DEV Community

Epic Lee
Epic Lee

Posted on • Edited on

Practical JS Interview Questions

Let's face it, algorithms are a useless test of a candidate's experience as a frontend developer. Someone who can construct a binary tree from preorder and inorder traversal doesn't mean they can create an amazing UI with an awesome user experience. It means they got lucky you asked them a question they've seen before.

What I like to give are mini-projects the candidate can solve in a 30–45 minute timeframe. They can use any framework they like such as React, Angular, or even vanilla JavaScript! Since my firm focuses more on functionality than UI, I tend not to not be so picky about CSS. But adjust as needed.

1. Create a stopwatch

Ask them to create a simple stopwatch. It should have buttons to start, pause, and stop the timer. I created a simple example.
Gotchas:
Click the 'Start' button multiple times and see if multiple intervals are created. Most candidates make this mistake.
Ensure 'Pause' button is hidden when the stopwatch hasn't started.

Bonus questions:
style the stopwatch
show milliseconds, minutes and hours

2. Create a todo list

Enough said, so many tutorials out there about this. Tweak the problem however you like.
Bonus questions:
add pagination
make a todo editable

3. Create a simple upvote tool

This is a simple polling tool, similar to Slido, that let's users ask questions and upvote the questions so the most popular ones are shown on top. See example.
Gotchas:
Questions should be sorted by upvotes
When a question is upvoted past another question, the one with the highest upvotes should move to the top
Handle duplicate questions

Bonus questions:
Make questions editable
Add delete button next to each question
Style the app

If the user finishes ahead of time, I will usually ask them some JavaScript related questions. You can find a good list of them here.
Hope this helped!

Sentry image

Hands-on debugging session: instrument, monitor, and fix

Join Lazar for a hands-on session where you’ll build it, break it, debug it, and fix it. You’ll set up Sentry, track errors, use Session Replay and Tracing, and leverage some good ol’ AI to find and fix issues fast.

RSVP here →

Top comments (0)

A Workflow Copilot. Tailored to You.

Pieces.app image

Our desktop app, with its intelligent copilot, streamlines coding by generating snippets, extracting code from screenshots, and accelerating problem-solving.

Read the docs