Hi everyone, I welcome you all to the series of learning web automation. Every week I will be posting a blog on Web automation using playwright with python. Let’s dive in!!

Playwright is a modern automation framework that supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, and it's gaining popularity fast—especially for Python developers looking for something faster and simpler than Selenium. Why Python?? is one every automation engineer or aspiring SDET should understand. Here's a clear and practical breakdown tailored to your path

Easy-to-learn − Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly defined syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.
Easy-to-read − Python code is more clearly defined and is almost like English.
Easy-to-maintain − Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
Huge Library Support-Whatever you want to automate, Python has a library for it
Databases − Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.

Before diving into Playwright, I recommend learning the basics of Python first, and then continuing to learn both simultaneously. Let’s go ahead shall we

Some of the advantages of using Playwright

Advantages of Using Playwright

1. Supports All Major Browsers

Chromium (Chrome, Edge)
Firefox
WebKit (Safari engine)

You can test across real browser engines with a single codebase. Great for cross-browser compatibility testing.

2. Auto-Waiting for Elements

No need to write wait() or sleep logic manually. Playwright automatically waits for elements to be ready — reducing flakiness.

pythonCopyEditpage.click('text="Login"')  # Waits until button is clickable

3. Multiple Languages Supported

You can use Playwright in:

Python
JavaScript / TypeScript
Java
C#

So, if your team uses mixed languages, you're covered.

4. Powerful Built-in Features

Screenshots & Videos of test runs
Tracing (step-by-step test recording)
Parallel execution

You don’t need 10 plugins like with Selenium — most features are built-in.

5. Headless & Headful Browsing

Headless: fast execution (no UI)
Headful: visible browser window for debugging

pythonCopyEditbrowser = playwright.chromium.launch(headless=False)

6. Cross-Platform Testing

Playwright runs on:

Windows
Linux
macOS
Even Docker & CI/CD (like Jenkins, GitHub Actions)

7. Great for Modern Web Apps

Playwright handles:

Single Page Applications (A web app that updates the page without reloading it)
Shadow DOM (A hidden part of the webpage's HTML that you can’t access directly using normal selectors)
iframes (An <iframe> is like a mini web page inside another web page)
Complex UI interactions

That makes it ideal for modern front-ends built in React, Angular, Vue, etc.

In next blog, Let’s learn how to launch a browser using chromium engine :)

Web Automation Made Easy: Playwright with Python