In this article, I want to zoom in on coding interviews for Senior Full Stack JavaScript roles at small to medium-sized companies (not FAANG!). Below, I share my experiences interviewing for these roles from both sides of the table.
Good news: Most companies can’t afford a super complicated full stack coding task in a typical 1-hour interview. They can’t have too many interview rounds either because both candidates and interviewers are busy.
As a result, most companies come up with something relatively standard, often not too relevant to the actual role, but certainly manageable after some prep work. I identified five categories (or archetypes) of live coding tasks for Full Stack JavaScript roles.
From my modest experience, LeetCode-like questions are still very popular in interview pipelines, including for Full Stack roles. While I see them as a waste of time, they do have their benefits:
Because I don’t sort arrays in place in my normal professional life, this type of task requires the most prep effort from me.