You’ve put in the time to learn the programming languages you need to become a Front-End Developer. You’ve completed projects in your courses and maybe even taken on building a few websites of your own to practice your skills. Your next hurdle is applying for your new job as a Front-End Developer and preparing for your interview.
The interview process can be nerve-wracking, but that’s normal. But, if you know what to expect and prepare ahead of time, you’ll be in great shape.
Preparation and practice come across as confidence and competence to your interviewer. So, in this article, we’ll go over what you can expect during your Front-End Developer interview, what kind of questions you’ll face, and how to prepare beforehand.
What to expect when you interview for a job as a Front-End Developer
Some organizations will have you take a programming test before you’re selected for an interview, so don’t be caught off-guard if you’re asked to complete one. You’ve got all the skills you need to succeed after taking online courses and practicing your development skills by building websites.
Other organizations will ask technical questions during the interview. Or, you may be asked to complete a short skills test or debugging exercise while you’re in the office for your technical interview.
During your interview, you’ll face two different kinds of questions — technical and behavioral.
Behavioral interview questions
Behavioral interview questions are focused on who you are as a developer, as a teammate, and as an individual. These questions help the interviewer get to know who you are as a person, beyond your coding ability. They’ll also help them determine if you’ll be a good fit for their team and if you share some of the same values that the company looks for. Behavioral interview questions are more about your personality and your skills that aren’t related to coding.
Technical interview questions
On the other hand, technical interview questions are the ones that get into the weeds of the code you’ll work with day-in and day-out. These are the questions the interviewer will ask to determine if you have the programming skills to hit the ground running. Some of the questions will ask you to define programming concepts, and others will ask how you apply your programming skills to solve a specific problem.
What behavioral interview questions should Front-End Developers prepare for?
To save you some time in your preparations, we’ve compiled a list of behavioral interview questions that a Front-End Developer is likely to face. The first few are quite general, but they’re tried and true. The last few are more directed to development concepts but are high-level enough that it’ll give the interviewer some insight into how you work and collaborate.
Keep that in mind when you prepare your answers. You want to answer truthfully, but you also want to make sure you’re conveying your strengths.
Behavioral Front-End Developer interview questions:
- Why do you want to work at our company?
- What are your hobbies outside of work?
- Do you prefer working remotely or in person with your team?
- How have you dealt with a team member not pulling their weight in the past?
- How do you handle situations where too much is put on your plate?
- How do you approach disagreements with your manager?
- What was your last project? What did you struggle with?
- How would you describe “great” code?
- What can you bring to our company as a developer?
- What is your current favorite mobile app? Why?
- What was the last major challenge you faced in a program? How did you overcome it?
- Can you tell us about a project that you were passionate about from your past experience?
- How do you balance the need for innovation and the need for reliable code?
- What’s your favorite website from a UI perspective? Why?
- What are some things you’d improve on our company website?
What technical skills and knowledge will be covered in the interview?
Your developer resume will give the interviewer a good place to start with their questions, so be sure that it highlights your front-end development skills. They’ll be looking for competency in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, user interface skills, and possibly other programming languages and libraries included in their tech stack.
At a bare minimum, you should prepare to answer technical questions in the fundamental programming languages for front-end development:
Then, you’ll want to do some research of your own to prepare for any additional questions. For example, if you’re going to be using Kotlin for mobile development, you’ll want to practice questions around that language. Perform a simple Google search to find common interview questions, or touch base with other developers at the company and ask how to prepare.
How to best prepare for your Front-End Developer interview
Now that you know what types of questions you’ll face in your interview, you can begin to practice your answers. Grab a friend, set up a video call, or practice out loud to yourself. The best way to prepare is to simulate the interview conditions, so you’ll want to practice giving answers verbally.
You may also be thrown a curveball during the interview, and you’ll need to think on your feet. The best thing you can do to be as ready as possible for these questions is to continue practicing your coding skills.
When you work on projects, you’ll have to problem solve, debug, and research possible methods to assist you. All these skills will help you explain to the interviewer how you’d solve problems, even if you don’t know the answer offhand.Lastly, you can also take online programming courses to aid in your practice before the interview.
If you’ve already taken a few courses or completed our Front-End Engineer Career Path, you could also revisit your notes or try to recreate a project on your local machine. Don’t forget there are even courses in our Career Paths that will help you prepare for your interview!
