The Playwright Playbook — Part 3: Multi-User, Multi-Tab & Browser Context Testing

The Playwright Playbook — Part 3: Multi-User, Multi-Tab & Browser Context Testing "Most frameworks test one user at a time. Real apps don't work that way." In Part 1, we built the full foundation — POM, storageState , fixtures, and a clean project structure. In Part 2, we took control of the network layer — mocking APIs, simulating failures, and asserting on real network calls. Now we tackle the scenario that breaks most automation frameworks. Multiple users. Simultaneously. In one test. Think about your app for a moment. How many features actually involve just one user? Admin assigns a task → regular user sees it appear in real time User A edits a record → User B gets a notification Admin revokes access → User's session should invalidate Two users try to edit the same record → conflict resolution kicks in These are real features. They need to be tested. And page.goto('/login') in a beforeEach won't get you there. Playwright's browser context architecture was built exactly for this. Let's use it properly. 🎯 🏗️ Where We Left Off After Part 2, our project looks like this: playwright-playbook/ ├── tests/ │ ├── auth/ │ │ └── login.spec.ts ✅ Part 1 │ ├── tasks/ │ │ └── task-management.spec.ts ✅ Part 1 │ └── network/ ✅ Part 2 │ ├── api-mocking.spec.ts │ ├── error-simulation.spec.ts │ └── network-assertions.spec.ts ├── pages/ │ ├── LoginPage.ts ✅ Part 1 │ └── TaskPage.ts ✅ Part 1 ├── fixtures/ │ ├── auth.fixture.ts ✅ Part 1 │ ├── tasks.json ✅ Part 2 │ ├── empty-tasks.json ✅ Part 2 │ └── tasks-har.har ✅ Part 2 ├── scripts/ │ └── record-har.ts ✅ Part 2 ├── .auth/ │ ├── admin.json │ └── user.json ├── global-setup.ts ✅ Part 1 ├── playwright.config.ts ✅ Part 1 └── .env By the end of Part 3, we add: playwright-playbook/ ├── tests/ │ ├── multi-user/ ← NEW │ │ ├── role-permissions.spec.ts │ │ └── realtime-collaboration.spec.ts │ └── multi-tab/ ← NEW │ └── multi-tab-flows.spec.ts ├── pages/ │ └── DashboardPage.ts ← NEW ├── fixtures/ │ └── multi-user.fixture.ts ← NEW Every one of th