Selenium Simplified — Understanding Waits in Selenium (Implicit vs Explicit Wait)

Introduction

In the previous article, we learned how Selenium finds elements on a webpage using locators.

But beginners often run into a frustrating error when running their tests:

NoSuchElementException

or

ElementNotInteractableException

Even though the element exists on the page.

So what’s happening?

The problem is usually timing.

Modern web applications load elements dynamically, which means Selenium might try to interact with an element before it appears on the page.

This is where waits become important.

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Why Waits Are Necessary

When Selenium executes a script, it runs very fast.

Much faster than a real user.

For example:

Open page
Find element
Click button

But the webpage may still be loading content in the background.

So Selenium may try to locate an element that has not appeared yet.

This causes test failures.

Waits allow Selenium to pause until the element is ready.

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How Waits Work in Selenium

Instead of immediately failing, Selenium can wait for a condition to be met, such as:

• An element becoming visible
• An element becoming clickable
• A page finishing loading

Once the condition is satisfied, Selenium continues executing the script.

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Types of Waits in Selenium

Selenium provides two main types of waits:

• Implicit Wait
• Explicit Wait

Let’s understand both.

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Implicit Wait

An implicit wait tells Selenium to wait for a certain amount of time when searching for elements.

If the element is not found immediately, Selenium will keep trying until the timeout is reached.

Example

driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(10));

What this means:

Selenium will wait up to 10 seconds when trying to locate an element.

If the element appears earlier, Selenium continues immediately.

Example usage

driver.findElement(By.id("loginButton")).click();

If the element takes 3 seconds to load, Selenium waits and then clicks it.

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Explicit Wait

An explicit wait is more flexible.

It allows Selenium to wait for specific conditions.

Examples:

• Wait until an element is visible
• Wait until an element is clickable
• Wait until text appears

Example

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));

WebElement element = wait.until(
    ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("loginButton"))
);

Here Selenium waits until the element becomes visible on the page.

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Common Explicit Wait Conditions

Some frequently used conditions include:

visibilityOfElementLocated
elementToBeClickable
presenceOfElementLocated
titleContains

Example:

wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.id("submit")));

This ensures the element is clickable before interacting with it.

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Implicit Wait vs Explicit Wait

Here is a simple comparison:

Feature	Implicit Wait	Explicit Wait
Scope	Applies globally	Applies to specific elements
Flexibility	Limited	Very flexible
Usage	Simple	More control
Recommended for complex scenarios	No	Yes

In most modern automation frameworks, explicit waits are preferred because they allow better control over test behavior.

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Common Beginner Mistake

Many beginners use Thread.sleep() to pause tests.

Example:

Thread.sleep(5000);

This forces the script to stop for exactly 5 seconds, even if the element loads earlier.

Problems with this approach:

• Makes tests slow
• Not reliable
• Hard to maintain

Using Selenium waits is a much better solution.

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A Simple Wait Flow

This is how waits fit into a Selenium test flow:

Open Page
    ↓
Find Element
    ↓
Wait Until Element Is Ready
    ↓
Perform Action

This makes automation scripts more stable and reliable.

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Final Thoughts

Timing issues are one of the most common causes of Selenium test failures.

Using waits correctly helps ensure that Selenium interacts with elements only when they are ready.

This makes tests:

• More reliable
• Less flaky
• Easier to maintain

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Up Next in This Series

So far in this series we have covered:

• Selenium architecture
• Locators
• Waits

Next, we will learn how Selenium handles special browser contexts.

In the next article:

Selenium Simplified — Handling Alerts, Frames, and Multiple Windows

These features are common in modern web applications and require Selenium to switch control between different contexts.