Selectors & Assertions

Cypress uses jQuery-style selectors combined with a chainable assertion API. Every command is automatically retried until it passes or times out — no manual waits needed.

Finding Elements

Best practice: add data-cy attributes to your elements so tests don't break when styles change.

<button data-cy="login-btn">Login</button>

Assertions with .should()

Assertions Practice

.then() for Custom Logic

Use .then() when you need to extract a value and run custom expectations that .should() can't express.

Aliases

cy.get('[data-cy="submit"]').as('submitBtn')

cy.get('@submitBtn').click()
cy.get('@submitBtn').should('be.disabled')

Aliases (as()) let you name elements and reuse them without re-querying the DOM.