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Technology

Selenium

Difficulty

Intermediate

Interview Question

How to disable cookies in the browser using Selenium?

Answer

Disabling Cookies in the Browser Using Selenium

Method 1 — deleteAllCookies() (delete during test):

Java
// Delete all cookies from the current domain
driver.manage().deleteAllCookies();

// Delete a specific cookie by name
driver.manage().deleteCookieNamed("sessionToken");

// Delete a specific cookie object
Cookie myCookie = driver.manage().getCookieNamed("auth");
driver.manage().deleteCookie(myCookie);

Method 2 — Block cookies via ChromeOptions:

Java
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();

// Disable cookies entirely via Chrome preferences
HashMap<String, Object> prefs = new HashMap<>();
prefs.put("profile.default_content_setting_values.cookies", 2);  // 2 = block all
options.setExperimentalOption("prefs", prefs);

WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

Method 3 — FirefoxProfile to disable cookies:

Java
FirefoxProfile profile = new FirefoxProfile();
profile.setPreference("network.cookie.cookieBehavior", 2);  // 2 = block all

FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
options.setProfile(profile);
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(options);

Cookie management methods:

Java
// Get all cookies
Set<Cookie> allCookies = driver.manage().getCookies();
for (Cookie c : allCookies) {
    System.out.println(c.getName() + " = " + c.getValue());
}

// Add a cookie
Cookie newCookie = new Cookie("key", "value");
driver.manage().addCookie(newCookie);

// Delete all cookies
driver.manage().deleteAllCookies();

// Verify cookies cleared
System.out.println("Cookies after clear: " + driver.manage().getCookies().size());
// Output: Cookies after clear: 0

Practical use in test setup:

Java
@BeforeMethod
public void clearSession() {
    driver.manage().deleteAllCookies();
    driver.navigate().refresh();
}

Key method: driver.manage().deleteAllCookies() — removes all cookies for the current session. Use deleteAllVisibleCookies() in older Selenium RC APIs (Selenium WebDriver uses deleteAllCookies()).

When to clear cookies:

  • Between test scenarios to ensure clean state
  • Before login tests to avoid pre-existing sessions
  • To test "first visit" behavior

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