Web Developer Job Interview Questions

By Kimberly Blessing,

Posted in Job Search, Recruiting and Hiring, Web Development

Every employer has a different recruiting and interviewing process, but at some point you’re going to be asked technical questions. (Or, at least, one would hope that you’d be asked technical questions… if not, look out.)

If you’ve never interviewed for a web development job before, or if it’s been a while, you might be wondering what to expect. Rather than list a whole slew of questions here, I’m going to give you access to a real screening questionnaire — one that I’ve actually used as a hiring manager to help identify which applicants have a solid understanding of core web development knowledge. (Harder questions get asked over the phone, and the hardest ones in person.)

What are you waiting for? Check out the questions!

Interviewers and hiring managers, what other questions do you ask early-on in the recruiting process?

Comments

  1. Jinny left this comment on :

    Your web developer job interview questions rock! It’s almost as rad as having you secretly on speakerphone ;-)

    Would you mind if I use it to screen some potential hires? Promise to credit ya!

    Perhaps I can add a bonus question, “Why should you develop a web style guide?”

    xoxo

  2. Obi-Wan Kimberly replied on :

    Please, feel free to use any or all of the questions, everyone! These questions have been compiled over time from a variety of coworkers and other sources — sadly I never documented them, but don’t feel the need to credit me. Obviously, be forewarned that some folks may have already reviewed the questions. :)

    I’m impressed with how many people are actually answering the questions in SurveyMonkey! There have been a few requests for answers, so I’ll try to get to those soon.

    Here are some more questions you could ask:

    • How do you keep your skills up to date?
    • What new HTML 5 (or CSS 3) feature are you most looking forward to and why?

  3. Obi-Wan Kimberly replied on :

    I also found some interesting questions posted as part of a job description (company not named, but job posted here):

    1)      Please describe at least 2 custom solutions that you developed, including specifics about the client business need, the process you employed to develop the solution, the technologies you leveraged, and the value delivered to the client. 

    2)      Please describe at least 2 sites that you have maintained on an ongoing basis, including details about the nature of the sites, the types of work you regularly completed, and the tools you used to do the work.

    3)      Please describe the benefits of semantic HTML templating.

    4)      Please describe your experience with jQuery.

    5)      Please describe the Drupal projects you have worked on, including client business need, the reasons for choosing Drupal, and the specific customizations that you developed.

    6)      Please discuss your QA process, including the tools you have used.

    7)      Please describe at least 2 projects where you leveraged databases.

    8)      Please describe your work on sites that integrate with CRM applications.

    9)      Please describe projects where you have skinned 3rd party hosted applications, like blogs or hosted search.

    10)  Please describe your web analytics experience, including any projects where your work or decisions were influenced by analytics.

    11)  Please describe your experience with scripting languages.

    12)  Please describe any projects where you worked to support visual designers using Flash ActionScript.  

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