Top 20 Advanced React.js Interview Questions and Answers

Deepak Chaudhari
7 min readJun 24, 2024

--

Here are 20 advanced React.js interview questions with answers and examples to help you prepare:

Figure 1.0.0

1. Explain Higher-Order Components (HOCs) and their benefits.

Answer: HOCs are a pattern for creating reusable components that wrap other components and inject functionality or behavior. They promote code reusability by encapsulating common logic like authentication or data fetching.

Example:

const withAuth = (WrappedComponent) => {
return (props) => (
<div>
{isAuthenticated ? (
<WrappedComponent {...props} />
) : (
<p>Please login to access this content.</p>
)}
</div>
);
};

const MyProtectedComponent = (props) => (
<div>Protected content: {props.message}</div>
);

const ProtectedComponentWithAuth = withAuth(MyProtectedComponent);

2. Describe Pure Components and their role in performance optimization.

Answer: Pure Components are React components that only re-render when their props or state actually change. This avoids unnecessary re-renders and improves performance. Use Pure Components for components with expensive rendering logic.

Example:

class PureCounter extends React.PureComponent {
render() {
console.log("PureCounter rendered");
return <div>Count: {this.props.count}</div>;
}
}

3. Explain Context API and Redux for state management. Discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

Answer:

  • Context API: Provides a way to share data across the component tree without explicitly passing props down every level. (Strength: Simpler for small-scale applications, Weakness: Can lead to naming conflicts)
  • Redux: A predictable state container pattern for managing complex application state. (Strength: Scalable and maintainable, Weakness: Boilerplate setup)

Choose Context API for: Sharing data across a few non-nested components.

Choose Redux for: Managing complex application state with multiple components needing access.

4. Explain the Virtual DOM and its impact on performance.

Answer: The virtual DOM is an in-memory representation of the real DOM. When changes occur, React compares the virtual DOM before and after the change and efficiently updates only the necessary parts of the real DOM. This improves performance by minimizing expensive DOM manipulations.

5. Discuss techniques like memoization, lazy loading, and code splitting to optimize React applications.

Answer:

  • Memoization: Caches expensive function calls based on their arguments.
  • Lazy Loading: Loads components only when needed, improving initial load times.
  • Code Splitting: Breaks down code into smaller bundles loaded on demand.

Example (Memoization):

const memoizedExpensiveFunction = React.memo((n) => {
// Perform expensive calculation here
return result;
});

6. Explain how to handle errors in React applications using techniques like Error Boundaries.

Answer: Error Boundaries are React components that catch errors within their child components and display a fallback UI instead of crashing the entire application.

Example:

class ErrorBoundary extends React.Component {
constructor(props) {
super(props);
this.state = { hasError: false };
}

static getDerivedStateFromError(error) {
return { hasError: true };
}

componentDidCatch(error, errorInfo) {
console.error("Error in child component:", error, errorInfo);
}

render() {
if (this.state.hasError) {
return <h1>Something went wrong.</h1>;
}
return this.props.children;
}
}

7. Discuss various React Hooks (useState, useEffect, useContext, etc.) and their functionalities.

Answer: Hooks allow you to “hook into” React state and lifecycle features from functional components.

  • useState: Manages component state.
  • useEffect: Performs side effects like data fetching or subscriptions.
  • useContext: Accesses context data from anywhere in the component tree.

Example (useState):

const Counter = () => {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
return (
<div>
<p>Count: {count}</p>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
</div>
);
};

8. Explain React Router for handling routing in React applications. Discuss different routing strategies.

React Router is a popular library for handling navigation and routing in React applications. It allows you to define different routes (URLs) that map to specific components in your application. When the user navigates to a particular URL, React Router renders the corresponding component, creating a seamless single-page application (SPA) experience.

Here are some key concepts and routing strategies in React Router:

1. Components:

  • Route: Defines a mapping between a URL path and the component that should be rendered for that path. You use the <Route> component from React Router to define routes.

Example:

import { Route } from 'react-router-dom';
<Route path="/" exact component={Home} />
<Route path="/about" component={About} />
  • BrowserRouter: Wraps your entire application and provides routing context. It’s the most common router type and handles history management using the browser’s history API. (There’s also HashRouter for environments without clean URLs)

2. Navigation:

  • Link: A component used to create navigation links within your application. Clicking a <Link> triggers navigation to the specified URL without a full page reload.

Example:

import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';
<Link to="/">Home</Link>
<Link to="/about">About</Link>

3. Routing Strategies:

  • Nested Routing: Allows you to define nested routes for complex layouts. Child routes are prefixed with the parent route’s path.

