Execution Speed of Automated End-to-End (via UI) Testing Clarified

Test Execution Speed is just one factor of many in Test Automation.

Zhimin Zhan
6 min readJan 14, 2023

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running image credit: https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/6923598-running-man-abstract-logo

This article is one of the “IT Terminology Clarified” series.

Execution Speed is an interesting subject in Test Automation, here, I mean, end-to-end via UI. For example, web test automation, the most common form of test automation, drives the app in a Chrome browser for testing purposes.

Table of Contents
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The Cypress Lie on Test Execution Speed
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From an overall perspective in test automation, speed is minor compared to other factors
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Speed is important in the developing/debugging phase.
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Speed is not that important in the daily execution phase.

The Cypress Lie on Test Execution Speed

Since ~2018, Cypress’ marketing team has lured many fake automated testers using a big, fat lie. (Check out this article)

I don’t know how Cypress got this conclusion. It is against my observation, besides every Cypress test automation attempt (I witnessed) failed, in the process of rescuing some of them (to use raw Selenium WebDriver), I found Cypress was slower than raw Selenium…

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Zhimin Zhan

Test automation & CT coach, author, speaker and award-winning software developer. Help teams succeed with Agile/DevOps by implementing real Continuous Testing.