Quote from QABash.ai on 13 April 2025, 4:31 PM

😩 “Why did my test stop right there?”

Picture this: You're testing a login page with multiple checks — the page title, the input field visibility, the login button. You hit run, and boom 💥 — the test fails on the first failed assertion, skipping the rest.

You sigh and think, “Wait, I wanted to know if all three things failed or not!”

Well, friend, welcome to the world of hard vs. soft assertions in Pytest — where how you assert makes all the difference.

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🔍 What’s an Assertion in Testing?

In Python testing (especially with Pytest), an assert is like a checkpoint. You're saying,

“Hey, this must be true — or something’s broken.”

Assertions help validate:

• UI elements 🖥️

• API responses 🌐

• Calculated results 🧮

• Business logic 💼

But not all asserts behave the same...

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🧱 Hard Assert: The Strict Gatekeeper

A hard assert immediately stops test execution if the condition fails.

📌 Example:

def test_login_page():


assert "Login" in driver.title


assert driver.find_element(By.ID, "username").is_displayed()


assert driver.find_element(By.ID, "login-button").is_enabled()


If the first assert fails, the test exits — no second chances.

⚠️ Why it's risky: You may miss other broken things because the test didn't get that far.

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🧊 Soft Assert: The Friendly Reporter

A soft assert collects all failures and reports them at the end, instead of stopping right away.

Pytest doesn’t natively support soft asserts — but you can get it using pytest-check, softest, or custom context managers.

📦 Installing pytest-check:

pip install pytest-check


✅ Example:

import pytest_check as check


def test_login_page():


check.is_in("Login", driver.title)


check.is_true(driver.find_element(By.ID, "username").is_displayed())


check.is_true(driver.find_element(By.ID, "login-button").is_enabled())


Now, all three assertions will run, and failures will be aggregated.

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🧪 When to Use Which?

Situation	Use Hard Assert	Use Soft Assert
Critical checks	✅	❌
UI validation	⚠️	✅
API smoke tests	✅	❌
Functional regression	❌	✅
Debugging flaky tests	❌	✅

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⚒️ Pro Tips to Level Up 💡

✅ Tip #1: Use soft asserts in UI tests to validate multiple elements in one go 🧩
✅ Tip #2: Use hard asserts early to fail fast for critical path checks 🚨
✅ Tip #3: Combine both to balance precision and coverage ⚖️
✅ Tip #4: Wrap soft asserts in helper functions for readability 🧼
✅ Tip #5: Don’t overuse soft asserts — know when stopping early is better ⏹️

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🧱 Common Mistakes to Avoid

🚫 Assuming Pytest has soft asserts built-in — you need pytest-check or similar 🧰
🚫 Mixing up assert libraries — stay consistent (either check or native) 🧪
🚫 Ignoring test result logs — soft assert failures may not be obvious unless reviewed 🔍
🚫 Using soft asserts in authentication or database tests where failures can cascade 🔒

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🎯 Expert Insights: A Little-Known Power Move

You can combine hard and soft asserts in the same test.
Use hard asserts for must-pass checks (like reaching a page), and soft asserts for detailed validations once you're confident the flow is working.

This lets your tests fail smartly instead of dying silently.

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Fail Fast or Fail Friendly?

Both hard and soft asserts have their place.
The real skill? Knowing when to be strict and when to be forgiving.

Start with small changes — try pytest-check in one test. Watch how it helps you catch more issues without frustration.