Questions that are often asked of a full stack developer during an interview
Full stack developers are programmers who work on both the front end and the back end of a website or app. This job requires a lot of industry knowledge and technical skills, and it’s important to show a potential employer that you’re qualified when you’re interviewing for it. Common interview questions for full-stack developers can be answered in your own way by learning more about them and seeing how other people have answered them. This article has a list of 45 full stack developer questions and answers to help you prepare for your next interview.
General questions
By asking you general questions, a hiring manager can learn more about your personality, traits, and work ethic. Here are some common general questions that you might be asked at your next interview:
- Tell me something interesting about you.
- When you’re not working, what do you like to do?
- What interests you the most?
- What five words would your coworkers use to describe you?
- Do you like working by yourself or with a group?
- How do you do what you do best?
- What do you think is your worst trait?
- What do you want to accomplish at work?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- How do you get going?
- How do you remember when things are due?
- What should we know about you that’s not on your resume?
- Why are you quitting your current job?
Questions about the developer’s background and work history
After finding out more about your personality and traits, an interviewer might ask you about your professional experience and background to see if you are qualified for the job. Here are some questions that might be asked about your programming experience:
- What was the best project you worked on?
- How well do you understand what it means to be a full stack developer?
- What was the hardest problem you ever had to solve with coding?
- How do you react when you see a mistake in coding that a coworker made?
- When SEO is important, how do you write code?
- Do you want to be a manager or a technical coder?
- Describe a time when you fixed a hard program.
- What have you done in the past that has helped you get ready for this job?
- How did your schooling prepare you for this job?
- Have you earned any technical certifications?
- What sort of projects have you worked on?
- How do you keep track of more than one project at the same time?
- How did you code when you weren’t at work?
In-depth full stack developer questions
For their daily work, full stack developers need a certain set of skills. An interviewer may ask you specific questions to find out how well you know the job and the industry. Depending on the job, these can be different, but here are some common ones:
- What’s your favorite programming language? Why?
- What was the first programming language that you learned?
- Explain how a thread is different from a process.
- How would you make an existing website better for a new client?
- How does integration work all the time?
- How could you find a memory leak?
- How good are you at using design patterns?
- How would you describe doing a lot at once?
- What do you need to make integration work?
- Do you prefer AMD to CommonJS? Why?
- What is the difference between REST and GraphQL?
- When would you clear floats in CSS?
- Show how the same code could be used in multiple files.
- Why are unit tests so important?
- Tell us what you would do to make a website load faster.
Questions people often ask about full stack developers, with examples of how they answer them
Try to answer interview questions using the STAR method, which involves giving a specific example of a situation, task, action, and result. Here are some common questions and STAR answers about full stack developers to help you prepare for your upcoming interview:
How did you choose to become a full stack developer?
The interviewer can learn more about you and what you’re interested in by asking you this question. You can tell them briefly how you got to where you are in your career right now. Think about how long you’ve been developing and when you started working on both the front end and the back end.
Example: “I wanted to become a full-stack developer when I was a front-end developer. I studied computer science in college and wrote code as a freelancer. I mostly worked on the front end of a project, but one day I found a bug in the back end. I decided to learn more about back-end development after I looked into the problem. I signed up for a back-end development online course, and then I started working on full-stack projects.”
What do you think is the most important thing for a full stack developer to have?
An interviewer may ask you about your personality traits to find out more about your soft skills. To answer, look at the job description and figure out which soft skills are the most important for your role. Some things to think about are being organized, persistent, adaptable, and creative. When you answer, try to show how you have this skill.
Example: “I think the most important thing a full stack developer can have is the ability to change. There are often mistakes and bugs that need to be fixed when writing code. This requires being able to solve problems and having an open mind. At my last job, I was working on a project when I noticed an error in the code. I had other plans for the day, but some of them had to change because of the mistake in the code. Even though I stayed later than planned, I still got everything done on time. Developers should be able to change their priorities and solve new problems as they come up, in my opinion.”
How do you make sure you know everything there is to know about the newest technology?
It’s important for developers to know what’s happening in technology. This is a question that a hiring manager might ask to find out how you learn and if you are willing to get better at your job. To answer, think about how you learn new codes and methods for programming right now. Think about going to conferences, doing your own research, joining online groups, getting a certificate, or taking a course.
Example: “I love getting to know about new technologies. I talk about new things in three online groups. I also get a newsletter about technology and take classes in it. Last year, I wanted to learn more about back-end advances, so I took an online course on the subject. Now, I try to take at least three online courses a year to keep up with new programs and improve my skills.”
Tell me about a time you did something wrong at work and how you fixed it.
To grow, you need to be precise and pay close attention to the details. An interviewer might ask you this to see how well you pay attention to details and how well you can learn from your mistakes. Think of a time at work when you caught someone making a mistake. Try to say quickly what went wrong and what you learned from it.
Example: “When I first started my job, I accidentally deleted a row from a database. Before sending the program to my boss, I ran it and noticed that something was missing. It took a long time to look at the whole program and find the missing code. I learned that if I check my code more often as I go, I can make sure everything is right and work faster.”
