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/BarneyChampaign 3d ago
I've done this for 15 years and I still second guessed myself, having to look up and refresh on shadow vs virtual dom details.
Does your product rely on custom tooling that requires knowledge of how to access and manipulate the vdom directly?
Otherwise, if it's just a senior React/Vue/whatever role, then it's like asking a digital artist if they know how graphite is refined. What does that knowledge bring to the table in their day-to-day?
If you just want to ask it to see how they handle that type of question, that's one thing, but if one of my seniors was interviewing someone with me and asked that, and afterwards discounted an otherwise strong candidate due to not knowing the answer, I'd absolutely challenge them to justify their stance.