1. Introduction

Course Expectations

This course takes you from zero to productive with Playwright across 25 chapters. By the end, you will write maintainable end-to-end tests, integrate API testing, handle network interception, set up CI/CD, and use AI agents to generate and heal tests. Each chapter includes code examples, diagrams, and hands-on exercises.

Prerequisites

• Basic familiarity with any programming language (JavaScript helpful but not required)
• Node.js installed (v18+)
• A code editor (VS Code recommended)
• Windows, macOS, or Linux

Setting Up Node.js & VS Code

# Download Node.js from https://nodejs.org (LTS version)
# Verify installation
node --version
npm --version

# Install VS Code from https://code.visualstudio.com

PowerShell Notes (Windows)

On Windows, use PowerShell 5.1+ or PowerShell Core. When running npx commands, you may need to set the execution policy:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

First Playwright Project

mkdir my-playwright-project
cd my-playwright-project
npm init -y
npm install @playwright/test
npx playwright install