Explain the difference between implicit wait and explicit wait in Selenium.

Implicit Wait — global wait applied to ALL findElement() calls:

driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(180));

• ✓Set once, applies throughout the entire WebDriver session
• ✓Waits up to the specified time before throwing NoSuchElementException
• ✓Cannot wait for specific conditions (visibility, clickability, etc.)

Explicit Wait — applied to a SPECIFIC element with a SPECIFIC condition:

WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(5));
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(ElementLocator));

• ✓Created per use — does NOT apply globally
• ✓Supports rich conditions: visibilityOf, elementToBeClickable, alertIsPresent, etc.
• ✓Exits as soon as the condition is met (no unnecessary waiting)

Key comparison:

Best Practice: Never mix implicit and explicit waits — it causes unpredictable timing behavior. Choose one strategy per project and stick to it. Explicit wait is preferred for production frameworks.