Web Developer Interview Questions:

The main technologies required for a web developer are CSS, HTML and JavaScript. A good
web developer also needs to have a grasp of and interest in both web standards and
accessibility. While most web developer roles require other technologies such as Unix,
Apache and server management, MySQL & PHP or SQL & ColdFusion or other dB and
programming technologies, CVS, Perforce, or other source control management interfaces, I
am only going to cover the technologies that span all Web Developer job descriptions: HTML,
Web Standards and Accessibility, CSS and JavaScript.

The main skill I look for in a web developer is intelligence*, a desire to learn and an
adoration of web standards. These questions target knowledge rather than capacity to learn.
So, for each question remove 2 points if the answer, whether correct or not, sounded like it
was quoted from a text book or this blog entry (unless, of course, you are interviewing me).
Add points for interviewee efficient thought processes: if they didn’t know the answer to
start with but figured it out in the end.

Please have a look at Web Developer Resume Screening for thought on how to filter through
resumes to find good Web Developer applicants.

* Note: Intelligence ≠ Education. A Masters or PhD may just mean that they had the time and money to delay getting a job.
Look for people who can think, not ones who regurgitate text books.

Please note that these questions are two years old.

… and … quoting @seldo: “I am adding ‘Can you use the men’s room without peeing all over
the floor?’ to my list of phone screen interview questions.” Generally not necessary if
interviewing women.

XHTML, CSS & JavaScript Web Developer Applicant

Questions
XHTML Web Standards Interview Question

Question:
What is a DTD? What DTD do you generally use? Why? Pros and cons.

Answer
See the bottom half of DTD: the Document Type Declaration

Answer Rating:

1. Completely wrong answer though pretends to know it

2. I don’t know (I give points for honesty), trying unsuccessfully but honestly to give the
right answer
3. Knowledge of the definition, but doesn’t know why they are used.
4. Knowledge of which one to use and why
5. Explanation of Quirks mode versus Regular mode and analysis of which one is best
for different media
Accessibility Interview Question

Question
Tell me some considerations in selecting font size?

Answer
Font sizes should be declared using relative measurement values, such as ems, via a style
sheet, without the use of the term !important. There are issues with browser font size
enlarging which can be rectified via CSS.

Answer Rating

1. uses <font> tag

2. Gives an answer using pixels using CSS
3. Explains that font size should be declared using relative font sizes
4. Explains that font size should be declared using ems or percentages
5. Gives the answer above

CSS Interview Question

Question
a) What are the possible values for the display attribute that are supported by all browsers?
b) What is the default value for the display attribute for the image element? (what is the
difference between inline and block level elements)
c)What does display: run-in do?
d) Difference between “visibility:hidden” and “display:none”? What are the pros and cons of
using display:none?

Answer
main values: none, block, inline, list-item, run-in
all values: inline | block | list-item | run-in | compact | marker | table | inline-table | table-row-
group | table-header-group | table-footer-group | table-row | table-column-group | table-
column | table-cell | table-caption | none | inherit
default value: inline, block or list-item, depending on the element. The <img> is an inline
element.
Run-in should make the run-in element be the first line of the next sibling block level
element, if it is before a block level element that is not floated or absolutely positioned. If
the next sibling is positioned or floated, then the run-in element will be a block level element
instead of appearing in-line.
PPK’s Quirksmode explains it well. The w3schools lists table display values.
When visibility is set to hidden, the element being hidden still occupies its same place in the
layout of the page. If the display is set to none, the element does not occupy any space on
the page — as if it didn’t exist..

Answer Rating

1. Doesn’t know
2. Knows the answer to A
3. Knows the answer to A and D
4. Knows the answer to A, B and D
 5. Knows the answer to C too!

CSS Interview Question

Question
a) What are the five possible values for “position”?
b) What is the default/initial value for “position”?
c) How does the browser determine where to place positioned elements
d) What are the pros and cons of using absolute positioning?
e) if they are really advanced, ask about IE z-index issues with positioned elements.

Answer
a) Values for position: static, relative, absolute, fixed, inherit
b) Static
c) They are placed relative to the next parent element that has absolute or relative value
declared
d) Absolutely positioned elements are removed from the document flow. The positioned
element does not flow around the content of other elements, nor does their content flow
around the positioned element. An absolutely positioned element may overlap other
elements, or be overlapped by them.
e) IE treats a position like a z-index reset, so you have to declare position of static on the
parent element containing the z-indexed elements to have them responsd to z-index
correctly.

