1. Describe a time when you led a frontend team through a challenging project. How did you ensure success?
At my previous role, we had to rebuild a legacy dashboard in React within 3 months to align with a product relaunch. The codebase was tightly coupled, poorly documented, and lacked test coverage.
My approach:
- Audit : Identified reusable components and pain points.
- Modular architecture : Introduced atomic design principles and a UI component library (Storybook-based).
- Parallel workstreams : Split the team into feature squads with clear interfaces and boundaries.
- CI/CD setup : Enforced ESLint, Prettier, and unit tests in the pipeline.
- Daily standups and demo Fridays : Kept visibility high across teams and stakeholders.
We delivered on time, with 90% unit test coverage and a shared component library that accelerated future development.
2. How do you approach mentoring junior developers in React.js or frontend best practices?
I focus on contextual learning , pair programming , and code reviews as mentoring tools.
Key principles:
- Break down complex concepts like
useEffect dependencies or controlled components with real examples .
- Encourage them to ask “why,” not just “how,” to build deeper intuition.
- Set small, achievable goals (e.g., build a reusable modal) that reinforce component design and separation of concerns.
- Use PRs as teachable moments with inline explanations and links to resources.
I also rotate juniors through different parts of the codebase so they gain confidence across routing, state management, and UI architecture.
3. What strategies do you use to conduct effective code reviews for a team working on a React codebase?
My reviews focus on readability , reusability , performance , and consistency .
Approach:
- Check for unnecessary re-renders (e.g., memoization, useCallback).
- Enforce clear separation of concerns: container vs presentational components.
- Encourage proper use of hooks and discourage anti-patterns like side-effects inside render.
- Push for well-named components and clear prop types or TypeScript interfaces.
- Validate accessibility (a11y) practices, such as keyboard navigation and ARIA usage.
I aim to teach, not gatekeep , and balance suggestions with praise to maintain a strong feedback culture.
4. How do you balance technical leadership with hands-on coding in a leadership role?
I allocate 50–60% of my time to hands-on coding, focusing on foundational work (e.g., setting up the design system or build tools) and critical path features.
To stay balanced:
- I empower senior ICs to lead feature squads, enabling me to mentor and guide architecture without being a bottleneck.
- I block time for code reviews and 1:1s while preserving deep focus time for technical tasks.
- I use RFCs to communicate architectural direction, encouraging feedback and alignment.
This approach keeps me close to the code while creating space for team growth and scalability.
5. Tell us about a time you resolved a conflict between team members over a technical decision (e.g., choosing a state management library).
Two senior devs were debating whether to use Redux Toolkit or Zustand for a new feature. One valued Redux’s structure, the other preferred Zustand’s simplicity.
My resolution process:
- Facilitated a spike for both options with performance and DX comparisons.
- Held a decision-making meeting with the team using a lightweight decision matrix (complexity, scalability, learning curve).
- Aligned on goals: fast iteration, low boilerplate, future extensibility.
We chose Zustand for the MVP with a wrapper layer to abstract store access, allowing for future migration. The key was neutral facilitation and evidence-based decision making .
6. How do you align frontend development goals with business objectives when collaborating with product managers and stakeholders?
I make technical goals visible and tie them to business outcomes .
Example:
When advocating for refactoring to a component library, I framed it not as “technical debt cleanup,” but as:
- “Faster time to market via reusability”
- “Improved brand consistency and UX”
- “Reduced design QA cycles by 30%”
I work closely with PMs to prioritize tech tasks in the roadmap , often bundling them with user-facing features (e.g., a UI refactor alongside a new settings page).
Transparency and shared language (not jargon) are key to alignment.
I use a 360-degree feedback approach aligned with clear competency matrices.
Process:
- Review goals set during the previous cycle (technical, collaborative, and personal development).
- Collect feedback from peers and cross-functional partners.
- Highlight strengths and areas for growth across technical execution, ownership, and communication.
- Create a development plan (e.g., lead a cross-team initiative, mentor a junior).
I also encourage self-assessment to drive introspection, and make sure feedback is actionable, not vague.
8. How have you contributed to hiring efforts, and what do you look for in a strong frontend candidate?
I’ve led hiring pipelines: wrote job descriptions, built take-home assessments, and conducted behavioral + technical interviews.
What I look for:
- Core fundamentals : JS, HTML/CSS, React/Vue internals.
- Problem-solving : Can they debug a broken component methodically?
- Architecture thinking : Can they break down a UI into clean components with reusable logic?
- Communication : Can they explain trade-offs clearly?
Cultural alignment is also key — curiosity, empathy, and a bias toward collaboration matter as much as technical skill.
9. How do you ensure knowledge sharing and documentation in a team working on a large React/Vue.js project?
Tactics:
- Weekly “Dev Nuggets” sessions : Short internal talks to share learnings.
- Enforce README + usage examples for any new shared component.
- Adopt Storybook as living documentation.
- Use architecture decision records (ADRs) to log key choices.
- Encourage documentation PRs as part of feature delivery (not afterthoughts).
I also champion code that’s self-documenting — clear naming, clean abstractions, and comments only when necessary.
10. Describe a situation where you advocated for a frontend technology or approach to non-technical stakeholders. How did you make your case?
I proposed introducing a design system using Tailwind + Storybook to replace inconsistent, duplicated styles across 4 products.
Challenges:
Non-technical stakeholders saw it as “extra work” without immediate ROI.
How I made the case:
- Demoed inconsistencies live (e.g., 6 versions of the same button).
- Quantified dev time wasted recreating UI components (~25%).
- Showed a working Storybook prototype and how it enables faster iteration and easier onboarding.
- Aligned benefits with product goals: faster feature delivery, consistent brand feel, reduced design debt.
Got buy-in and resourced a 2-sprint effort that paid off within a quarter.