Welcome back to the Ambassador Spotlight series! Each edition, we shine a light on one of the testers and builders shaping the Cypress community and the people in it sharing their knowledge through blogs, talks, and everyday community support. Curious about the program itself? Learn more here.
This week, meet Sehani Chathurangi, a Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer, CypressConf speaker, and prolific blogger who shares real-world testing solutions with the community. Find out what drew her to the Ambassador program, plus her tips for anyone looking to strengthen their own testing practice.
What motivates you to be a Cypress Ambassador?
Cypress has played a key role in building a better life for me as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer. I was inspired by the articles and contributions of existing Cypress Ambassadors, which motivated me to start writing my own blogs on testing. Becoming a Cypress Ambassador has allowed me to extend my contributions to a broader audience, inspire others to embrace Cypress, and help shape the future of modern test automation.
How do you currently help others that are either using Cypress or interested in using Cypress?
I help others through a combination of blogging, speaking, and community knowledge sharing. I write about real-world automation challenges, best practices, and lessons learned from my own experience. I also share these ideas through talks and community discussions, with the goal of turning practical testing experiences into useful guidance that others can apply to their own projects.
What is your favorite Cypress feature?
My favorite Cypress feature is custom commands. They allow me to encapsulate and reuse common test logic, which keeps tests cleaner and easier to maintain. When used thoughtfully, they also help create a consistent testing approach across a larger automation suite.
What is your favorite "Cypress Best Practice" and why?
One of my favorite Cypress best practices is using data-* attributes for selecting elements instead of relying on CSS selectors or XPath. This approach helps create stable, reliable selectors that are less likely to break when the UI’s styling or structure changes.
Outside of work, what are your favorite things to do (hobbies, passions, etc.)?
I enjoy watching movies, traveling, and reading.
What is one professional milestone you are proud of?
One professional milestone I’m particularly proud of is growing from a QA Engineer into a Senior QA Engineer while continuously expanding my impact beyond day-to-day testing. Along the way, I’ve taken on challenges involving automation, serverless environments, and improving software quality through better engineering practices. Becoming a Cypress Ambassador and being selected as a CypressConf speaker have also been meaningful milestones, as they’ve given me opportunities to share what I’ve learned with a wider testing community.
For new users - what is the best way to "get started" with Cypress?
Cypress is quick to set up, intuitive to learn, and simple to use day-to-day. I recommend starting with the official documentation, creating a simple test, and gradually exploring Cypress’s core concepts through hands-on practice. When questions come up, the Cypress Discord community is also a great place to connect with other users, ask questions, and learn from experienced testers.
What is your favorite quote or saying?
Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.