Chewy Senior Front-End Engineer Phone Interview Experience

Overview

This document details a candidate's phone interview experience for a Senior Front-End Engineer role at Chewy. The interview focused on assessing the candidate's knowledge of fundamental front-end technologies and their practical application. The interview included technical questions and a React-based coding challenge.

Interview Rounds

The initial phone interview covered a range of topics relevant to a senior front-end engineer. The interviewer posed questions to evaluate the candidate's understanding of JavaScript, React, TypeScript, CSS fundamentals, and API design principles.

Technical Questions:

1. Asynchronous JavaScript: How to execute two asynchronous functions in parallel and wait for both to resolve before proceeding.
2. CSS Display Properties: An inquiry regarding the different types of CSS display properties.
3. Flexbox: A question defining Flexbox and its purpose.
4. RESTful Services: The candidate was asked about the methods used in RESTful services (e.g., GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
5. TCP Protocol: What protocol is utilized by TCP?
6. React Functional Components: Definition of functional components in React.
7. CSS Block and Inline Elements: Identifying block-level and inline elements in CSS.
8. Event Listeners in React: How to add an event listener to the window object within a React component, and how to properly clean up the effect using useEffect.
9. JavaScript vs. TypeScript: Differences between JavaScript and TypeScript.
10. TypeScript Classes vs. Interfaces: Key distinctions between classes and interfaces in TypeScript.
11. PATCH Method: The interviewer asked if the candidate had experience using the PATCH method in RESTful APIs.
12. CSS Units: Explanation of the differences between rem, em, and px units in CSS.
13. Async/Await: Understanding the purpose and usage of async/await in JavaScript.
14. Race Condition: Defining what a race condition is.

React Coding Question: Movie List

The candidate was presented with a React coding challenge requiring the development of a movie list component with the following specifications:

• An input field where users can enter a year to search for movies released in that year.
• A 'Search' button that triggers an API call to https://jsonmock.hackerrank.com/api/moviesdata?Year={input} using the fetch API.
• The API response contains a data field, which is an array of movie objects, each with a Title, Year, and imdbID.
• The component should display the Title of each movie in a <li> element within a <ul data-testid="movieList"></ul>.
• If the API returns an empty array, the component should render <div data-testid="no-result">No Results Found</div>.

Key Takeaways

This interview experience highlights the importance of a strong foundation in JavaScript, React, CSS, and TypeScript for senior front-end engineers. Proficiency in asynchronous programming, RESTful API concepts, and UI development using React are crucial for success in such roles. The React coding challenge emphasizes the need for practical problem-solving skills and the ability to implement API interactions and dynamic rendering in React components.