In an automation project, using a HashMap can be incredibly handy for managing data that needs to be accessed quickly using a key. Here’s how you might bring it up in an interview to showcase your understanding and experience:
✅ Example: HashMap in a Selenium Test Automation Project
“In my Selenium automation framework, I used a HashMap to handle test data management. For example, while executing a data-driven test, I stored key-value pairs where the key was the field name (like ‘username’, ‘password’) and the value was the actual test data fetched from an Excel sheet or JSON file. This made it easy to retrieve data dynamically during test execution.”
Code Snippet:
📦 Other Real-World Uses of HashMap in Automation:
- Mapping UI element locators to logical names.
- Caching API responses to avoid redundant calls.
- Tracking test step status with step IDs as keys.
- Configuration management, e.g. environment-specific URLs or headers.
