Guide to Effective Interview Preparation

This document is a guide on how to effectively use devtools.tech platform for structured interview preparation. It is a living document and will be updated at regular intervals as we add more questions, resources, features, and content.

Quickest Way

If you are not actively interviewing and just want to keep your skills sharp, the fastest way to use the platform is to solve one real-world question regularly via https://devtools.tech/practice.

Solving 1 question a day keeps unemployment away!

How the Platform Is Meant to Be Used

Before diving into anything, let us understand how the platform is meant to be used as a system.

At a high level, devtools.tech works as a closed learning loop:

• Questions help you practice and highlight shortcomings
• Resources help you learn frontend concepts, up-skill, and fix shortcomings
• Lists / Collections help you structure what to study (https://devtools.tech/lists/all)
• Submissions help you review code by other users, learn from it, and refine your learning (https://devtools.tech/submissions/all)

The biggest mistake candidates make is using the platform only as a question bank. The real value comes when you intentionally move through this loop:

Attempt → Learn → Retry → Refine

Questions Overview

The platform primarily covers two types of questions:

Quiz (Single Choice):

• Focused on fast recall, fundamental concepts, and designed around the principle - “what happens and why”?
• Good for quickly going through frontend concepts, and check how strong your fundamentals are.
• Try here: https://devtools.tech/questions/quiz

Programming (Machine Coding):

• The platform contains hundreds of questions that covers problem solving, UI building skills, debugging, architecture design, logical reasoning, and more.
• Best suited when you are preparing for machine/browser coding rounds.
• Try here: https://devtools.tech/questions/programming

You can access all questions via https://devtools.tech/questions/all

Resources Overview

This is a collection of articles (both in-house and external) and videos. Our blog posts covering learning concepts like URL Routing in Frontend Applications, Mastering Critical Rendering Path, and more can be found under this section. It covers a wide range of learning topics. However, the long term aim is to develop it as a knowledge base that can be used by frontend engineers to up-skill and stay up to date with the industry.

All resources can be found here ⇒ https://devtools.tech/resources/all

Video Tutorials

120+ videos covering wide variety of topics ranging from interview questions, debugging techniques, JavaScript Promise Fundamentals, code best practices, and much more.

Access complete list here: https://www.youtube.com/devtoolstech/videos

Preparation Strategies

There is no single correct way to prepare for interviews. However, the strategies below are to maximise signal per hour spent, based on real interview patterns.

Filtering Strategy

On feeds like the questions list, you can filter by

• Difficulty (Easy / Medium / Hard / All Levels)
• Type (Quiz / Programming)
• Language/Framework (HTML + CSS + JS / React / JavaScript)
• Sort (Creation date / Popularity)
• Status (Todo / Submitted)
• Companies (Uber, Atlassian, Razorpay, Flipkart, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, so on)

You can apply filter recipes to have a structured approach. The amount of time you spend on each step depends on your speed and time you can devote.

• Build a baseline
  • A good mix of Quiz, Easy + Programming (Problem Solving), and Easy + Programming (UI building) questions.
• Skill building

  • Solving Medium + Programming (Problem Solving) and Medium + Programming (UI building) questions but time-boxed.

  • Start by setting a timer before solving a question. Initially, take the time you need. As you solve more problems, gradually reduce the time limit.

    In real interviews, you typically get ~60 minutes:

    • 5–10 minutes: introductions + clarifying requirements
    • Time lost to bugs, edge cases, or failed test cases

    Hence, aim to complete solutions ~10 minutes before the allocated time.

• Interview soon:
  • Sort by popularity and solve at least 10-15 questions of different types.
  • Prepare by targeting specific companies.
• Revision:
  • Practice questions you have already done and see if you can finish faster and write better code.

Focus Areas Strategy

The questions on the platform are tagged by categories. We can focus on individual categories in a phased manner.

1. JavaScript Fundamentals

It covers core JavaScript concepts like data types, closures, variables, this keyword, prototype, and more. They are the fundamental blocks and appear in almost all interviews.

2. Asynchronous JavaScript

Managing async programming in JavaScript covering topics like promises, async/await, event loop, concurrency, polyfills, and more. A deep understanding of these is critical for senior roles.

3. DOM & Browser APIs

Working with browser environment and web APIs. This covers DOM manipulation, DOM traversal, events, browser APIs, and more.

4. UI Interface Development

This is the crux of machine coding rounds. In most companies, you would be given a problem statement/designs and you need to build a production-grade working solution in a given timeframe. It is core work of frontend engineers. Hence, highly important.

5. React & Modern Frontend

Covers topics like custom hooks, lifecycle, state management, rendering. React is like the de-facto standard used in frontend ecosystem. It is the most asked skills in job listing. Hence, mastering questions here can greatly increase our chances of getting hired!

6. Computer Science & Algorithms

Problem-solving and algorithmic thinking. It is the foundation of any engineer, irrespective of their domain. It covers algorithms, data structures, logic building, optimisations, and more.

