Why I Stopped Using sleep() in My Playwright Tests (You Should Too)

Hey dev community! 👋

I've been diving deep into Playwright automation lately, and I wanted to share something that completely transformed how I write tests.

My Old (Bad) Approach
Like many of you probably do, I used to sprinkle sleep(2000) statements everywhere in my test scripts. Element not loading fast enough? Add a sleep. Form submission taking time? Another sleep.

The result? My test suite was slow, unreliable, and frankly embarrassing when it failed in front of the team.

The Better Way I Discovered
While going through some excellent resources (I'll share the link below), I learned about auto wait and explicit wait in Playwright. This was a game-changer for me.

Here's what blew my mind: Playwright automatically waits for elements to be ready before interacting with them. No more guessing how long to wait—it just works intelligently.

But when you need more control (like waiting for API responses or dynamic content updates), explicit waits give you that precision without the brittleness of fixed delays.

What Changed for Me
After implementing these concepts:

• My tests became 3x faster
• Zero flaky test failures in the last month
• Code is cleaner and more maintainable
• My confidence in the test suite is through the roof

Learning Resources That Helped
I found this incredibly detailed guide that walks through both concepts with practical examples: How to Use Auto Wait and Explicit Wait in Playwright

If you're serious about mastering these concepts, taking a playwright course online can really accelerate your learning curve. The structured approach helps you avoid the trial-and-error phase I went through.

Key Takeaway
Stop fighting timing issues with arbitrary delays. Let Playwright's smart waiting do the heavy lifting, and use explicit waits only when you need surgical precision.

What's your experience with handling waits in test automation? Drop your thoughts below! 👇