How should you assert in a Selenium test?

A Selenium assertion is only as good as its timing. Asserting immediately after a click often checks the old page. Wait for the condition first, then assert. The assertion should describe a behaviour, not an implementation detail such as a CSS class.

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));
WebElement status = wait.until(
    ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.cssSelector("[role='status']")));

Assert.assertEquals(status.getText(), "Order placed");

SoftAssert soft = new SoftAssert();
soft.assertTrue(driver.getCurrentUrl().contains("/orders"));
soft.assertTrue(driver.getTitle().contains("Orders"));
soft.assertAll();

• Hard assertions stop the test on failure, which is correct when later steps depend on the result
• Soft assertions collect multiple failures but can hide a broken flow if overused
• AssertJ and Hamcrest give clearer failure messages than raw boolean checks
• Include the actual value and context in the failure message
• Never assert on a value that can legitimately change between environments without normalising it

Text assertions are useful for user-visible contracts but brittle for localisation and copy changes. For status codes and state, assert on URL, API responses or accessible roles where possible. Use the page object to expose state, then assert in the test.