What is Cucumber? When to Use ? Cucumber vs Selenium ?

 

What is Cucumber?

  • Cucumber is a tool/Framework that supports Behaviour-Driven Development(BDD).
  • Executable Environment, or its a Tool which supports writing your testcases in the BDD format.

Mostly cucumber using for automation. Why?

1. Supports Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)

  • Cucumber allows collaboration between developers, testers, and business stakeholders.
  • It uses Gherkin syntax, which is easy to understand for non-technical users.

2. Readable & Human-Friendly Syntax

  • Test scenarios are written in plain English using keywords like Given, When, Then.

Example:gherkin

Scenario: Verify login functionality
  Given the user is on the login page
  When they enter valid credentials
  Then they should be redirected to the homepage


3. Reusability & Maintainability
  • Steps written in Gherkin can be reused across multiple test scenarios.
  • If a requirement changes, only the affected step definition needs modification.

4. Integration with Selenium & Other Tools
  • Cucumber is commonly used with Selenium, Appium, RestAssured, and TestNG for automation.
  • It can interact with web, mobile, and API testing.

5. Supports Multiple Programming Languages
  • Supports Java, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Kotlin, etc., making it flexible.

6. Generates Detailed Reports
  • Cucumber provides built-in reporting and supports third-party reports like Extent Reports & Allure Reports.

7. Parallel Execution Support
  • With Cucumber-JVM and TestNG, tests can run in parallel, improving execution time.

8. Easy to Integrate with CI/CD Pipelines
  • Works well with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, ensuring continuous testing.

When NOT to Use Cucumber?

  • If the team consists only of technical testers, writing Gherkin may not be necessary.

  • For unit testing, simpler tools like JUnit/TestNG are more efficient.


Difference between Cucumber & Selenium?

  • Selenium is the tool to design web Automation tests, Cucumber helps to design Framework for Selenium Automation tests written in BDD standard

Final Thoughts

Cucumber is a BDD tool, while Selenium is a UI automation tool. Cucumber often works with Selenium to write tests in a human-readable format and execute them using Selenium WebDriver. 🚀


When to Use What?

✔ Use Selenium when:

  • You only need UI automation for a web application.

  • Writing step definitions in plain English is unnecessary.

  • You prefer JUnit, TestNG, or other test frameworks.

✔ Use Cucumber when:

  • You need BDD-based automation.

  • Test scenarios need to be readable by business teams.

  • You want collaboration between developers, testers, and stakeholders.




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