Answer Rating

1. Doesn’t know
2. Knows 4 out of 5 answers in part A
3. Knows A & B
4. Knows A, B & C
5. Knows A-D
6. Knows E too

CSS Interview Question

Question:
Write a snippet of CSS that will display a paragraph in blue in older browsers, red in newer
browsers, green in IE6 and black in IE7

Possible Answer:
#content p{color:blue}
html>body #content p {color:red}
* html #content p{color:green}
html>body #content p {*color:black;}

Answer Rating

1. Doesn’t know
2. Knows how to declare one color, but no hacks
3. knows the html>body hack and * html hack
 4. Knows all the hacks, but doesn’t validate or uses conditional comments in the HTML
5. Gives you the right answer and explains why the CSS won’t validate, or, uses a valid
hack, other than conditional IE comments, instead of the above answer.

Basic Javascript Interview Question

Question:
What is the correct way to include JavaScript into your HTML?

Answer:
See Including Javascript in XHTML for answers.

Answer Rating:

1. <a href=”javscript:function()”> - and other incorrect answers

2. verbally explains the theory but doesn’t know how to do it
3. correct explanation using inline event handlers or inline code
4. discusses and knows how to implement javascript event listeners
5. Explainst how you include JS within an XHTML document and ensure it validates using
CDATA, explains

Basic Javascript Array / XHTML Form Interview Question

Question
Are the following all equal, and, if so, what would your code look like to make the following
all equal the same thing:

alert(document.forms["myform"].elements["field"].value);

alert(document.forms[1].elements[1].value);

alert(document.myform.field.value);

answer:

<form name="myform" method="post" action="something">

<input name="anything" value="anything" type="something" />

<input name="field" value="something" type="something" />

</form>

Answer includes knowing that the form is the second form on the page, and that
the fieldinput element is the second element within that form.
Answer Rating

1. Doesn’t know how to code forms and doesn’t know that the first index of an array is
0.
2. Knows either how to code forms with valid XHTML or that array starts at 0, but not
both.
3. Knows how to code forms but not correctly, but omits something like doesn’t know
that the form needs to be the second one on the page, and the element is the second
one in the form. Would know how to do it if they actually put thought into it.
4. Codes the form correctly, but uses ID instead of name
5. Codes everything correctly

JavaScript Interview Question

Question:
How do you dynamically add a paragraph with stylized content to a page?

Possible Answer:

newParagraph = document.createElement('p');

newParagraph.setAttribute('class', 'myClass');

newText = document.createTextNode('this is a new paragraph');

newParagraph.appendChild(newText);

myLocation = document.getElementById('parent_of_new_paragraph);

myLocation.appendChild(newParagraph);

Answer Rating:

1. Wrong Answer (i.e. “you can’t”), I don’t know.

2. Use JavaScript, with no knowledge or incomplete knowledge of how that is done.
Suggesting innerHTML, but not really knowing. Or explanation of accessibilty issues
surrounding this.
3. Able to explain how you create a node, add content to the node, add a class
attributes to that element, and then add that node as a child of the parent element
(the above example)
4. Explanation of how to do it (worth 3 points) and explanation as to issues that arise
when doing it, such as screen readers not knowing that text has changed, IE6 and IE7
not applying styles included with added content, not duplicating IDs, etc.
5. Has no clue how to do it to start, but can figure it out with guidance: extra points for
the quick learner!

Other questions ideas:

Q: How do you organize your CSS? How do you come up with id and class names (what
naming conventions do you use)?
A: While there are no right answers, there are best practices. Issues to look for are not
having div mania, no inline CSS, no presentational markup, minimal use of classes,
understanding the CSS cascade.

Q: What do you think of hacks? When should you use them? If you use them, how do you
maintain them? What can be done to avoid needing to use box-model hacks? (if they aren’t
pros, you can ask them what is the issue with x-browsers and the box model)

Q: What are the pros and cons of using tables for layout? Do you use tables? What are the
pros and cons of tableless design? How do you generally layout your pages?
A: check for them NOT using tables

Q: Check to ensure that they separate structure and semantics first from presentation later?
Do not ask about this during HTML, but do in webstandards.

Q: What are some deprecated elements and attributes that you use, and in what instances
do you use them?
A: List of deprecated elements and attributes.

Q: What is involved in making a website accessible? What are arguments you use to
convince others to invest in making their web site accessible.
A: See Making the web Accessible. Making sites accessible also makes them more search
engine friendly (saves money), makes your pages accessible to the 20% of the population
that has some type of disability (so you can make more money) and it’s the law in many
places.

Q: Define what web standards mean to you? How do you implement web standards?

Q: In CSS, how can you make a form elments background-color change when the user is
entering text? will this work in all browsers?

Q: How can you target an element in your HTML using the DOM?