diff --git a/browsergym/webarenalite/src/browsergym/webarenalite/evaluators.py b/browsergym/webarenalite/src/browsergym/webarenalite/evaluators.py
index 12d4de191..9bd229b49 100644
--- a/browsergym/webarenalite/src/browsergym/webarenalite/evaluators.py
+++ b/browsergym/webarenalite/src/browsergym/webarenalite/evaluators.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 
 from beartype import beartype
 from nltk.tokenize import word_tokenize  # type: ignore
-from playwright.sync_api import CDPSession, Page
+from playwright.sync_api import CDPSession, Page, TimeoutError
 from .helper_functions import (
     PseudoPage,
     gitlab_get_project_memeber_role,
@@ -230,9 +230,15 @@ def parse_urls(
 
 
 class HTMLContentEvaluator(Evaluator):
-    """Check whether the contents appear in the page"""
-
-    """Check whether the contents appear in the page"""
+    """Check whether the contents appear in the page.
+
+    Note on evaluation provenance / error handling:
+    When JavaScript locator evaluation raises an exception (e.g. element not found
+    or syntax error), `selected_element` is set to `None`, resulting in a score of 0.0.
+    The evaluator returns the same numeric score (0.0) for a locator exception as it does
+    for a genuine content mismatch. This limitation preserves standard benchmark scoring
+    semantics while distinguishing locator exceptions from legitimate empty string results.
+    """
 
     @staticmethod
     @beartype
@@ -264,7 +270,14 @@ def __call__(
             # navigate to that url
             if target_url != "last":
                 page.goto(target_url)
-                time.sleep(3)  # TODO [shuyanzh]: fix this hard-coded sleep
+                try:
+                    # networkidle avoids evaluating while the page is still loading resources.
+                    # We tolerate timeouts because some target websites have background
+                    # activity that never truly reaches networkidle. In these cases, we
+                    # fall through and attempt evaluation anyway.
+                    page.wait_for_load_state("networkidle", timeout=3000)
+                except TimeoutError:
+                    pass
 
