What is the difference between Hard and Soft Assertions in Playwright?

The Answer

Hard assertions (default) stop the test immediately on failure. Soft assertions (`expect.soft()`) allow the test to continue running and collect ALL failures, reporting them together at the end.

Deep Dive Explanation

Use soft assertions when validating multiple independent fields on a page (like a profile form) where you want to see all broken fields at once. Use hard assertions for critical pre-conditions — if the page title is wrong, there's no point checking the form fields.

example.spec.ts

test('hard vs soft assertions', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/profile');

  // HARD assertion - test stops here if it fails
  await expect(page).toHaveTitle('User Profile');

  // SOFT assertions - test continues even if these fail
  await expect.soft(page.getByLabel('Name')).toHaveValue('John Doe');
  await expect.soft(page.getByLabel('Email')).toHaveValue('john@example.com');
  await expect.soft(page.getByLabel('Phone')).toHaveValue('+1-555-0100');

  // Test continues here regardless of soft assertion results
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Save' }).click();
  // All soft assertion failures are reported at test end
});