Example:

<Route path="/products">
<Route path="/products/list" component={ProductList} />
<Route path="/products/:id" component={ProductDetails} />
</Route>
  • Dynamic Parameters: Routes can include dynamic segments (/:id) that capture parts of the URL and pass them as props to the rendered component.

Example:

<Route path="/products/:id" component={ProductDetails} />
  • Redirects: Used to redirect users from one URL to another, useful for handling legacy URLs or implementing custom routing logic.

Example:

<Redirect from="/old-path" to="/new-path" />
  • Programmatic Navigation: You can use React Router’s history API (useHistory hook) to programmatically navigate between routes using JavaScript code.

These are just some of the core functionalities and strategies for handling routing with React Router. By understanding these concepts, you can build dynamic and user-friendly React applications with smooth navigation between different views.

9. Explain uncontrolled components and their use cases. How do they differ from controlled components (using refs)?

Answer:

  • Uncontrolled Components: Manage their own state using DOM elements like <input> or <textarea>. They are simpler but offer less control over the data.
  • Controlled Components: Use React state to manage the value of form elements. They offer more control and validation capabilities.

Use uncontrolled components for: Simple forms where you don’t need to control the exact value (e.g., autofocus on an input).

Use controlled components for: Complex forms requiring validation or integration with application state.

Example (Uncontrolled Component):

JavaScript

const NameInput = () => {
return (
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter your name" />
);
};

10. Discuss the benefits and considerations of using Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with React applications.

Answer:

Benefits of SSR:

  • Improved SEO (search engine optimization) as content is pre-rendered for search engines.
  • Faster initial load times for users with slower connections.

Considerations of SSR:

  • Increased server-side complexity.
  • Requires managing both server-side and client-side rendering logic.

11. Describe strategies for promoting code reusability in React projects beyond just components (custom hooks, render props, etc.).

Answer:

  • Custom Hooks: Encapsulate reusable logic into custom hooks that can be used across components.
  • Render Props: Pass a function as a prop that defines how the component should render its children.
  • Higher-Order Components (HOCs): Wrap components to inject functionality or behavior.

12. Explain how to test React components. Discuss testing libraries like Jest and React Testing Library.

Answer:

  • Unit tests isolate and test individual React components.
  • Integration tests test how components interact with each other.
  • Jest: A popular testing framework for JavaScript with features like mocking and test runners.
  • React Testing Library: A library for testing React components with a focus on user-centric interactions.

13. Describe how to implement lazy loading for components in a React application.

Answer:

Lazy loading allows you to load components only when they are needed, improving initial load times. You can achieve this using dynamic imports with React.lazy and Suspense.

14. Explain how to implement code splitting for a React application.

Answer:

Code splitting allows you to break down your codebase into smaller bundles loaded on demand. This can be achieved using tools like Webpack and techniques like route-based code splitting.

15. Discuss the concept of normalization in React context and its importance.

Answer:

Normalization refers to structuring your context data in a way that avoids redundancy and promotes efficient updates. This helps to improve performance and maintainability of your application.

16. Explain how to secure data fetching in React applications. Discuss techniques like authentication and authorization.

Answer:

  • Authentication: Verifies the identity of a user attempting to access data. (e.g., using tokens or JWT)
  • Authorization: Determines the level of access a user has to specific data. (e.g., using role-based access control)

17. Describe how to implement accessibility best practices in React development.

Answer:

Following accessibility guidelines ensures your application is usable by people with disabilities. This includes using semantic HTML elements, providing proper focus management, and using descriptive labels for form elements.

18. Discuss the use of TypeScript with React. What are the benefits of using TypeScript?

Answer: TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds static typing for improved type safety and code maintainability in React projects.

19. Explain how to handle asynchronous operations in React components.

Answer:

React provides mechanisms like Promises and async/await to handle asynchronous operations like data fetching. You can also use libraries like Redux Thunk or Redux Saga for managing complex asynchronous logic.

20. Describe your experience with performance optimization techniques in React applications.

Answer:

Discuss specific techniques you’ve used like profiling, memoization, lazy loading, and code splitting. Explain how you’ve measured and improved the performance of React applications.

By understanding and being able to discuss these concepts, you’ll be well-prepared to tackle advanced React.js interview questions. Remember to tailor your answers to your specific experience and be able to provide examples when possible.

=============================+ Thank You !!!+==============================
Note: Don’t forget to follow and give 50 claps.👏 👏 👏

--

--