Job inter­views can be nerve-rack­ing, but know­ing how to pre­pare can make all the dif­fer­ence. For a devel­op­ment job inter­view, you’ll need to be ready for high­ly tech­ni­cal ques­tions, as well as ques­tions that delve into your back­ground and skills. To help you get ready, we’ve com­piled the most com­mon web devel­op­er inter­view ques­tions and answers that you’ll like­ly face when it’s your turn to be inter­viewed.

What Is a Web Developer?

A web devel­op­er cre­ates and man­ages web­sites. They are respon­si­ble for over­see­ing the per­for­mance of a web­site, decid­ing its lay­out and design, and ana­lyz­ing the traf­fic it receives. In order to learn web devel­op­ment, you need to have excep­tion­al cod­ing skills, as pro­gram­ming lan­guages are the pri­ma­ry build­ing blocks with which web­sites are built.

As a web devel­op­er, the scope of your work will depend on your spe­cial­iza­tion. If you are a front end web devel­op­er, then you are respon­si­ble for the user inter­face, design, lay­out, and over­all aes­thet­ic of the web­site. On the oth­er hand, a back­end web devel­op­er cov­ers the serv­er-side to ensure the web­site runs smooth­ly. Final­ly, full stack devel­op­ers work on the design and serv­er-side of a site.

Answers to the Most Common Web Developer Interview Questions

Once you get an oppor­tu­ni­ty to be inter­viewed for a web devel­op­er job, you will be answer­ing dif­fer­ent sets of ques­tions. You will be asked tech­ni­cal ques­tions to assess your knowl­edge of the sub­ject. You will also have to answer behav­ioral ques­tions to gauge how you work with oth­er peo­ple, as well as gen­er­al ques­tions to get to know your back­ground and expe­ri­ence.

Top Five Technical Web Developer Interview Questions and Answers

A tech­ni­cal inter­view is per­haps the most impor­tant stage of a web devel­op­er inter­view because it is the com­pa­ny’s way to gauge the depth of your exper­tise. The inter­view­er will inquire about your cod­ing skills, projects that you’ve com­plet­ed, and pro­gram­ming lan­guages you’re com­fort­able using. Here are some tech­ni­cal inter­view ques­tions to con­sid­er and how to best answer them.

What programming languages are you comfortable working with?

Cod­ing is a pri­ma­ry web devel­op­er skill that you will learn as part of the basics. Dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies have dif­fer­ent pro­gram­ming lan­guages that they use for most of their prod­ucts. As this is a web devel­op­er job, you must be able to demon­strate that you are knowl­edge­able in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The spe­cif­ic type of web devel­op­er job that you are apply­ing for also makes a dif­fer­ence. For instance, if you are apply­ing for a back­end web devel­op­er posi­tion, you should devel­op strong SQL skills because this is the main pro­gram­ming lan­guage used for data­base man­age­ment. In addi­tion, you should be famil­iar with some of the best web devel­op­ment lan­guages such as Python, Java, C+, and more.

As a fol­low-up ques­tion, you may be asked about the core ele­ments of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Com­mon fol­low-up ques­tions are: What is a block ele­ment and an inline ele­ment in HTML? What are CSS selec­tors? What is the CSS box mod­el and what is the mar­gin of a box ele­ment? What are pseu­do-class­es in CSS?

How does CORS affect the web development process?

Cross-ori­gin resource shar­ing (CORS) is an essen­tial HTML com­po­nent that allows you to share a set of resources from one domain to anoth­er. This works best for front end web devel­op­ers because it is used to “copy” styles, fonts, and con­tent. While shar­ing resources is pos­si­ble, CORS also has a prin­ci­ple that ensures web­sites are secure.

Under what is known as the same ori­gin pol­i­cy (SOP), there is a guar­an­tee that while a web­site can use the same resources and ele­ments as anoth­er, there is a restric­tion in place. This pre­vents secu­ri­ty attacks and infor­ma­tion theft. In a web devel­op­ment job inter­view, secu­ri­ty mat­ters a lot, so you must know the right mea­sures to guar­an­tee the pro­tec­tion of data.

How do you achieve responsive web design?

To achieve respon­sive web design, you must first be famil­iar with basic web and UX/UI design. Know­ing the right ele­ments to use will help you achieve an opti­mal view­ing expe­ri­ence. A respon­sive design says a lot about the qual­i­ty of the user expe­ri­ence on a web­site.

In respon­sive design, you want to make sure that the web­site is adjust­ing well to the screen upon which it is dis­played. When you switch your view from a wide-screen lap­top com­put­er to a mobile phone, all the ele­ments, like font size or image size, should adjust. Being able to answer this ques­tion shows that you under­stand basic design prin­ci­ples as a web devel­op­er.

Between HTTP 2.0 and HTTP 1.1, which is better?

This might seem like a trick ques­tion because HTTP 2.0 is just an improve­ment from HTTP 1.1. HTTP 2.0 reduced the load time of web­sites. It pri­or­i­tizes load­ing the con­tent first and enables var­i­ous resources to load all at once.

