Sam E. Lawrence articles - 26 total
The worst mistakes to make when interviewing a job candidate
Read their resume for the first time in front of them. Ask only closed yes/no questions, not open...
On proactively naming elements within Cypress '.within()' blocks
Anytime you use .within() in a Cypress test, you have the option to name the element variable that...
My QA Tech Stack in 2025
When I made an initial version of this post on my LinkedIn, it got a lot of attention including...
Interaction between .skip() and after() in Cypress
I believe this is an issue that should be treated as a Cypress bug, but it has an easy-enough...
Three reasons to remove old LinkedIn connections
Background When I first joined LinkedIn, I was eager to add new connections and sent out...
My Favorite Interview Questions for QA Engineers
About this post I've been working in the field of software quality since 2013, starting...
How to break out of .within() scope in Cypress
I am a huge fan of the Cypress method .within() for scoping commands to within a specific UI section....
Three optional styles for UI assertions in Cypress
.contains() Often, I just want to scan over a UI in Cypress and make sure that a set of...
3 nuggets of advice for mid-level engineers who don't want the management track
The Setup I was recently having a conversation with another QA Engineer who is seeking...
How I implement drag-and-drop in my Cypress tests
Drag and drop interactions can be one of the more challenging things to get right in Cypress tests....
How I would begin a career in software QA
The world of software is vast and broad, but there aren't many obvious entry points for newcomers,...
Migrating a QA Team's Test Repo from Testrail to Qase
Background TestRail just isn't cutting it these days in my opinion. I've found Report...
My favorite cy.type() tips and tricks
The problem Someone in the Cypress Discord faced an issue where cy.type() wouldn't enter...
Conditional UI testing in Cypress
How can we design tests and rich custom command macros when we don't know what the state of the UI...
Essential Cypress Plugins I Can't Live Without
@bahmutov/cy-grep (NPM) I'm a big fan of and very grateful for the work that @bahmutov...
Why I Enjoy Working in Tech, and You Might Too!
About I really enjoy working in tech. Across my career, not every company has been a good...
Shifting Left, How the Role of QA is Changing
This post is intended for people who are new to the world of software testing, meant to provide some...
Testing with Cypress Across Multiple Environments
Overview You may need to configure Cypress across multiple test environments and find it...
Constructing Custom Locators in OpenTest
On a previous project, I got to use a nifty tool called OpenTest to orchestrate test automation on an...
Muting Noisy XHR Logs in Cypress
(This guide has been updated multiple times, especially since the release of Cypress 10) For a while...
How To Avoid Getting Stuck in Vim as a New git User
I started a new job recently. When I set up a new work machine, I immediately install zsh and pull do...
The Rest Operator
I had never heard of the Rest Operator until today, but it's a wonderful inverse twist on the Spread...
Arrays and Objects Are Passed By Reference
Arrays and objects are passed by reference. This is something that can catch a lot of beginners out...
Chaining 'let' and 'const' statements
I always get excited when I discover stuff like this.
On The Inequality of Arrays
I recently found out that two identical arrays are inherently non-equal and will never return 'true'...
Passing Go (Not the Language)
Learning Programming, For Real This Time