How to distinguish different types of expectations in software systems?

In software systems, waits come in different types, and it is important to distinguish them for effective testing and automation:

• Implicit Waits — set once and apply to all elements, causing WebDriver to wait for a specified time before throwing an exception if the element is not found.
• Explicit Waits — waiting for a specific condition for a particular element, such as until the element becomes visible or clickable.
• Fixed Waits — pauses with a set time (e.g., Thread.sleep), which do not depend on the system's state and are considered less efficient.

Distinguishing these types is important to optimize test time and improve their reliability.