1 The frontend interview

This chapter sets the stage for today’s frontend interviews, explaining how expectations have expanded beyond a resume and basic trivia. Employers look for solid fundamentals in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript; hands-on proficiency with React; the ability to build responsive, accessible UIs; and clear communication about trade-offs. Modern interviews also emphasize system design for the frontend, including scalability, performance, accessibility, and cross-team collaboration, while behavioral rounds gauge teamwork, learning agility, and cultural fit. Familiarity with AI-assisted development has become a differentiator, reflecting how current teams build and ship web applications.

The hiring journey typically progresses through an initial screening, a technical screening, a full interview loop, and a final decision. Coding evaluations have shifted away from algorithm-heavy puzzles toward realistic, project-based work—often in a pair-programming format—that probes React fundamentals, user interaction, testing, error handling, and accessibility. A narrative about Jane, a seasoned React engineer, illustrates common pitfalls: not externalizing reasoning during implementation, underestimating system design expectations that touch backend integrations, and lacking concrete examples of AI usage. The takeaway is that success requires technical depth, cross-domain awareness, and the ability to communicate process and judgment under pressure.

To prepare, the chapter advocates mastering core web technologies, then using a funneling approach during interviews: start with a concise overview, follow cues, and drill into specifics to demonstrate both breadth and depth. Because of its market dominance and ecosystem, React receives special focus—covering component architecture, hooks, state management, performance, and surrounding tooling—while acknowledging transferable skills from Angular and Vue. The chapter also catalogs common interview environments (such as collaborative online IDEs) and highlights the growing role of AI-powered tools that accelerate development and practice. Throughout, it introduces practical exercises (for example, progressively enhancing a star rating component) and a structured plan to build confidence across coding, system design, and behavioral rounds.

Overview of a typical frontend interview process.

Weekly npm downloads of React, Vue, and Angular as of May 18, 2025: React – 40.1 million, Vue – 6.7 million, and Angular – 4.0 million.

CodeSandbox templates for web development

Create React App with TypeScript, displaying a warning for undefined type.

• A typical frontend interview process includes four stages: initial screening, screening interview, full loop, and final decision.
• The funneling approach begins with broad, open-ended questions and narrows to more specific topics.
• Frontend interviews typically cover core web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript), expert knowledge of frameworks like React, system design, behavioral assessments, and increasingly, AI-related topics.
• React, Angular, and Vue are the leading web frameworks for building user interfaces, with React being the most popular and widely adopted.
• Transitioning from Angular or Vue to React can be straightforward with effective strategies and a focus on shared concepts, such as component architecture and state management.
• Platforms like CodeSandbox are frequently used as coding test environments, offering up-to-date React tooling.

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