Locators and auto-waiting

Playwright's locator priority (official guidance) — as the user sees it:

• getByRole('button', { name: 'Pay' }) — accessibility role + name (most durable)
• getByLabel('Email') — for form fields
• getByPlaceholder, getByText — text-based
• getByTestId('checkout-btn') — the data-testid attribute (agreed with devs)
• CSS/XPath — LAST resort; structural chains (div > div:nth-child(3)) break on refactoring

Auto-waiting: before every action Playwright itself waits for the element to be actionable (visible, enabled, stable, receiving events) — writing sleep() is unnecessary and WRONG.

Strict mode: if a locator matches more than one element, Playwright throws — preventing silently wrong picks. Fixes: make the locator more specific, use filter(), or first()/nth() when a set is intentional.

Chaining and filtering for complex UI: page.getByRole('row').filter({ hasText: 'Order #42' }).getByRole('button', { name: 'Cancel' }).