Compared to Explicit Wait and Fluent Wait, which wait until a specific condition is met, Implicit Wait applies a global timeout while locating elements during Selenium test execution.
With implicit wait, the WebDriver waits up to the defined maximum time when elements are not immediately available. While this can help handle minor delays, it may increase overall test execution time, especially when elements consistently take less time to load.
Additionally, since modern web applications are highly dynamic, fixed wait times are not always reliable for identifying elements at the right moment. Due to these limitations, the use of implicit wait is generally kept minimal in robust automation frameworks, with a preference for more flexible and condition-based waits like explicit or fluent waits.
In the following example, the WebDriver is initialized, and the script searches for the book “SEO Made Easy” by entering the value into an input field and clicking the Search button. After the search action, it retrieves the link text that matches the same value.
An Implicit Wait is applied to allow the WebDriver to wait up to the specified timeout for the element to appear, ensuring the script does not fail immediately if the results take time to load.
Example code:
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
driver.get(“https://www.example.com”);
// Locate search input and enter value
WebElement elem = driver.findElement(By.id(“SearchCity”));
elem.sendKeys(“SEO made easy”);
// Locate search button and click
WebElement buttonSearch = driver.findElement(By.linkText(“Search”));
buttonSearch.click();
// Set implicit wait before locating elements
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(30));
// Retrieve text of the result link
String text = driver.findElement(By.linkText(“SEO made easy”)).getText();
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