JavaScript is the most common web programming language, and it is imperative for quality engineers to familiarize themselves with the basics. With minor exceptions, we will be using JavaScript to automate various levels of the application stack in the rest of this book. Let us start with the question of why we should learn JavaScript.

Why learn JavaScript?

One of the primary reasons to learn JavaScript is its complete integration with HTML/CSS and that it is enabled to work on all browsers. This makes it extremely easy to create and execute scripts. It is also a loosely typed language that provides engineers with great flexibility when writing applications. Its event-driven architecture helps engineers perform rigorous read/write operations with ease at a scale. Even though it was initially created to run only on browsers, it is currently being used extensively for building server-side applications. JavaScript, as a programming language, caters to beginner...