Eliminated test flakiness and cut UI test execution time by 50% in a Playwright suite of 1,100 tests
- 50%less UI test execution time, and no flaky tests
- 0flaky tests remaining
- 1,100UI and API tests
Challenge
The Playwright test suite had flaky tests and no established monitoring of test results. When a test can fail without a real defect, a red run may mean a product problem or just noise, so failures cost time to investigate and the results are harder to trust. Long UI test runs also delayed feedback on every change.
My Solution
- Established test result monitoring with Allure reporting, so results were visible and unstable tests could be identified and fixed.
- Replaced setup hooks with fixtures to reduce flakiness, so each test runs only the setup it needs and nothing more.
- Put web-first assertions to correct use, so tests wait for the expected state instead of checking it at a single moment.
- Ordered triggers and listeners correctly, registering each listener before the action that triggers the event, so tests do not miss a fast response.
- Mocked third-party services, so UI tests no longer depend on the speed or availability of external systems. Moved testing of the real integrations to a separate suite.
Result
across a suite of 1,100 UI and API tests, no flaky tests remained and test execution time for UI tests was reduced by 50%, which supported further growth of a healthy test suite.