When preparing for an interview it’s important to consider a few typical questions your potential employer may ask you. We all know the interview process can be a daunting task, and it’s essential to come across as a competent and confident individual to be in with a chance of bagging that dream job. The focus of your potential employer’s thought process, is whether you are good enough to work for their company, so the significance of interview preparation should not be overlooked. For that very reason, we have compiled a series of web developer interview questions below, so you can walk into the room and communicate an air of wisdom and clarity when put under the microscope.
1. What are your past working experiences?
You can expect to answer a relatively broad question about yourself to begin with. The interviewer is merely trying to get a feel of your personality and an elaborated version of the information presented in your CV.
2. What kinds of sources do you follow to keep up with industry trends and developments?
If you don’t already follow a handful of blogs relating to the web development industry, now is the time to start reading! The interviewer will be very interested in knowing how committed to the profession you are, and your specific viewpoints. This is that very thin line between your dedication to the skill and your own self-improvement, or something you perceive as just a job.
3. What are your most favourable programming languages?
It is a simple fact that when we excel in a certain task, this generally results in a person favouring that subject. There are at least one or two programming languages a web developer will be most proficient, and the interviewer will be interested to hear the skills you can bring to the company and why it is you favour those languages over others.
4. What kind of problems have you faced while writing code?
When your interviewer asks you a question about the problems you’ve come across in the past, they do not want to hear “I haven’t come across any problems”. Every developer at some point in their career has been confronted with a challenge, your interviewer is looking for details of what your problems were and what you did to tackle them.
5. What is W3C and what does it stand for?
W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium and it is the international standards compliance for web development. Their aim is to radically improve the way people develop new technologies, and this is something any established web developer should be familiar with. Your interviewer will most likely ask you this question, so if you are ignorant to the workings of W3C, start searching the web for answers now.
6. When concerning case sensitivity, what is the principal difference between HTML and XHTML?
The interviewer is attempting to establish your basic knowledge of languages and the finer details involved. Expect to be asked a series of technical questions to test your knowledge and capabilities. To answer the question above, HTML is not case sensitive but XTML requires lower case for all tags and attributes.
As you can imagine, these are just a small collection of the possible questions your interviewer may ask you, but it’s most definitely a good starting point. When considering what to expect at your interview, ask yourself these three questions; “What are my past experiences, what kind of skills do I possess, and what do I expect from the future?” Elaborate on these three questions and you’ll find yourself where you want to be in no time!
Good luck!
Karly Edwards is a freelance copywriter writing for Computer Recruiter, an IT recruitment agency based in Cardiff, South Wales: http://www.computerrecruiter.co.uk