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Explain the execution flow of a Cucumber scenario from feature file to step definition?

Running a Cucumber suite involves several distinct phases: discovering feature files, compiling them into executable pickles, and then matching and invoking the right code for each step of each pickle.

sequenceDiagram participant Runner as JUnit Platform Suite participant Cucumber as Cucumber Engine participant Glue as Step Definitions / Hooks participant SUT as System Under Test Runner->>Cucumber: Discover feature files (glue + feature paths) Cucumber->>Cucumber: Parse Gherkin, compile into Pickles loop for each Pickle Cucumber->>Glue: Run @Before hooks loop for each step Cucumber->>Cucumber: Match step text to a step definition Cucumber->>Glue: Invoke matched step definition method Glue->>SUT: Perform action / assertion SUT-->>Glue: Result end Cucumber->>Glue: Run @After hooks Cucumber-->>Runner: Report scenario pass/fail end

Discovery and compilation happen once, up front, turning every Scenario and every expanded Scenario Outline row into an independent pickle. For each pickle, Cucumber runs applicable @Before hooks, then processes steps one at a time: matching the step's text against every registered step definition's pattern, and failing immediately with an error if zero or more than one definition matches. Only after every step in the pickle completes (or one fails) do the @After hooks run, and the final pass/fail result is reported back to the runner.

What happens if a step's text matches more than one registered step definition?
@After hooks run:

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