Approach

A good rule of thumb would be to keep a mix of questions filtered by categories + difficulty. The timeline depends upon your preparation journey. A sample 6-week plan (increase difficulty progressively each week):

• Week 1: Easy → Medium + Algorithms & Data Structures
• Week 2: Easy → Medium + JavaScript Fundamentals
• Week 3: Medium + Asynchronous JavaScript
• Week 4: Medium + DOM & Browser APIs
• Week 5: Medium → Hard + UI Development
• Week 6: Medium → Hard + React

A question might cover multiple categories. So, you would cover more ground and finish earlier.

Weekly Rotation Strategy

This strategy is ideal if you want to stay fresh across all major frontend interview areas every week, instead of preparing in blocks.

It is especially useful when interviews can happen at short notice. Rather than going deep into one topic for multiple weeks, we cover problem solving, frontend fundamentals, UI building, and system design, using questions and resources.

Day 1: Problem Solving (Any Difficulty)

• Solve 1–2 Programming questions focused on logic, algorithms, or data structures.

Day 2: Frontend Fundamentals

• Practice Quiz questions across JavaScript fundamentals, async JavaScript, DOM, and browser APIs.
• You can use this day to study frontend concepts using resources like MDN, javascript.info, web.dev, and more.

Day 3: UI Building (Any Difficulty)

• Solve 1 UI-focused Programming (Machine Coding) question.

Day 4: Algorithms & Data Structures

• Solve problem-solving questions tagged under algorithms and data structures.
• You can use this day to practice easy/medium level Leetcode questions.

Day 5: Reinforcement Day

• Revisit weaker areas identified during the week:
  • Re-solve a previously attempted Programming question, or
  • Study frontend concepts

Day 6: Frontend System Design

• Prepare using our guide. Learn from live examples that we have shared like Google Calendar, WhatsApp Web UI, Autocomplete, or concepts.
• Focus on requirements gathering, data entities, API contracts, optimisations, and scalability.
• You can use this day to visit different web systems like Flipkart’s listing page, follow the framework mentioned in our guide to answer the question - “If I have to build this, then how would I approach it?”

Day 7: Rest or Project Work

• Take a break, or
• Focus on building a side project.

Why This Works

We focus all major interview areas every week. It prevents burnout from repetitive block learning. If an interview comes up then we are fresh with all concepts.

When to Use This Strategy

When actively interviewing or expect interviews soon

Frontend System Design Guide

This guide focuses on building a framework that can be applied to approaching any frontend system design interview. It covers various topics like

• Communication strategy
• Requirements engineering
• Architectural consideration
• Data entities and APIs discussion
• Technology stack selection framework
• Commonly asked questions by the interviewers
• Questions the candidate should ask the interviewer
• Common pitfalls analysis
• Performance discussion
• Optimisation techniques discussion
• Judging criteria
• Dedicated section to cover concepts commonly occurring in frontend system design interviews

Who should study this and when?

• Ideally, it makes sense for candidates with 3+ years of experience. However, no learning is wasteful. So, freshers can learn a lot from it.
• It will help the most when you are actively interviewing or thinking about transition from a junior to senior role.

Explore here ⇒ https://devtools.tech/dashboard/fsd/guide

How to approach a question?

When solving a question, following would be a good approach to follow:

1. Understand first
   • Write down your understanding of the question. Ask clarifying questions (applicable in an interview). What needs to be done and break it down into phases to build iteratively.
2. Attempt
   • Go old school without any help of AI while coding. Build a brute force solution.
   • Refine your solution and explain aloud. Interviewers often better regard candidates who proactively share their thought process.
   • Always time box your practice. Start with a generous timer but gradually decrease it as you practice more questions.
3. Submit your answer
   • Submitting is not about being correct or incorrect.
   • It keeps a track in the system that you have attempted the question. Help you revisit and revise later.
4. Review the editorial / author notes
   • A large number of our questions are equipped with official solutions. Use it enrich your knowledge, compare approaches, and refine.
5. Compare with other submissions
   • Each question has a submission tab, refer to submissions by other users, and compare your solution with them. Pick and learn the best parts from all.
6. Bookmark (Optional)
   • If a question teaches an important pattern or exposed a weakness, bookmark it for revision.
7. Use AI for review (Optional)
   • All programming questions comes with built-in AI code reviewer. It reviews the current file you have opened in the editor. Use it for instant feedback and improve

General Interview Advice:

Do not use practice sessions or interviews as an excuse to cut corners. Many candidates focus only on getting a working solution and ignore naming conventions, code structure, modularity, and best practices. They assume they’ll write better code once they join the company.

In reality, organisations don’t hire based on promises of future performance — they hire based on how you perform in that interview round. Treat every solution as production code. Candidates who demonstrate clarity, discipline, and good engineering judgment consistently leave a stronger impression and tend to progress further in the process.

Consistency is the key

A consistent daily loop can keep progress steady and greatly affects your chances of success. You need to practice daily even if it feels like extra ordinary efforts.

Extra-ordinary efforts for extra-ordinary results

A simple 60–90 minute daily routine could look like:

• 1 Quiz question (warm-up, 10 minutes)
• 1 Programming (40–60 minutes)
• Review editorial + submissions (10–15 minutes)

This works well alongside the weekly rotation or focus-area strategy we shared earlier.

Final Notes

The platform provides the resources, but YOUR effort determines the outcome. The 250+ questions, company-specific guides, video tutorials, and system design content are all tools - use them strategically based on your timeline, target role, and current skill level.