*args collects extra positional arguments into a tuple; **kwargs collects extra keyword arguments into a dict. They let functions accept a variable number of arguments and forward them along.
def f(*args, **kwargs) captures any positional args in args (a tuple) and any keyword args in kwargs (a dict). This is used to write flexible wrappers and decorators that pass arguments through unchanged: wrapper(*args, **kwargs) then fn(*args, **kwargs). The single * in a call UNPACKS an iterable into positional args (f(*my_list)), and ** unpacks a dict into keyword args (f(**my_dict)). Testers use this to build parameterized helpers and to forward request options to underlying library calls.
A retry decorator wraps any function: def retry(fn): def wrapper(*args, **kwargs): ... return fn(*args, **kwargs) — passing through whatever arguments the wrapped test step needs.
You have config = {'timeout': 30, 'verify': False} and want to call requests.get(url, **config). What does ** do here?