Maven Questions

Question: What is Maven and why is it used in automation project

Answer:Maven is a build automation and dependency management tool for Java-based projects. It’s used to:

• Manage project dependencies through a centralized pom.xml file.

• Compile, test, package and deploy applications.

• Integrate with CI tools like Jenkins for continuous execution.

• Ensure standard project structure and reproducibility across teams.

Question: What is pom.xml and what are its key elements?

Answer: pom.xml (Project Object Model) is the core configuration file in Maven.

Important elements:

• <dependencies> – To manage external libraries.

• <build> – Custom build steps, plugins, test execution control.

• <repositories> – Define external repo URLs (e.g., Nexus).

• <properties> – Project-level config (e.g., Java version).

• <profiles> – For managing different environments (dev, QA, prod).

Question: How do you manage dependencies in Maven?

Answer:Dependencies are declared inside the <dependencies> tag in pom.xml.

Example:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
  <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
  <version>4.19.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven downloads these automatically from the central repository or a custom one

Question: What is the difference between compile, test, provided, and runtime scopes in Maven?

Answer: 

Scope Description

compile -- Default scope, available in all classpaths.

test -- Available only during testing.

provided -- Required for compile, but not at runtime (e.g., servlet API).

runtime -- Required only during execution, not compilation.

Question: How do you execute tests using Maven?

Answer:Use the Surefire plugin to run tests:

mvn clean test

To run a specific test suite:

mvn test -DsuiteXmlFile=testng.xml

Question: How can you skip test cases in Maven?

Answer:You can skip test execution using:

mvn install -DskipTests

This compiles tests but skips running them.

To skip compilation and execution:

mvn install -Dmaven.test.skip=true

Question: What is the difference between clean, install, validate, package, and verify?

Answer:

Command Description

clean -- Deletes target/ directory.

validate -- Checks project is correct and all needed info is available.

compile -- Compiles the source code.

test -- Runs tests using testing framework.

package -- Packages compiled code into a .jar or .war.

verify -- Runs checks on test results.

install -- Installs the package to local repo (~/.m2).

Question: How do you handle version conflicts in Maven?

Answer:Use the command:

mvn dependency:tree

This shows the dependency hierarchy and highlights conflicts. Use dependency management or exclusions to resolve them:

<exclusions>

  <exclusion>

    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>

    <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>

  </exclusion>

</exclusions>

Question: What is the Surefire plugin?

Answer:Apache Surefire is a Maven plugin used for executing unit and integration tests.

<plugin>

  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

  <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>

  <version>3.2.5</version>

</plugin>

Question: How do you use profiles in Maven?

Answer:Profiles are used to run Maven builds for different environments:

<profiles>

  <profile>

    <id>qa</id>

    <properties>

      <env>qa</env>

    </properties>

  </profile>

</profiles>

Activate it with:

mvn test -P qa