12 min

Node.js Interview Questions to Ask a Candidate

Let's face it from the start: the hiring process is challenging. The modern hiring system involves several stages of interviews, which allows you to weed out those who are unsuitable, but how to choose the only one from a short list? For a few interviews, no matter how detailed and extensive they may be, it is necessary to evaluate the candidate according to several criteria, test them, and determine whether they really fit your company. Analyze the algorithm by taking the hiring Node.js developers process as an example. We hope this article will help you: we have collected, systematized, and divided common Node.js interview questions into categories that will be useful.  Of course, it is desirable to have a technical lead or another developer who can check the technical side when hiring a new specialist, but this is not always possible. It's okay if you're not a tech genius and don't know technology thoroughly; we've specially prepared Node.js programming interview questions that will help you explore the expertise of a potential employee and allow you to understand their answers. Non-Tech Questions for Node.js Candidates A list of general Node.js interview questions and answers for experienced and junior specialists is an essential part. They reveal the essence of the candidates as experts and as people. It is crucial to correctly formulate abstract questions to understand their values, aspirations, and views. After all, productive cooperation directly depends on the links in the chain! One of the main recommendations: do not start the interview with very narrow or specialized questions; move gradually from general to specific. What Previous Experience Do You Have With Node.js? This question is a test of integrity. A candidate with no actual practice in Node.js can hardly trick professional developers, and the ability to remember theoretical definitions should not be a ticket to the team. Simultaneously, this is not about performing tasks on the go with paper and pencil or in some online editor. It is always better to give a candidate some “homework” assignments to show that experience matters. What Is, In Your Opinion, An Ideal Node.js Development Workflow? Candidates should describe their vision of the entire process, beginning with identifying the problem and delivering code to production. Team workflow is a necessary process to define because it lets one understand how to communicate with a remote team, solve conflicts, integrate different time zones, etc. It may not be compulsory in the list of Node.js interview questions since many senior developers write JavaScript code. In general, an understanding of a team workflow is expected from seniors. Do You Interact With Node.js Beyond Work? It is always helpful to know how deeply candidates are interested in the technology they are working with: which relevant news channels they monitor, which open-source projects Senior Node.js developers participate in, which thematic conferences they attend, etc. A broad beyond-work experience in Node.js can add extra points to any candidate. Name The JS-Based App Or Website That Annoys You. What Is Wrong With It, And How Would You Fix It? Perhaps this is a trick question, but it will immediately show who is in front of you: an ardent enthusiast or an ordinary busy bee. With this question, you evaluate not only professionalism and the ability to see mistakes but also activity, the ability to find an effective solution and improve something created earlier. A proactive candidate is more suitable for agile teams. What Is The Difference Between Mobile And Web Development? At a time when the whole world is striving for mobility and accessibility, developers have to prioritize mobile-friendly designs, especially when it comes to web pages. The candidate should emphasize the need to optimize for all platforms and highlight the differences, such as screen size, touch input, limited multitasking, and the variation in browser plug-ins. Can You Describe How You Handle Your Biggest Challenge? This is a question with a dual purpose: on the one hand, you will find out how a person copes with stress, whether he can work under pressure and tight deadlines, on the other hand, how exactly he solves complex tasks on projects and whether he can think outside the box. Since there is no correct answer here and it will complicate the evaluation of the candidate, try to give examples to get as many details as possible. Junior: Basic Node.js Interview Questions By writing a job description, you are creating a profile of your ideal candidate, including his knowledge, hard and soft skills, experience and previous projects (industry or niche products). For the interview, you select those who can really become it. But do not rush to test everything at once; the principle from simple to complex shows much greater efficiency than a chaotic survey unless you want to try their stress tolerance this way. Here we offer you Node.js interview questions for freshers – 1-year experienced developers. These questions will help you understand their soft skills, understand the desire to learn, and improve themselves as specialists. Naturally, beginners don't have significant experience. However, during the Node.js coding task, specialists should submit sample projects. The questions for 1-year experienced Node.js developers are more theoretical than practical. However, novice specialists should be well aware of the basics. They should understand technical but straightforward coding concepts such as event loops and event programming during interview questions on Node.js. During the technical interview, they should clarify how coding works with Node.js and its advantage over other technologies. What Is Node.js, And What Is It Used For? Although the question may seem strange, it is important to check whether the candidate knows what he is working with. Node.js is an open-source JavaScript runtime based on Google Chrome's JavaScript V8 engine. Developers can indeed say that's neither a programming language nor a framework and will be correct. However, what’s it? Node.js is like JavaScript but with extended traditional functions beyond the web browser. Node.js specialists apply it for creating web applications and cross-platform mobile apps. What Are The Advantages Of Node.js Compared To Other Technologies? Multitasking: enabled by an asynchronous, non-blocking model. Fast transition: a developer who has ever worked with pure JavaScript will have no problems switching to backend Node.js development. Flexibility and performance: easy castability and flexibility significantly improve the performance of sites and applications that perform real-time tasks (video streaming, chat, online games) Possibility of a clear full-stack development: if your product is developed with JavaScript on the front and backed with Node.js, you create a comfortable full-stack process. Active support for well-known brands: Microsoft, PayPal, Amazon, Netflix, Uber, and LinkedIn create their products with Node.js. With Node.js, you have a big chance to be a part of digital media trends with your new project. Why, In Your Opinion, Was The V8 Engine Necessary? A detailed response to this question may also cover some other relevant features of V8, such as the memory structure, functions of Garbage collector, and memory leaks and methods of addressing them. Someone can be confused by these questions for 1 year experienced. So, we decided to discuss the basics of V8 and it logically leads lead to the following question: How does the Event loop work? We believe this is one of the most important interview questions on Node.js for beginners. An event loop is a framework that manages events by executing a callback function in a queue. It is responsible for its asynchronous and non-blocking I / O. It is important to know that an automatic flow is created in the event loop. It plans operations based on the specified conditions. There is only one thread, which is an event loop in Node.js that determines which thread will execute callback functions at any given time. What are the timing features of Node.js? There are four commonly used timing features of Node.js you can ask during Node.js interview questions: setTimeout / clearTimeout - can be used to delay code execution setInterval / clearInterval - can be used to execute a block of code continuously process.nextTick - can be used to set code execution at the beginning of the next cycle of the event loop setImmediate / clearImmediate - can be used to execute code at the very end of the event loop. What Is Event-Driven Programming? It is a popular approach that uses events to trigger various functions. The event can be anything, for example, clicking a mouse button. When the event happens, we have a callback process, which has registered with the element, following the "publish-subscribe" pattern. Thanks to this flexible approach, Node.js is more productive than other technologies.
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