Addi­tion­al­ly, mod­ern browsers use HTTP 2.0 because of its SSL encryp­tion, which helps guar­an­tee the safe­ty of data. Tak­ing the CORS prin­ci­ple into account, HTTP 2.0 also sup­ports the shar­ing of var­i­ous resources from one domain to anoth­er.

How do you properly configure a RESTful API?

Your knowl­edge in back­end web devel­op­ment is test­ed by this basic tech­ni­cal ques­tion as it deals with servers and data­bas­es. The appli­ca­tion pro­gram­ming inter­face or API sets up the com­mu­ni­ca­tion between web­sites and data­bas­es. If you need infor­ma­tion from a web­site, then your serv­er will con­tact it, and it should pro­vide the right data.

A REST­ful API guar­an­tees that you are retriev­ing the infor­ma­tion that you need. For exam­ple, if a user search­es for a spe­cif­ic top­ic on a search engine, it should be able to pull up the rel­e­vant sites need­ed. As a web devel­op­er, you want to make sure that there is a pre­cise move­ment of data from all of these servers and data­bas­es.

Top Five Behavioral Web Developer Interview Questions and Answers

Behav­ioral inter­view ques­tions will test your over­all per­son­al­i­ty and your abil­i­ty to be a team play­er. Dur­ing a web devel­op­er inter­view, the recruiter will want to look at how you deal with prob­lems and how you work with oth­er peo­ple. Inquir­ing about your expe­ri­ences and atti­tude toward a dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion is a nor­mal part of the inter­view process, and it might include ques­tions like the ones list­ed below.

Are you comfortable with pair programming?

Pair pro­gram­ming is a cod­ing tech­nique in which two pro­gram­mers work on a spe­cif­ic project. It fos­ters excel­lence and cama­raderie through coop­er­a­tion, and com­pa­nies would pre­fer that you are open to it. Not being com­fort­able with pair pro­gram­ming could give the impres­sion that you are unwill­ing to work with oth­ers.

Can you name a successful project you completed as a web developer? How did you work on it?

This is a com­mon ques­tion in an inter­view process designed to look at your process, more than your achieve­ments. To answer this ques­tion, you can demon­strate your tech­ni­cal skills by inform­ing the inter­view­er about the strate­gies and tech­nolo­gies that you used. More impor­tant­ly, you should be able to describe if you worked on it alone or with a team, and what valu­able lessons you learned along the way.

How do you deal with negative feedback on your project?

Neg­a­tive feed­back is com­mon, espe­cial­ly in the ear­ly stages of a project. This ques­tion is designed to show whether you accept con­struc­tive crit­i­cism and what you do with it. It is best to cite a spe­cif­ic exam­ple and describe the ways in which you incor­po­rat­ed the feed­back into your revi­sions. If you are uncom­fort­able with neg­a­tive feed­back, it is best to train your­self to respond bet­ter to it.

What do you do when a program you worked on does not run?

To answer this ques­tion, you can talk about a spe­cif­ic exam­ple and the strate­gies you imple­ment­ed to address the prob­lem instead of sim­ply stat­ing what you felt. In the inter­est of being ami­able, you can still express your per­son­al thoughts. How­ev­er, since this is a web devel­op­er inter­view, your inter­view­er is more inter­est­ed in know­ing whether you were quick to resolve issues as they came up.

How comfortable are you with meeting project deadlines?

Remem­ber that you will work for a client that needs the project ready by a spe­cif­ic date. This ques­tion mea­sures your abil­i­ty to respect client time­lines and stick to dead­lines. You can also talk about your abil­i­ty to nego­ti­ate with clients if you feel that a project can­not be accom­plished in their expect­ed time­frame.

Top Five General Web Developer Interview Questions and Answers

Gen­er­al web devel­op­er inter­view ques­tions may include intro­duc­to­ry ques­tions and any­thing that sheds light on you and your pre­vi­ous work expe­ri­ence. Usu­al­ly, this takes place dur­ing the first stages of your inter­view.

Why did you decide to apply to this specific web developer position?

This ques­tion gauges your under­stand­ing of the role and whether you are aware of what is required from you. Make sure to read the job descrip­tion thor­ough­ly, because this will tell you exact­ly what you need. Read­ing up about the com­pa­ny will also help you dis­cuss why this spe­cif­ic work­ing envi­ron­ment is appeal­ing to you.

What is your background in web development?

Talk about your edu­ca­tion­al back­ground first, espe­cial­ly any train­ing or cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that you’ve earned. Some com­pa­nies pre­fer degree hold­ers, but major tech firms often part­ner with cod­ing boot­camps to hire tal­ent. Final­ly, if you have any per­son­al projects or web devel­op­ment work, make sure to bring them up as well.

Do you prefer to work on web or mobile applications?

The best way to answer this is to talk about your capa­bil­i­ties to work on both. Web devel­op­ment and mobile devel­op­ment are two inter­con­nect­ed spe­cial­iza­tions, and as a web devel­op­er you must be skilled in both.

