5 Reasons Your E2E Tests Are Flaky

Flaky tests are the #1 complaint we hear from QA teams. Here's why they happen and how Playwright solves them.

1. Race Conditions

**The Problem:** Your test clicks a button before it's ready.

Thread.sleep(2000); // Hope it's ready
button.click();

await page.locator('button').click(); // Auto-waits until clickable

2. Network Timing

**The Problem:** API calls complete at unpredictable times.

await page.waitForResponse(resp => resp.url().includes('/api/data'));

3. Animation Interference

**The Problem:** Elements move during test execution.

await page.locator('.modal').waitFor({ state: 'visible' });

4. Stale Element References

**The Problem:** DOM updates invalidate element references.

**Playwright Solution:** Locators are lazy-evaluated, so they're always fresh.

5. Browser Inconsistencies

**The Problem:** Tests pass in Chrome, fail in Firefox.

**Playwright Solution:** Unified API across all browsers with consistent behavior.

The Bottom Line

Playwright's architecture eliminates flakiness at the framework level, not through workarounds.

[Calculate your savings](/roi-calculator) from reducing flaky tests.