Advanced Level Test Automation Engineer CTAL-TAE Updated Exam

TAE describes “intrusiveness” as the degree to which automation reaches into internal implementation details of the SUT rather than interacting through externally visible, user-realistic interfaces. Using browser drivers and browser automation APIs exercises the UI similarly to a real user (via the browser’s supported automation hooks), which is generally less intrusive than directly manipulating the DOM and internal JavaScript. Direct DOM/JS access can bypass real user interaction pathways, skip browser event chains, and depend on internal structures that are not part of the stable external contract. This increases the risk of false positives: tests may “pass” by forcing UI states or reading internal values even when the application would not behave correctly for real users. Less intrusive automation (through browser-level drivers) tends to provide higher confidence that observed behavior reflects real user experience, reducing the chance that tests succeed while user-visible behavior is broken. TAE therefore associates lower intrusion with stronger validity of results and lower false-positive risk, especially for system/UI-level validation. While browser-driven automation can still be flaky for other reasons (timing, environment), in the specific comparison of interaction method, browser-driver-based execution is the less intrusive option and is less likely to create false positives than direct internal DOM/JS manipulation.

The primary problem is execution time; correctness and independence are already strong. TAE recommends improving feedback time for long-running regression suites by parallelizing execution when tests are independent and the infrastructure supports it. Because the tests are explicitly independent, they are well-suited to parallel execution across multiple environments (or multiple nodes within an environment), reducing overall wall-clock duration without changing test intent. Option B addresses crash recovery, but the scenario says executions complete successfully; crash recovery does not solve the current bottleneck. Option A changes the modeling pattern; it may or may not reduce LOC, but it introduces risk and rework without directly addressing runtime. Also, flow model and façade-expanded page objects are already architectural choices aimed at maintainability and reuse; replacing them is not the most direct solution for speed. Option D (improving SUT testability) can help in general, but it is invasive, expensive, and not targeted to the stated issue when tests already yield correct results. Therefore, the best improvement is to split the suite and run parts concurrently on different environments to reduce total execution time, consistent with TAE guidance on scaling automation execution.