Do you have any previous internships or work experience?

Intern­ship expe­ri­ence is ide­al for fresh grad­u­ates apply­ing for entry-lev­el posi­tions. Talk about any project that you worked on, espe­cial­ly the large-scale, suc­cess­ful ones. If you have pre­vi­ous work expe­ri­ence, includ­ing free­lance projects, make sure to men­tion them as well. Your inter­view­er wants to know your lev­el of exper­tise, espe­cial­ly for jobs that call for a few years of expe­ri­ence.

What is your least favorite website and why?

When answer­ing this ques­tion, you need to dis­cuss the tech­ni­cal issues and ele­ments that make your cit­ed web­site below aver­age. You can talk about the design, func­tion­al­i­ty, or user expe­ri­ence. 

You can also talk about how you would improve it if giv­en the chance. This is one way for your inter­view­er to make sure you have a crit­i­cal eye and are able to focus on how to improve things and keep up with new trends and tech­nolo­gies.

Tips to Prepare for a Web Developer Interview

1. Preparation is Key

Make sure you are ready to answer ques­tions dur­ing the dif­fer­ent stages of the inter­view, from the more gen­er­al ini­tial ques­tions to the in-depth tech­ni­cal and behav­ioral inter­view ques­tions. If you are apply­ing for a posi­tion at a tech com­pa­ny, it is best to do your research so you can show why you’d be a good fit. Make sure that you under­stand the job descrip­tion well and have all of your cre­den­tials ready.

2. Study for Technical Interview Questions

Tech­ni­cal ques­tions will take up a large por­tion of your inter­view. Make sure you take some time to review the fun­da­men­tals of web devel­op­ment. You can also revis­it more advanced top­ics like con­tent man­age­ment sys­tems, adap­tive designs, and respon­sive web design.

3. Be Presentable

Whether it is an in-per­son inter­view or a video call, make sure that you are pre­sentable. Dress­ing appro­pri­ate­ly gives the inter­view­er the impres­sion that you are tak­ing this seri­ous­ly. If you are inter­view­ing over a video call, make sure you are in a qui­et place to avoid unnec­es­sary nois­es.

What Skills Should I Put on My Web Developer Resume?

High­light these nec­es­sary skills in your web devel­op­er resume, or even your LinkedIn pro­file, to imme­di­ate­ly cap­ture the com­pa­ny’s atten­tion. Your resume con­tent should be direct­ly rel­e­vant to a web devel­op­er’s duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties.

Advanced Coding Skills

Your job as a web devel­op­er will revolve around cod­ing, so you must be well-versed in as many pro­gram­ming lan­guages as you can. Some of the most impor­tant lan­guages are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You must also have prac­ti­cal SQL expe­ri­ence because this plays a huge role in data­base and serv­er main­te­nance, which all web devel­op­ers should be famil­iar with.

An Eye for Optimal Design

To achieve opti­mal and inter­ac­tive web appli­ca­tions, you need to have an eye for design. Oth­er than know­ing the basic design prin­ci­ples, you must fol­low trends and observe oth­er web­sites to see what’s effec­tive. Your goal is to pro­vide a smooth user expe­ri­ence through the design and struc­ture of your web­sites or mobile apps.

Good Communication Skills

Soft skills like good com­mu­ni­ca­tion will take you far as a web devel­op­er. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills are need­ed to fos­ter healthy col­lab­o­ra­tion with your clients and team­mates. As a web devel­op­er, the web­sites or appli­ca­tions you cre­ate are means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion between indi­vid­u­als or stake­hold­ers.

How to Find Web Developer Jobs

These web devel­op­er resources might come in handy while you look for a web devel­op­er job. Some of these sites offer help­ful tips for cod­ing inter­views, ideas for all types of projects relat­ed to web devel­op­ment, and more.

GitHub

GitHub is a trust­ed resource for web and soft­ware devel­op­ers. Here you can find help­ful tips, forums, instruc­tions, and even source code for projects you are inter­est­ed in. You can cre­ate a pro­file where you can show­case all of your web devel­op­ment projects. Rather than a LinkedIn pro­file, you can give your GitHub pro­file if your poten­tial employ­er asks for your port­fo­lio.

StackOverflow

Stack­Over­flow is a job site that specif­i­cal­ly posts web devel­op­er jobs for all lev­els. There are more than 10,000 com­pa­nies post­ing jobs, and the site serves over 100 mil­lion vis­i­tors month­ly. Aside from being a job site, it is also a pub­lic plat­form where you can find exter­nal resources and even ask cod­ing ques­tions direct­ly to experts.

AngelList

Angel­List is a job site for start­up com­pa­nies, includ­ing tech com­pa­nies and ven­tures. Through this site, you can find ide­al oppor­tu­ni­ties in web devel­op­ment, and some may even offer the chance to work in Sil­i­con Val­ley. You can cre­ate a pro­file and then job match­es will be gen­er­at­ed for you.

Web Developer Interview Questions FAQ