What is cucumber background keyword ?

What is the background in Cucumber?

Background:

• The background is a keyword provided in Gherkin language.
• Generally, we can find many repeatable steps in all of the scenarios in a Feature.
• Since the steps are repeated in every scenario, we can group them under the background section.
• A Background is a set of steps that can be executed before each scenario but after @Before Hooks.

Let's say I have scenarios in a feature like below:

Feature: Demo on cucumber framework
  Description: The purpose of this feature is explain Background keyword

  Scenario: This is First Scenario
    Given I navigated to Amazon Website
    And I enter user name
    And I enter password
    And I click login button
    When I navigated to Home Page
    Then I searched for Samsung mobile

  Scenario: This is second Scenario
    Given I navigated to Amazon Website
    And I enter user name
    And I enter password
    And I click login button
    When I navigated to Home Page
    Then I searched for Micromax mobile

Here, we observe there are repeated steps in the scenarios (First 5 steps in each scenario).

So, by using background keyword we can write only once, those repeated steps in background section.

Demo on cucumber backgroud keyword:

FirstFeatureFile.feature

Feature: Demo on cucumber framework
  Description: The purpose of this feature is explain Background keyword

  Background:
    Given I navigated to Amazon Website
    And I enter user name
    And I enter password
    And I click login button
    When I navigated to Home Page
  Scenario: This is First Scenario
    Then I searched for Samsung mobile
  Scenario: This is second Scenario
    Then I searched for Micromax mobile

Step Definitions for above scenarios are implemented as below:

cucumber background keyword

cucumber background keyword

Now execute the above scenarios:

Cucumber background scenario execution

Based on requirements, it's up to you how you will use the background in the cucumber framework.

Please comment below to feedback or ask questions.