Interview common

hands-on experience

Practical experience gained by doing the work yourself.

background

Your education, previous roles, and relevant experience.

track record

A history of results that shows what you can achieve.

area of expertise

A subject or skill that you know particularly well.

core responsibility

One of the main duties of your role.

scope of work

The tasks, features, and responsibilities included in a project or role.

lead frontend development

To guide frontend work and help the team make technical decisions.

take ownership of

To accept responsibility for a task and follow it through to completion.

be accountable for

To be responsible for an outcome and able to explain your decisions.

drive a project

To actively move a project forward and help others make progress.

deliver a feature

To complete and release functionality that users can use.

ship to production

To release software to the environment used by real customers.

end-to-end delivery

Taking a feature from initial requirements through implementation and release.

build from scratch

To create a system without starting from an existing implementation.

set up a repository

To create and configure a place where a project's code is stored.

set development guidelines

To define shared rules for writing, reviewing, and maintaining code.

onboard a developer

To help a new developer understand the project and become productive.

mentor a teammate

To help a colleague improve through guidance and feedback.

delegate a task

To assign work and the authority needed to complete it to another person.

coordinate with

To organize work together with another person or team.

cross-functional team

A team with different roles, such as developers, designers, and product managers.

stakeholder

A person or group with an interest in a project's decisions or results.

gather requirements

To collect information about what a system needs to do.

clarify requirements

To resolve unclear details before deciding what to build.

acceptance criteria

Specific conditions that a feature must meet to be accepted.

business requirement

A need based on a company's goals or processes.

user need

A problem or goal that a product should help a user address.

use case

A situation describing how someone uses a system to achieve a goal.

constraint

A limit that affects possible solutions, such as time, budget, or compatibility.

trade-off

A choice in which improving one quality means accepting a cost elsewhere.

assumption

Something treated as true before it has been confirmed.

ambiguity

A lack of clarity that allows more than one interpretation.

feasibility

Whether an idea can be implemented within the available limits.

assess the impact

To evaluate how a change will affect users, systems, or the business.

break down a task

To divide a large task into smaller pieces of work.

estimate the effort

To assess how much work a task will require.

prioritize work

To decide which tasks should be done first.

meet a deadline

To finish work by the agreed date.

negotiate the scope

To agree on what will be included in a piece of work.

reduce the scope

To remove or simplify requirements so the work becomes smaller.

manage expectations

To make sure others understand what can realistically be delivered.

raise a concern

To tell others about a possible problem that needs attention.

flag a risk

To draw attention to something that could cause problems later.

blocker

A problem that prevents work from moving forward.

dependency on another team

Work or information that must come from another team before you can proceed.

unblock a teammate

To remove a problem that prevents a colleague from making progress.

propose an alternative

To suggest a different way to solve a problem.

justify a decision

To explain why a choice is reasonable using relevant evidence.

reach an agreement

To arrive at a decision that the people involved accept.

constructive feedback

Specific comments intended to help someone improve.

address feedback

To respond to comments by making changes or explaining your reasoning.

push back on a request

To respectfully challenge a request and explain your concerns.

align on priorities

To agree on which goals or tasks matter most.

guide designers

To help designers understand technical options and constraints.

question design assumptions

To question a design choice and check whether its reasoning is valid.

consistent user experience

An experience in which related screens behave in predictable, similar ways.

usability issue

A problem that makes a product difficult to understand or use.

user feedback

Information from users about their experience with a product.

measurable outcome

A result that can be evaluated using numbers or clear criteria.

business impact

The effect of work on business goals, costs, or results.

reduce manual effort

To decrease the amount of work people need to do by hand.

improve reliability

To make a system work correctly and consistently more often.

improve maintainability

To make software easier to understand, change, and repair.

streamline a workflow

To make a process simpler and more efficient.

identify a bottleneck

To find the part of a process or system that limits overall speed.

root cause

The underlying reason a problem occurs.

resolve an incident

To restore normal operation after a problem affects a live system.

reproduce an issue

To make a problem happen again so it can be investigated.

investigate a failure

To examine evidence to understand why something stopped working correctly.

prevent a recurrence

To make changes that reduce the chance of the same problem happening again.

lesson learned

Knowledge gained from an experience that can improve future work.

in retrospect

When considering a past event with the knowledge you have now.

what I would do differently

A phrase introducing how you would change your approach based on experience.

my main contribution was

A phrase introducing the most important part of the work you personally did.

I was responsible for

A phrase introducing your duties or the work you owned.

the main challenge was

A phrase introducing the most difficult part of a project.

I chose this because

A phrase introducing the reasons behind a technical decision.

one limitation is

A phrase introducing a drawback of your solution.

the outcome was

A phrase introducing the result of an action or project.

move into frontend work

To move from another area of work into frontend development.

full-stack development

Building both the user interface and the server-side parts of an application.

third-party integration

Connecting an application to a service provided by another organization.

optimize database queries

To change database requests or their execution so they use resources more efficiently.

millions of records

Several million stored entries, such as rows in a database table.

remote collaboration

Working together while team members are in different locations.

asynchronous communication

Sharing information without requiring everyone to respond at the same time.

time-zone overlap

Hours during which people in different time zones are both available.

availability

When you can attend meetings, work, or start a new role.

notice period

The time between informing an employer that you are leaving and your final working day.

compensation expectations

The pay and benefits you expect from a role.

Could you clarify

A polite way to ask the interviewer to explain an unclear question.

Let me think for a moment

A phrase used to ask for a little time to organize your answer.

If I understand correctly

A phrase used before checking your understanding of a question or requirement.

Could you give an example

A request for a specific case that makes an idea clearer.

no production experience

Not having used a technology in software serving real users.

verify that assumption

To check whether something you believe is actually true before acting on it.

I cannot recall the API

A phrase used when you cannot remember the exact API name or syntax.

Let me explain my approach

A phrase used to introduce a step-by-step explanation of your reasoning.