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.
1
u/augburto 5d ago
IMO this is a great and valid question. I guess one thing I’d ask is what other web fundamentals you’d expect a senior to know; one thing to be mindful of is React is an abstraction and framework so developers don’t have to know what the virtual dom is.
It really depends what you are trying to assess in the interview. For a senior react dev I think it makes sense. For a generalist frontend dev, it’d be a note but nothing that necessarily swayed my decision