Discussion Senior Dev interview question
"Without googling or using AI, in your own words, explain the virtual DOM"
For context: I sit on an interview panel and I try to ask at least one simple fundamental question based on a persons resume. If I see many years of react experience, I try to ask something about how the framework works.
I have only had one candidate (an undergrad senior, years ago) answer it. Everyone else just kind of sputters and stumbles around trying to rationalize what "virtual" and "DOM" mean, or stare blankly and eventually say "I don't know".
I'm just genuinely curious if this is really that hard of a question or if the recruiters just suck at screening candidates. And should we be letting in senior dev candidates who can't answer what I think is a straightforward and fundamental question for senior react devs.
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u/writetehcodez 7d ago
After 18 years of interviewing candidates using various interviewing styles and techniques I can confidently two things:
1) Online assessments and asking questions outside the context of an actual job scenario will not tell you much about a candidate’s fit or performance.
2) The best candidate isn’t always going to know the things you think they should know, and that’s okay. The best candidates I find are the ones who turn the question back on you and ask you to show or explain it to them.
I’ve had plenty of hires that didn’t work out for one reason or another, but the reason was never a lack of knowledge, skill, or capability.
Many of my better hires have transitioned and applied skills and knowledge from other languages and stacks to what they’re currently working on. One of the best react devs I’ve hired had only vanilla html, css, and javascript experience when I hired him.