             # empty, use the full page
             if not locator.strip():
@@ -282,8 +295,9 @@ def __call__(
                     if not selected_element:
                         selected_element = ""
                 except Exception:
-                    # the page is wrong, return empty
-                    selected_element = ""
+                    # JavaScript evaluation failed; distinguish evaluator failure from a valid empty result.
+                    # Note: yields score 0.0, matching a content mismatch (evaluation-provenance limitation).
+                    selected_element = None
             elif locator.startswith("lambda:"):
                 try:
                     locator = locator.lstrip("lambda:")
@@ -291,7 +305,8 @@ def __call__(
                     if not selected_element:
                         selected_element = None
                 except Exception:
-                    # the page is wrong, return empty
+                    # JavaScript evaluation failed; distinguish evaluator failure from a valid empty result.
+                    # Note: yields score 0.0, matching a content mismatch (evaluation-provenance limitation).
                     selected_element = None
             # run program to call API
             elif locator.startswith("func:"):  # a helper function
diff --git a/tests/webarena/test_webarenalite_evaluators.py b/tests/webarena/test_webarenalite_evaluators.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..aea473f77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/webarena/test_webarenalite_evaluators.py
@@ -0,0 +1,180 @@
+import json
+import os
+import pathlib
+import tempfile
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
+
+import importlib.util
+import pytest
+import playwright.sync_api
+
+# Set mock WebArena environment variables before importing webarenalite if not already present
+for var in ["REDDIT", "SHOPPING", "SHOPPING_ADMIN", "GITLAB", "WIKIPEDIA", "MAP", "HOMEPAGE"]:
+    os.environ.setdefault(var, "http://localhost")
+
+# Skip test if webarenalite is not installed or importable in this environment
+webarenalite_installed = importlib.util.find_spec("browsergym.webarenalite") is not None
+if webarenalite_installed:
+    from browsergym.webarenalite.evaluators import evaluator_router
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def mock_page():
+    # Use spec=playwright.sync_api.Page to satisfy @beartype validation on EvaluatorComb.__call__
+    page = MagicMock(spec=playwright.sync_api.Page)
+    page.url = "http://example.com"
+    return page
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not webarenalite_installed, reason="browsergym.webarenalite not installed")
+class TestWebArenaLiteEvaluators:
+    def _create_evaluator(self, config_dict, tmp_path):
+        config_file = tmp_path / "eval_config.json"
+        config_file.write_text(json.dumps(config_dict))
+        return evaluator_router(str(config_file)), str(config_file)
+
+    def test_successful_locator_normal_scoring(self, mock_page, tmp_path):
+        # 1. Locator returns normal non-empty text.
+        config = {
+            "eval": {
+                "eval_types": ["program_html"],
+                "program_html": [
+                    {
+                        "url": "last",
+                        "locator": "document.querySelector('foo').innerText",
+                        "required_contents": {"exact_match": "Hello World"},
+                    }
+                ],
+            }
+        }
+        mock_page.evaluate.return_value = "Hello World"
+
+        evaluator, config_file = self._create_evaluator(config, tmp_path)
+        score = evaluator(
+            trajectory=[{"action_type": "stop"}],
+            config_file=config_file,
+            page=mock_page,
+        )
+
+        assert score == 1.0
+        mock_page.evaluate.assert_called_with("() => document.querySelector('foo').innerText")
+
+    def test_legitimate_empty_value_normal_scoring(self, mock_page, tmp_path):
+        # 2. Locator returns a legitimate empty string.
+        config = {
+            "eval": {
+                "eval_types": ["program_html"],
+                "program_html": [
+                    {
+                        "url": "last",
+                        "locator": "document.querySelector('empty').innerText",
+                        "required_contents": {"exact_match": ""},
+                    }
+                ],
+            }
+        }
+        mock_page.evaluate.return_value = ""
+
+        evaluator, config_file = self._create_evaluator(config, tmp_path)
+        score = evaluator(
+            trajectory=[{"action_type": "stop"}],
+            config_file=config_file,
+            page=mock_page,
+        )
+
+        assert score == 1.0
+
+    def test_page_evaluate_exception_evaluator_failure(self, mock_page, tmp_path):
+        # 4. page.evaluate() raises an exception (e.g. element missing).
+        config = {
+            "eval": {
+                "eval_types": ["program_html"],
+                "program_html": [
+                    {
+                        "url": "last",
+                        "locator": "document.querySelector('missing').innerText",
+                        "required_contents": {"exact_match": ""},
+                    }
+                ],
+            }
+        }
+        mock_page.evaluate.side_effect = Exception("Element not found")
+
+        evaluator, config_file = self._create_evaluator(config, tmp_path)
+        score = evaluator(
+            trajectory=[{"action_type": "stop"}],
+            config_file=config_file,
+            page=mock_page,
+        )
+
+        # Missing element results in score 0.0 because it's caught and guarded as None
+        assert score == 0.0
+
+    def test_slow_navigation_waits_appropriately(self, mock_page, tmp_path):
+        # 5, 6, 8. Check that navigation waits for networkidle and tolerates timeouts.
+        config = {
+            "eval": {
+                "eval_types": ["program_html"],
+                "program_html": [
+                    {
+                        "url": "http://example.com/target",
+                        "locator": "document.querySelector('foo').innerText",
+                        "required_contents": {"exact_match": "Hello World"},
+                    }
+                ],
+            }
+        }
+
+        # Simulate wait_for_load_state throwing a TimeoutError
+        mock_page.wait_for_load_state.side_effect = playwright.sync_api.TimeoutError(
+            "Timeout exceeded"
+        )
+        mock_page.evaluate.return_value = "Hello World"
+
+        evaluator, config_file = self._create_evaluator(config, tmp_path)
+        score = evaluator(
+            trajectory=[{"action_type": "stop"}],
+            config_file=config_file,
+            page=mock_page,
+        )
+
+        mock_page.goto.assert_called_with("http://example.com/target")
+        mock_page.wait_for_load_state.assert_called_with("networkidle", timeout=3000)
+        assert score == 1.0  # The timeout was tolerated and evaluation proceeded
+
+    def test_locator_exception_vs_content_mismatch_score(self, mock_page, tmp_path):
+        # Documents evaluation-provenance limitation: both locator exception and
+        # content mismatch evaluate to 0.0.
+        config = {
+            "eval": {
+                "eval_types": ["program_html"],
+                "program_html": [
+                    {
+                        "url": "last",
+                        "locator": "document.querySelector('foo').innerText",
+                        "required_contents": {"exact_match": "Expected Content"},
+                    }
+                ],
+            }
+        }
+
+        evaluator, config_file = self._create_evaluator(config, tmp_path)
+
+        # Case A: Content mismatch
+        mock_page.evaluate.side_effect = None
+        mock_page.evaluate.return_value = "Different Content"
+        score_mismatch = evaluator(
+            trajectory=[{"action_type": "stop"}],
+            config_file=config_file,
+            page=mock_page,
+        )
+        assert score_mismatch == 0.0
+
+        # Case B: Locator exception
+        mock_page.evaluate.side_effect = Exception("Locator query failed")
+        score_exception = evaluator(
+            trajectory=[{"action_type": "stop"}],
+            config_file=config_file,
+            page=mock_page,
+        )
+        assert score_exception == 0.0