunner file in the Cucumber framework, and it
takes the form of an annotation named @CucumberOptions. 
It has two parameters: glue and feature:
1. Feature: The path to the feature file is specified by the feature option.
2. Glue: The glue argument is used to provide the step definition file's location.
Example:

import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import cucumber.api.CucumberOptions;
import cucumber.api.junit.Cucumber;
@RunWith (Cucumber.class)
@CucumberOptions (
features = "src/test/Sample/features ",
glue = {"StepDefinitionFile"}
)
public class SampleTestRunner {
}

29.   How does the execution start in Cucumber?

Cucumber execution will begin at the support level. In support, it will first load the
env.rb file, then hooks.rb, and last start executing feature file scenario steps.

30.   What is grouping in the context of Cucumber?

Cucumber is unconcerned about the names of your step definition files or the order
in which you place them. Instead of maintaining all steps in a single file, we can
create steps.rb file for each major action/feature. This is referred to as grouping.

31.   How can you run Cucumber tests parallelly?

The Cucumber JVM Parallel Plugin, which may be used with Serenity BDD, can be
used to conduct parallel tests in Cucumber. The plugin will look in the
src/test/resources directory for feature files. A er that, it will create runners for each
file.

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

32.   What are some of the prerequisites that you should consider

while building a Selenium Cucumber automation
application?
We consider the following before building a Selenium Cucumber automation
application:-
Determine the type of application you'll be testing. Is it a Web app, a mobile app,
or a desktop application?
Is there a need for backend testing? Databases or SDKs, for example.
Is it necessary to run the app through an internationalization test?
It must include a report that allows you to track down a problem with minimal
effort.
It must be able to generate parametrization tests automatically.
Any setup-related settings or global attributes should be defined in a config file.
To segregate the functionality, use abstraction at every level.

33.   Difference between JBehave and Cucumber.

Despite the fact that Cucumber and JBehave have the same goal in mind, acceptance
tests are two quite distinct frameworks:
Cucumber is built on Ruby, while JBehave is a pure Java Framework.
Cucumber is built on features, whereas JBehave is based on stories.

34.   How can you run a selected test from a group of tests in

Cucumber?

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 Cucumber Interview Questions

We may execute a single test from a set of tests in the Cucumber framework using the
tags idea. This is found in the TestRunner file's @CucumberOptions section. With the
use of the @t<agname> keyword, we may tag a scenario in the feature file. A scenario
can have one or more tags within the feature file. We can separate test scenarios with
the assistance of tagging. We must pass the <tagname> value within the tags
argument to execute a selected test in Cucumber, and we must pass the <~tagname>
value within the tags parameter to exclude a test from running.

Conclusion:

Cucumber is frequently used in BDD because it is an open-source technology. It's also

quite simple to grasp, has a lot of room for additional features, and it's rather easy to
connect Cucumber with Selenium or other third-party tools/jars, etc.
It is quite easy for anyone who has just started learning Cucumber or for those who
have intermediate experience in Cucumber/BDD because it has active help
groups/members.
Cucumber also allows for connectivity with an excel sheet and Jenkins.
References: 
Cucumber Documentation
Recommended Resources:
Selenium Interview
Automation Testing

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